Floatplane Competition

[Corsarius]

In a bid to see this place get a bit busier, I'm running a floatplane competition to be judged by me, and Taglia if he feels like it can overrule.

What, in your humble opinion, is the best floatplane of the war, and why?

Judges will approve links, links from TGplanes will get preference, and of course neatest correct entry wins.

Oh, and it's FLOATPLANES I'm after, not flying boats!

Go to it!

[simon]

Possibly a little specific there, might have been worth opening it up a bit more, but here's my vote for what it's worth.

I'd say the best floatplane of the war was the Heinkel He115. Not only do I personally think it's quite a nice plane to look at, but it was so good that the Luftwaffe had to get Heinkel to restart production lines again when it was clear that nothing else in production or development was going to come close.

As an air-sea rescue plane it was a very capable aircraft and their crews saved numerous lives both Axis and Allied without prejudice.

It was also a capable light anti-shipping aircraft, and could be employed with mines, depth charges or light bombs.

Other claims to fame, would be the use as a commando transport in the opening phases of the war to seize an important bridge in the Netherlands in a daring operation, which admittedly resulted in the loss of both planes.

So there we have it, a versatile, capable aircraft that served in various roles throughout the war in Europe.

I'll try to add a link later, but there is quite a good view in the plane's database.

[simon]

Here we go: http://www.tgplanes.com/plshow.asp?photo=he115.jpg

Sorry Corsarius, seems you may have started another lead balloon here...

[GregP]

Floatplanes can include fighters, SAR, Recon, and general use aircraft. I assume you do NOT mean to include flying boats.

The He-115 is ceratinly one of the best. So is the Vought Kingfisher, unless you decide it is a flying boat ...

The Beriev Be-2 is right in there, but had less success due to being based in cold water ... fewer people alive when it got there.

The best? Can't say I'm qualified to answer that one ... but I AM interested.

[Corsarius]

That's what I meant, Gregp. I wanted Floatplanes. I would have chosen the Kingfisher, myself, but now I look at the Heinkel, I find my opinion changin.

[simon]

Just to add to the interest factor of the He115, I understand that three were stolen by Norwegian Resistance fighters and flown to the UK, although one was lost en route, the survivors were used by British Covert operations for the remainder of the war.

[GregP]

Anybody have any information on the C-47's that were converted into floatplanes by EDO in the USA?

The C-47 was and IS a very good aircraft, and I imagine the float equipped versions were just as good.

But ... Ihave little to no data on it other than the fact that it existed and floated ... WITH cargo load.

No performance data, production numbers, or info on the use to which it was put.

[Corsarius]

Now I thought we weren't going to go with the 'one-off' things here. I know that both the C-47 and the Ju-52 were made into floatplanes at one time or another.

So was the spitfire V (I think, have to check my records) but it didn't really get past the prototype stage. It looked awful anyhow, and performed worse, which is odd considering it's design lineage...

Umm, what other floatplanes were out there? I deliberately limited this as a flying boat thread was on my cards for later, and there were some really great flying boats, too. I just felt sorry for the poor old floatplanes, which by their nature are usually less glamorous.

[simon]

There was, I believe, floatplane Fairey Swordfish, the Nakajima A6M2-N "Rufe", the N1K, which actually formed the basis of the N1K1 "George" landbased fighter, as has been mentioned, the Ju52 and C-47 were both given floats at some point in their lives, the already mentioned He115 :D, the earlier He59, Kingfisher, the Blackburn Shark (Which superficially represented the Swordfish and was responsible I believe for locating the KMS Graf Spee), Arado Ar196, several good Italian tri-motor floatplanes whose name's temporarily escape me [:I] (Sorry Taglia!), other earlier Japanese biplane observation types ("Pete" and "Jake" I think, but don't hold me to it), the admittedly disappointing Seamew, and at least half a dozen others that I can't remember the names of, and that's just from memory...

[simon]

Sorry, a Fairey Seafox was the spotter against the Graf Spee, not a Shark. Well there's another one for the list anyway!

[Romantic Technofreak]

This one is best!

http://www.comandosupremo.com/Cantz511.html

"...a ton of three-coloured leaflets..."! Three-coloured! Shouldn´t that read something orange?:D

[GregP]

Probably one of the best performers was the Aichi M6A Seiran. It could get to 475kph! But at 26 units made, it isn't exactly in the "mass produced" category.

I personally have always liked the lines of the Blohm Und Voss Ha.139 or Bv.139, deoending on which reference you check. It was developed into the Bv.142, but the floatplane just "looks right" to me. Again, with only 3 made, it probably doesn't fit.

The CANT Z.511 is pretty, but only 1 was made. The CANT Z.506 had three engines like a lot of other Italian planes, hauled more payload, and there were 320 built. Pretty good candidate.

The French Dewoitine D.730 and 731 were again only prototypes, so they don't fit either.

Do we call the Grumman J2F Duck a floatplane of a flying boat? I can't tell! But it was VERY useful and 623 were built.

The Heinkel He-115, as alread stated earlier, is a VERY good candidate. Its main role was as a torpedo bomber, but it also saw swevice as a mine layer. 138 built.

The Kawanishi N1K has been mentioned already, too. Probably the best floatplane piston fighter ever. 89 built.

The French Latecoere L.298 was pretty neat, but I can;t find production numbers on it, and I suspect it was another 1 or 2 unit aircraft.

The French also built 21 Loire LeO 210's for the french Navy, but maybe that's too few.

The LeO 43 was UGLY and was probably only a prototype. Ditto for the Loire-Nieuport LN-10 ... 1 built and UGLY. Ditto the LeO 46 ... 1 built, but it was pretty neat looking in a 1930's sort of way.

Savoia-Marchetti developed the SM.87. It also had 3 engines like the CANT but, again, only 4 built.

The Yokosuka E-14Y was a small floatplane intended to be based on a submarine, so itfloded up pretty small. 125 built.

The Kingfisher has been mentioned, but the production numbers have not. Over 1,500 built including 300 by the Naval Aircraft Factory. 53 supplied to US Coast Guard and 100 supplied to the Royal navy. Servec in all theaters. Many rescues to it credit.

The Spitfire Floatplane was also mentioned, but I have different information. There were 4 built. 3 were converted Mark VB's and the last was a Mark IX. It had a top speed of 377 mph and was the fastest and best performing floatplane fighter of the war. Why they didn't built more is anyone's guess.

So, the Kingfisher was, by far, the moast widely produced floatplane, and it probably saved more lives in a Search and Rescue role tahn any other floatplane since it was more numerous and served in all theaters. The Grumman Duck is next and has many stories abut its exploits in saving lives.

It looks seriously as if a production run of more than 50 was "pretty good," so we must consider the He-115, the Kokosuka E-14Y, the Kawanishi N1K, and the CANT Z.506. Of these, the N1K wasthe highest performance aircraft.

OK Corsarius, what do you say?

[GregP]

Those of you who know WWII floatplanes will note I missed a few Dorniers, Heinkels, and a few others.

No slight intended ... jsu had to leave for a while! I 'll get back to it soon.