Flying boat

A fixed-wing aircraft designed to take off from and land on water using a hull-like lower body. Unlike a floatplane, its fuselage itself provides buoyancy on the water.

Hydrodynamic lift: The upward force produced when a surface moves through water at speed. The flying boat’s hull rises onto the water’s surface during its takeoff run.
Floatplane: A seaplane supported on water by external floats rather than a boat-shaped fuselage. Its floats perform the flotation role that the flying boat’s hull performs.
Pan Am Clipper: A name used for Pan American Airways’ long-range flying boats that served international routes before and during World War II. These aircraft made flying boats symbols of scheduled transoceanic passenger travel.
Henri Fabre: A French engineer who built and piloted an early powered seaplane in 1910. His aircraft showed that a powered airplane could take off from water.
Step (boat hull): A transverse break in a planing hull that helps release water flow and reduce drag. Flying-boat hulls use a step to ease the transition from waterborne motion to flight.
Amphibious aircraft: An aircraft equipped to take off from and land on both water and land. Some flying boats add retractable landing gear for operation on runways.
Short Sunderland: A British military flying boat used for maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare during World War II. It demonstrates the flying boat’s use for extended operations over ocean and coastal waters.
Glenn Curtiss: An American aviation pioneer who developed influential early seaplanes and flying boats. His designs helped establish practical hull-based aircraft in the United States.
Displacement hull: A hull that moves through water by displacing it rather than primarily riding on its surface. At rest, a flying boat’s hull supports the aircraft by displacing water.
Landplane: An aircraft designed to take off from and land on land. Its landing gear replaces the flying boat’s hull as the primary ground-support structure.

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