Floating Runways for Seaplanes (Mar, 1936)

Floating Runways for Seaplanes

TO enable take-off of seaplanes with heavy loads—especially the additional fuel which is required for transoceanic flights—a new apparatus has recently been invented to launch them on the water, but not from it. As shown, it comprises a track, supported above the water by pontoons; so that the seaplane is given the advantage, not only of its own power, but also of a mechanical pull. It can maneuver itself, in the water, up the track; and the latter, being pivoted, can turn to the wind at the moment prevailing. The seaplane thus obtains the advantages of land planes, without the added weight of amphibian construction.

It is not, of course, intended for deep-sea operation, like the proposed floating seadromes, but for the quiet water of harbors.