Flying Boats

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gcd89

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Greg D.
Are they still made or have the pretty much faded into non existence? I love the way they look but I've never really seen one before....is anyone manufacturing them anymore.
 
The Lake Amphibian used to be made in New Hampshire. Isn't it currently being manufactured by a different owner?

HR
 
Lawreston said:
The Lake Amphibian used to be made in New Hampshire. Isn't it currently being manufactured by a different owner?
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Lake Aircraft produced the Buccaneer and the Renegade. Both were amphibians, but there was no "Lake Amphibian". I believe the company is still making parts but has not made any airplanes for about five years now.
 
:eek:) Perhaps I shouldn't have spelled amphibian with the upper case A, thereby designating a type rather than a model.

HR
 
roncachamp said:
Lake Aircraft produced the Buccaneer and the Renegade. Both were amphibians, but there was no "Lake Amphibian". I believe the company is still making parts but has not made any airplanes for about five years now.
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Aside from experimentals and legacy grummans (of which there are still "plenty" still flying owned by people of means or commercial operators) the lake is pretty much it as he says. They have a strong type club and are still mostly supported. The four seaters are the most numerous but no longer produced, two six seat IO-540 variant powered models are being produced on order only - including a military version with armament hard points on each wing!
 
You've got the CL-415 from Bombardier, the Dornier Seastar and an assortment of Russian/Soviet era designed flying boats, including jet powered ones.
 
The Dornier company is gearing up to build the Seastar, a 10 seater flying boat powered by two PT-6 engines in a push-pull configuration.
 
roncachamp said:
Lake Aircraft produced the Buccaneer and the Renegade. Both were amphibians, but there was no "Lake Amphibian". I believe the company is still making parts but has not made any airplanes for about five years now.
Click to expand...

I get the impression they are not making any new parts at this point - and the type certificate is up for sale if you want to start your own factory...
 
and the type certificate is up for sale if you want to start your own factory...

Just think, you can make a small fortune in the airplane business...

denny-o
 
Armand or his son will gladly build you a brand new Renegade if you like, all you have to do is call him up. I believe the current price is somewhere around 500K USD. The Dornier Seastar while very well thought out in some ways suffers terribly in the area of full fuel useful load.
 
Art VanDelay said:
The Dornier Seastar while very well thought out in some ways suffers terribly in the area of full fuel useful load.
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Had they put smaller tanks on it, they wouldn't have this perceived problem :wink2:. The plane has 418gal tanks and a useful load of 3000lbs. Of course, if you fill up to the gills, you are not going to have much payload left, same limitation applies to a King Air C90Gtx and a raft of other business aircraft (the KA 250 has a useful of 3810lbs and 3645lbs of useable fuel, that leaves 165 payload :yikes: .

If you put 2000lbs in the cabin, you can go 200nm with 45min reserves. Better than a Caravan on amphibs and similar to a Viking Twin Otter 400 on Amphibs (the only two new aircraft they are competing against). This is not a long-distance travel plane for 12 people, this is a 6 guys + luggage to a lodge 100miles away plane.

At some point, they may offer a 'boat only' version without the landing gear which will improve the payload but make maintenance a real bear.
 
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For water bomber there is nothing like the Beriev Be-200 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ-Iw_6tW40

Back inth 90s I was involved in its avionics retrofit and JAA certification at the Zhukovsky research facility. Quite an aircraft like no other.

José
 
Piloto said:
For water bomber there is nothing like the Beriev Be-200 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ-Iw_6tW40

Back inth 90s I was involved in its avionics retrofit and JAA certification at the Zhukovsky research facility. Quite an aircraft like no other.

José
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Hi,

I saw the Beriev and the Canadair water-bombers in action last year during the Carmel forest fires.

The large scale inferno triggered an international fire suppression effort with the dispatch of water bombers from Spain, France, Greece, Italy, The Ukraine, Turkey, Cyprus, the United States and Israel.

The whole thing took place less than 10 miles from my home...I just sat in my car and enjoyed the show...( which included the Evergreen Boeing 747 flying at tree-tops level...)

Very impressive...
 
c6e4de60-a0e2-14ae.jpg


Drove by this Widgeon today.
 
One thing no one mentioned....Greg asked about flying boats.
All the planes mentioned so far are amphibians, able to land on either land or water.
Technically, a flying boat has no wheels and can land only on water.
I remember Lake advertising a flying boat years ago, but I don't know how
many they ever built.
The only true Flying Boats that I know of that are still flying are the two
giant Martin Mars that fight fires in Canada.
 
alaskaflyer said:
Get an insurance quote. You'll be cured in short order.

But I do like them, yes, I do indeed.
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A little dose of reality for sure. But they are COOL as you state.
 
OffCenter said:
One thing no one mentioned....Greg asked about flying boats.
All the planes mentioned so far are amphibians, able to land on either land or water.
Technically, a flying boat has no wheels and can land only on water.
I remember Lake advertising a flying boat years ago, but I don't know how
many they ever built.
The only true Flying Boats that I know of that are still flying are the two
giant Martin Mars that fight fires in Canada.
Click to expand...

A flying boat is a fixed-wing aircraft with a hull that can land on water, it may or may not also have wheels that allow landings on ground. Amphibious flying boats are no less flying boats.
 
When Teller was brave enough to fly with me in my rental 172, we saw one at the Half Moon Bay aiport at night. It was really cool looking and seemed to be in good shape.
 
This is my Flying Boat dream.

José
 

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OffCenter said:
One thing no one mentioned....Greg asked about flying boats.
All the planes mentioned so far are amphibians, able to land on either land or water.
Technically, a flying boat has no wheels and can land only on water.
I remember Lake advertising a flying boat years ago, but I don't know how
many they ever built.
The only true Flying Boats that I know of that are still flying are the two
giant Martin Mars that fight fires in Canada.
Click to expand...

Lake made a flying boat no wheels called the lake Skimmer.
 
alaskaflyer said:
I also saw a (loose) copy of the Widgeon at the Alaska Aviation Trade Show this spring that someone is marketing. Composite construction.
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That sounds like the Gweduck. It was intended all along to be a copy of a Widgeon done with composites and it has a pair of 290 hp Lycoming IO-540 engines. It also has PBY-style retractable wingtip floats.

I'd love to see it go into production. It would make a much nicer MES trainer than a STOL UC-1 Twin Bee.
 
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