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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0289.PDF
FLIGHT, 16 March 1956 287 ""TIME was when the float seaplane was•*• prominent in civil and military service, and not in the smaller sizes alone, aswitness the massive three-engined Italian Cants flying even today on second-lineduties with the Italian Air Force. But though greatly depleted in numbers, float-planes are still being made, particularly in the New World. In Great Britain theAuster family alone perpetuates the tradition. Particularly remarkable are the tech-niques of dolly launching (top left, opposite page) and the float-cum-wheel under-carriage (below), neither of which ideas is by any means new. The dolly-launch-ing scheme was tried from H.M.S. Furious with Short "225" seaplanes during theFirst World War, and the second with— among other types—the Fairey Flycatchership's fighter of the 1920s. (Top left, opposite) A D.H. Canada Beaver takes off at Toronto from its detachable dolly undercarriage. This view also shows particularly well the auxiliary fin area beneath the fuselage to counteract the side area of the shapely Edo floats. (Lower left, opposite) A splendid portrait of a D.H. Canada Otter in a natural, national setting. Note the sturdy yet clean design of the float undercarriage. (Tap, this page) Wearing a "swell paint job" is this Cessna 180 on Edo amphibious floats. The wheels retract upwards aft of the main step and the fully castering nosewheels retract upward and forward. (Left) Lately received from the Antarctic is this picture of one of two Auster 7s of the British Trans-Antarctic Expedition at Husvik Harbour, South Georgia. Fortunately the pic- ture conveys only a visual, and not an olfactory, impression, for in the background is the whaling station. (Below) A D.H. Canada Beaver fitted with the company's specially developed amphibian undercarriage, which uses the standard main wheels and brakes of the Beaver in conjunction with adapted floats.
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