51–52 of 52 posts
"...with a wingspan of over 150ft, the Boeing 314 was (and remains) one of the largest aircraft ever to take to the sky" "Remains" is stretching the point. The original 747 (1975) was 195ft wingspan. Modern 787s are also around 195ft. The 767-200 (1981) is comparable at 156ft. By weight, the 314 was small by modern standards: 84000 lbs MTOW, less than a 737-200 at 128000 lbs MTOW.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think passenger sea planes faded as airports were built and faster piston, later jet aircraft became available. There are still some large sea planes used for fire fighting service and a few airworthy PBY Catalina's. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-415 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_PBY_Catalina Catalina's were heavily used in WWII for scouting and rescue in the Pacific. There is a par…
Catalinas were also used during the war as part of the Australia-England air link, cross the Indian Ocean from Perth to Ceylon. https://www.qantas.com/travel/airlines/history-catalinas/glo...
> The flying boats, travelling at about 200km/h, would take an average of 28 hours to complete the journey, but up to 32 hours nine minutes when winds were unfavorable.
Description of flying those was, they were docile but didn't have power assisted controls. Flying one for 30 hours in shifts even must have been brutal.