Seaplanes and flying boats have a rich and storied history that supported the development of aviation at a time when airports as we now know them did not exist. The first successfully powered seaplane flight occurred in 1910 in Marseilles, France just 7 years following the Wright Brothers first flight. Henri Fabre piloted an invention he called the Hydravion (French for seaplane/floatplane). Fabre’s aircraft was equipped with plywood floats that enabled the lightweight plane to take off from and land safely on water.

By 1911, American aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss developed the Curtiss Model D, which was a land-plane equipped with a central float and sponsons for buoyancy. This early amphibious aircraft was awarded the first-ever Collier Trophy for US flight achievement. Curtiss went on to design several versions of flying boats, which proved both attractive, and useful during World War I due to a lack of infrastructure and runways around the world to support land-based aircrafts. The Curtiss Model H series was a family of long-range flying boats originally developed on commission in response to a prize challenge for the first non-stop aerial crossing of the Atlantic. With its long-range endurance and seaplane capabilities, the aircraft was used to overcome enemy ships and rescue airmen and seamen.

By the late 1930s, seaplanes were among the largest and fastest aircrafts in the world. The ability to stop at coastal stations to refuel made flying boats a relatively safe and dependable means of long-distance transportation. Throughout the 1940s, flying boats such as Pan American Airways’ Boeing 314 and Sikorsky S-42 “Clipper” planes represented the peak of luxury transatlantic and international flight. During World War II, the Allies used amphibious seaplanes such as the Consolidated PBY Catalina to access remote areas across the Pacific Ocean for reconnaissance, anti-submarine warfare, and search and rescue missions.

Grumman Aircraft designed and built a series of four hull based amphibious aircrafts ranging in size from the Widgeon, Goose, Mallard, and Albatross from 1940s-1960s, producing over 1185 amphibious aircrafts in total.

After World War II, the civil market for seaplanes waned due to major investments in jet-powered aircraft and vast infrastructure improvements creating multiple airports with longer runways across the world allowing easy access to many more densely populated areas with standard land-based aircrafts.

Now, some six decades later, due to advances in technology, the changing regulatory environment and new development strategies, amphibious aircrafts such as the ME-1A have new viability in the market.