Flying boats of Australia

Flying boats of Australia

Flying boats were used early and continued in service late in Australia, from the 1920s to the 1970s. Flying boats of Australia

A flying boat is an aircraft that can take off and alight on water and whose main body is a hull that rests fully in the water. Because they can operate from any fairly calm stretch of water, they were beautifully suited to Australia with its long coastline surrounded by immense oceans. Flying boats didn't require expensive land airports and they became the basis for Australia's international air transport before the Second World War. In 1938, large luxury flying boats began to operate a 10 day service between Sydney and Europe. A ticket cost more than the average yearly wage. Flying boats of Australia

Catalina - external site flying boats in the Second World War played a unique part in daring missions by Australian airmen in Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Flying boats of Australia

After the war, flying boats helped to increase access to the South Pacific and appeared in a great array of peacetime ventures, but their place gradually diminished due to the wartime construction of land airports. In 1974 the last regular Australian flying boat passenger service, between Sydney Harbour and Lord Howe Island, finished and the 50-year era of the Australian flying boats was over. Rose Bay, the last major flying boat terminal in the world, closed. Flying boats of Australia

Like enormous water birds, flying boats combine the worlds of the sea and the air. People who have worked with flying boats or travelled in them speak affectionately of their beauty and romance. Flying boats of Australia

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