- VINTAGE
VIEWS OF NEW
YORK
Curtiss invented the flying boat. As a saftey precaution the aircraft he designed for his flight from New York City to Albany and back to New York, the Albany Flier, was fitted with makeshift flotation gear. During this flight Curtiss realized that a single, central float would eliminate all the problems that could occur with multiple floats. The single float airplane would evolve into one where the aircraft fuselage and boat hull became one.
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The problems were not eliminated however. Simply put, the drag of the water was more than the wings could lift. Curtis solved the problem by designing a ramped front to the hull. As speed increased, the hull was literaly pushed out of the water by it's shape, untill only a small area was still in the water. Then the flying boat could raise easily into the air, and actually out lift a land based plane with the same engine.
By 1912 his design was the standard, and being copied around the world.
