The Tools of War: Flying Boats

The interwar years are often considered the zenith of luxurious of air travel. Plane technology had developed quickly during World War I. And this technology was applied for civilian uses prior to World War II. However, during the 1930s in Australia, bitumen or cement roads were rare, so the likelihood of anyone investing money in creating runways for a developing technology with a limited, wealthy clientele, was highly unlikely. The result was that Flying Boats became far more popular than land launching aircraft. The first international airport in Australia was established during this period in Rose Bay in Sydney, as it serviced flying boats. Flying boats are planes where the hull is the buoyancy device, hence they take off and land on the ‘belly’ of the plane. Sea planes are planes where the hull does not meet the water, instead they have floats beneath the plane that allow it to float on the water. Because of the vast expanse of water available (not a limited distance like found on a runway), these planes were able to take more people and cargo than planes forced to land on short airstrips often made of compacted soil that could not sustain a heavy plane.

At the start of the war, Australia already had flying boats in the country. These were British designed and used to deliver mail around the British Empire. These "Empire" model flying boats were also able to transport passengers in first class surroundings similar to the extravagant sea liners of the day. However, with the declaration of war, many of these Short Sunderland "Empire" model, Qantas owned flying boats were seconded by the RAAF and converted in order to engage in long distance reconnaissance missions. While Australia had more Empire flying boats on order from England it soon became clear that these were not going to be supplied due to the war. As such, in 1940 the Australian government ordered Catalina Flying Boats from America. Over the course of World War II, 168 Catalinas were delivered to Australia, and most of the personnel who flew these slow machines, capable of great distances and carrying heavy loads, were trained at Rathmines. Due to its search and rescue focus, as well as its training capabilities, Rathmines saw many other flying boats move through on the way to further missions. Some of these included the Seagull and Walrus amphibian bi-planes, the Dornier Flying Boats used by the Dutch when evacuating the Dutch East Indies, Kingfishers also used in the Dutch East Indies, Ryan Monoplanes fitted with floats and used at Rathmines for training purposes, and the Douglas Dolphin. However, the majority of focus at Rathmines was placed upon the Catalinas.

Interestingly, it was the success of the Catalinas that saw the end of the use of sea planes. Their effective use in reconnaissance allowed military forces, particularly the Americans, to island hop through the Pacific and establish run ways that could be used by land-based planes to engage the enemy. Likewise, throughout Europe, America, Asia and Australia, governments poured money into infrastructure needed to protect the nation. One of these major projects was the establishment of sealed runways, so at the end of the war, the infrastructure was in place, and the development of land-based planes had been extended as a result of the war. With war forcing technological advancement of both size and distances achieved, land-based planes became the more popular technology, and sea planes became a technology of the past.

This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License