The Neglected Seaplane Available to Purchase

WHEN it was decided to devote an issue of this paper to seaplanes, it was intended that the principal article should be a summary of the present state of knowledge based on the results of research work. Messrs. Garner and Coombes have, through no fault of their own, found it impossible to provide this, for the very simple reason that for nearly ten years past no research work has been done in England on floats and hulls. There has been, of course, a good deal of ad hoc experimentation by various firms, and a certain amount of wind‐tunnel testing with models has been done at the National Physical Laboratory. But these have been of necessity mainly aerodynamic in character; while the individual work done in privately‐owned tanks has naturally been kept almost exclusively for the development of the products of the particular firms concerned. There was a time, in what might almost be termed the “good old days,” when some of the time of the William Froude tank was allocated to seaplane research, and no doubt many of our readers will recall the admirable series of reports produced by Mr. G. S. Baker as a result. But shipping interests began to monopolise the tank, since when no research work of a general character, the results of which would be made available to the world, has been done cither in England or, if memory serves, in any other country.