Sea Planes
SEA PLANES Sea planes are aircraft that take off and land on water. They are specially designed to remain afloat. Many seaplanes have light, hollow, streamlined floats fixed below the wings in place of landing wheels. The floats rest on water and make the aircraft buoyant. They also help to stop the seaplanes tipping over. Seaplanes called flying boats have a boat shaped body that combines the main floats with the main body of aero planes. Aircraft with retractable wheels built into the floats are called amphibians. These planes can use either land or water as their runway. Seaplanes need no specially built runway, so they can stop at more planes than ordinary aircraft. But they need fairly smooth water.