Convair Jet Flying Boat Projects

[Jemiba]

Sounds strange ??
Convair considered a flying boat derivative of the Comet !

From AviationWeek 1/54)

 

[Antonio]

Wow a flying boat Comet is new for me!

But, this air inteakes aren't very low to prevent water ingestion? ???

 

[lark]

This is amazing Jemiba !

Can you produce a bit of text from the article please ?

Thanks.

 

[Archibald]

That's really a f...ing surprise! good find, really!!!

 

[Jemiba]

I can just add a 3-view from the mentioned article, but there aren't specific informations
about this project, because the article just deals with the chances and economics of
flying boat operations in general. No problem to mail this article to anybody, who's
interested, but don't expect much technical data.

 

[Archibald]

I would be interested, really...

 

[lark]

How came Convair to the idea of using a Comet fuselage ,or look alike,for this civil flying boat concept.
Any info about in the article ?

 

[Jemiba]

It seems, it wasn't a look alike, but really a modification, but there's no
further information, sorry. I've attached the inmternal layout. Interesting,
I think, is, that the seats are facing backwards, as in the british military
transports.

 

[Stargazer]

Interesting that it was also Convair that conducted a long-enduring program to turn the British Saunders-Roe Princess into a nuclear-powered flying-boat...

 

[Jos Heyman]

It seems they intended to float with the fuselage, much like the Sea Dart.

 

[taildragger]

I suspect that this project was a bit of shinola from Convair intended to humor someone in the UK. Has there ever been a similar landplane to seaplane development (one where significant portions of the landplane fuselage were retained)? The SeaComet would be an entirely new aircraft, structurally and aerodynamically. Perhaps Convair was hoping to sell F-102s to the RAF.
In a similar vein, Bill Gunston's book on the Nimrod recounts an arrangement for McDonnell Douglas to promote the Nimrod 2000 for sale to the US Navy. Nobody in St. Louis could have believed there was the remotest possibility of 5th generations Comets going to VP squadrons but the promise to try apparently helped them win business on the program.

 

[Jemiba]

...Has there ever been a similar landplane to seaplane development (one where significant portions of the landplane fuselage were retained)? ...

The Myasishchev M4 Bison to 3M-M proposal (http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2043.msg78474.html#msg78474)
and the projects for a conversion of the Lockheed Hercules come to my mind.

 

[taildragger]

...Has there ever been a similar landplane to seaplane development (one where significant portions of the landplane fuselage were retained)? ...

The Myasishchev M4 Bison to 3M-M proposal (http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2043.msg78474.html#msg78474)
and the projects for a conversion of the Lockheed Hercules come to my mind.

OK What I meant to ask was: "Has a similar landplane to seaplane development (one where significant portions of the landplane fuselage were retained) ever been successful? The two abandoned projects you cite don't really make the SeaComet look any more realistic. They actually seem more sensible than the SeaComet because, if I understand them, they both proposed to basically attach a flying boat hull to the underside of the existing fuselage and so were more like a floatplane conversion with the float faired into the fuselage. The SeaComet proposal seems to redisign the wing and fuselage to serve as the flotation hull. After such a redesign, I can't imagine that the aircraft would have any useful commonality with the Comet, either in aerodynamics or hardware, and using the Comet as a starting point might be more trouble than beginning with a clean sheet of paper. Surely Convair must have understood this, so I suspect that the whole idea was motivated by something other than it's technical merits or an expectation that it might be successful.
It may have been tied in somehow with the Skate concept that preceeded to the Seadart. The skate similarly integrated the wing and fuselage into a flotation hull but Convair wound up going with the hydroskis instead. Maybe the SeaComet was just an illustration of how the Skate concept could be applied to airliners rather than a concrete proposal. Maybe there are corresponding drawings out there somewhere of a CometDart pounding along the water on skis.

 

[Rickshaw]

Wasn't there a conversion of the C-123 Provider?

 

[Stargazer]

Wasn't there a conversion of the C-123 Provider?

Yes, the Stroukoff YC-134A, but it used the somewhat different « Pantobase » system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroukoff_YC-134

 

[Rickshaw]

Wasn't there a conversion of the C-123 Provider?

Yes, the Stroukoff YC-134A, but it used the somewhat different « Pantobase » system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroukoff_YC-134

Did that include substantial structural changes?

 

[Barrington Bond]

This may explain...

pics removed.

 

[Jemiba]

Yes, the Stroukoff YC-134A, but it used the somewhat different « Pantobase » system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroukoff_YC-134

Did that include substantial structural changes?


With regards to the Squadron Signal issue N°124, no. The fuselage was sealed, the doors sealed and
shortened, a sump pump was installed and of course the fuselage skis and the wing mounted
floats. The skis became effective at about 20 knots, so eliminating most of the structural loads on the
fuselage underside.

 

[taildragger]

Barrington,
Can you repost that article at higher resolution? I can barely make out a word.

Taildragger

 

[Barrington Bond]

Any better - was trying to keep in posting rules.

 

[Barrington Bond]

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[Barrington Bond]

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[Barrington Bond]

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[Whiterabbit72]

 

[Stargazer]

I don't know if this has been shared before, but it seems like it belongs in this topic: NACA Tank Model No. 344.

 

[Jemiba]

This model, by its size and number of engines, rather reminds me to something like the Convair Water Based B-58 (Sea B-58) , or the NASA TM X-191 ( see Scott's US Supersonic Bomber Projects Vol.2), sizeable bomber projects.

 

[Antonio]

ARDC Seaplane Study (1957) ?

Convair Advanced Designs Vol 1 (Robert E Bradley) pg 107