358 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
whether it be military or commercial, it is the load carried per year 
and not per trip that spells success. The aircraft, no matter what 
type, that carries less ton-miles per year per crew cost, or per pound 
of fuel, or per horsepower, finally loses out because it does not make 
enough trips per year. 
We are becoming aware that speed is the raison d’étre of flying, 
particularly in transportation of passengers. Have we learned that 
the greatest comfort of all to a passenger is the notice that he has 
arrived? A supercomfortable seat does not balance a tediously slow 
aircraft. 
We must also consider the seaplane and realize that it is all but 
lost today. Propeller clearance from the water limited early seaplanes 
because the configurations required an awkwardly high engine loca- 
tion, or a deep hull, or bulky pontoons. All this weighed more than 
a simple landplane and had more parasite drag, which adds up to 
more slow-speed deterrent. Also rough water kills the seaplane as 
a boat. Even the largest seaplanes we have had, some over 100 tons, 
are still a mighty small boat with which to tackle the ocean, particu- 
larly when the slowest speed on the surface for landing or takeoff is 
as prohibitively high in open seas as 50 to 100 knots. 
The jet engine, however, is apt to change this picture very greatly 
in the next decade. To begin with, the propeller clearance param- 
eter is done away with. <A seaplane’s aerodynamic forms can now 
rival those of the landplane, and because a seaplane alights on its 
hull on the water, weight and complications are saved by elimination 
of heavy wheeled landing gear. 
But the seaplane would still have to contend with rough water, 
were it not for the imminent advent of VTOL—vertical takeoff and 
landing, which will eliminate the “rough water blues”! In fact, the 
readiness with which several new helicopters have acquired am- 
phibious characteristics, merely by a watertight fuselage, is a revela- 
tion. Settling on the water, even when very rough, is no trick at all. 
And water surface is perfect for vertical-thrust slip-stream takeoff— 
no dust, and fine ground bank. 
We need a waking-up here, because water surface, so widely avail- 
able near where we want to go, is free real estate! Also, the seaplane 
or water-based airplane leads more readily to the real giant aircraft 
(1 million pounds load, and 600 m.p.h. speed) which would be too 
heavy and impractical if a retractable landing gear with wheels had 
to be provided. 
CONCLUSION 
In concluding this incomplete review, these are the lessons we 
should learn : 
4 The extra-lift ‘“‘bounce-off” effect experienced when close to the surface. 
