AIRWAYS SPECIAL Harbour Air
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colliding with waves . And speed and fuel efficiency require bigger , and therefore heavier , engines .
Today , only two notable cases exist of seaplanes using jet engines . The first is represented by the Russian firm Beriev , which specializes in jetpowered amphibious airplanes ; however , these have never been intended for pure commercial transport . The company ’ s A-40 Albatros and Be- 200 Altair are used mostly as firefighters .
The second case is represented by the wellknown KM Ekranoplan , the so-called Caspian Sea Monster . This 240-ton beast was one of many Soviet Cold War projects that ceased to be during the last years of the Soviet Union . It was designed to serve as a mixed aerial and maritime weapon carrier , and it held the title of largest aircraft in the world from 1966 to 1988 . Its rests today in the Caspian Sea near the coastal Russian town of Derbent .
SEA AVIATION TODAY
As seaplanes have lost almost all their market opportunities to jet aircraft operating from land , it is now very rare to see viable and profitable airlines operating flights exclusively with such machines .
Still , there are a few regions in which this industry sector has found a niche . For example , in the island territory of the Maldives , in the Indian Ocean , which , with a total land area of just
115 square miles ( 300km 2 ) is the 187th smallest country by land area .
And yet , its population is 515,132 , a number that increases dramatically in peak season thanks to the waves of tourists attracted by the islands ’ spectacular landscapes and beaches .
Fitting 6,000ft ( 1,800m ) of runway on each of the Maldives ’ 1,192 islands would be impossible . Seaplanes , therefore , play a vital role in providing quicker transport than ferries .
But seaplanes are also thriving in another part of the world . Let ’ s go to Vancouver , Canada , to see how Harbour Air ( YB ) is fighting off competition from the second largest airport in the country , YVR .
HOW HARBOUR AIR BECAME A THING
Established in 1982 as Windoak Air Service , Harbour Air focuses entirely on seaplane operations . It began as a charter airline mainly serving the logbuying companies of Vancouver , flying from the city ’ s center to nearby forest locations that were hard to reach by boat or land .
This is YB ’ s advantage . Its small and very able seaplanes need only a couple of hundred feet of water to land safely , which makes the airline very appealing to people looking to visit the natural beauty of British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains .
6 In the 1940s , as aviation developed in the sea , the Boeing 314 Clipper became so successful that Pan American Airways inherited the name for its official callsign . // U . S . LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ( PUBLIC DOMAIN ).
7 To reach the beautiful yet isolated islands across the immense archipelago , Trans Maldivian relies on seaplanes , including the DHC-6 Twin Otter . // TRANS MALDIVIAN .
8 Harbour Air is one of the few airlines worldwide that has a solid and reliable project regarding fully electric flights , which took off in 2019 . // HARBOUR AIR .
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