THE FASTEST SEAPLANE 825 MPH (1,325 KMH) - CONVAIR SEA DART

[TRASUPO]

l love the residential landing sight with beach front properties.

[oldgringo2001]

I remember seeing this plane at NAS Patuxunt River, MD., in 1975. It was just junked, sitting out in the open.

[fltnsplr7]

Enough with the stupid music already.

[Ibringthetruth1]

why does ever stupid video need rock + rap music.. annoying.

[vitorbugulin]

Um hidroplano de combate ! Muito interessante este avião !!!!!!!

[danoob2110]

does the plane have gears for landing on a runway?

[boinkboink1968]

Salt water wash kept spraying over the wing and into the jet intakes , although they altered the design,that's what stopped them from continuing down that path in their research, Convair was always an plane manufacturer that dared to go where no one else (Boeing,Macdonell-Douglas,...) with the exception of Vought went.

[TheShiteMaster]

Sucks when you find clams in the cockpit

[Imragnar1]

Music sucks. GOOD_BYE

[jdwebbbear]

so, a jet that can take off in and land in water. ok. next.

[edwin00420]

@jdwebbbear it also goes REALLY fast

[westlock]

It looks like something from the Thunderbirds TV series of the mid-60s.

[josephdupont]

This has to be one of the best videos I've ever seen. the music is unreal and the footage blends in.

Those pilots were so very, very cool. Thanks so very much.

[josephdupont]

God bless those pilots. They had big brass ones..

[StephenB58]

Incidently, this is not a seaplane. This is a flying boat. There is a really big difference.

[Max404s]

@StephenB58 Nonesense. Floatplanes and Flying Boats are both types of Seaplane, and this aircraft does not fit very well in either category, but it certainly is a Seaplane.

[dagoflores]

Wow the ONLY SUPERSONIC SEA PLANE that ever was

[Gcarman50]

waste of tax dollars

[greenfruitface]

Very cool idea, but yeah: aluminum aircraft: corrosion must have been a problem for sure. And residual salt spray in the engine, it's seems unavoidable. Even a tiny amount, over time, must not be healthy for an old turbojet (or any engine). Very cool aircraft though!

[jtrod2007]

cool Delta wing jetski !

[Gbrltr]

If they'd given it a hydrofoil landing gear it could have landed and taken off on rougher water, and been less effected by salt spray, which must have been a terrible problem. Maybe inflatable fabric floats for lower speeds at take off and landing?

[sanfranciscobay]

The landing looks dangerous as though you catch a swell wrong and you'll flip over. Cool idea.

[dpaton8546]

My father worked on this project back in the early 50ies. It was beautiful, black and mysterious looking. The fact that it disintegrated and killed the pilot affected my father deeply. After the Navy cancelled the project my father commented to me that the effort and most importantly a man's death were not useless or without value if for nothing else than to demonstrate what technology should or not should be pursued.

[keeevan]

@dpaton8546 yep, the test pilots know what they are in for. Brave men

[moogleye]

i don't like them planes that much but still cool!

[batvette]

IIRC its second test flight, also over San Diego bay and many spectators, saw it explode `and the pilot killed. (correct me if I'm wrong)

Totally pointless project but we just keep doing it over and over- see "monocycle".

The other prototype is on display outside the air space museum in Balboa Park near an SR-71.

BTW Satriani is fine by me, though that's not my favorite song.

[proditorcappela]

It wasn't the 2nd flight, but yeah, one of them disintegrated mid-air. However, it was hardly pointless, as at the design date (1948), no one thought you could launch a supersonic plane off of a carrier. Additionally, in 1949, the USS United States was cancelled, possibly ending carrier aviation. In hindsight, it might not have been a stellar idea, but at the time, it was the ONLY way the navy thought they could stay in the fast jet business. Historical perspective is important .

[batvette]

All true. I would add the self rebuttal "no endeavor is pointless, even if the point is to say when it's done "well, we won't do THAT again, will we!".

The primary rationale behind my critical analysis is some personal experience, I was a plane captain and avionics tech in VF-21 based at miramar and deployed on the Coral Sea in the early 80's. Keeping the corrosion from destroying the airframes was hard enough with a little spray from errant waves, what a nightmare to have it dunked!

[proditorcappela]

I can only imagine, yeah. My wild guess would be that the engines would be swiss cheese in short order from all fo the ingestion.

[bobbycratchit]

Not sure that I agree. You have a jet but need an airstrip. Do you have one? No, I don't but I do have a bay. Hello? See how it works?

[batvette]

Well you have a point but that's like saying we need concrete to the job site REAL fast so let's pursue the design of a Ferrari-like cement mixer. There may be a need and a desire but if it's well known that the factors inherent to the machine preclude the operation near your goals it does become folly, IMO.

High performance delta wing aircraft have high takeoff and landing speeds, even on a calm day the ocean doesn't cooperate wih that.

Again I do agree your point re: why to attempt it.

[bobbycratchit]

I like your reasoning but I still disagree. I don't know if a Ferrari-like cement mixer is a good idea. It all depends on the application right? There may be a real benefit to producing cement at a prodigious rate. That's why you do a cost-benefit analysis, to take the random and often erroneous comments/thoughts out of the decision making process.

[ArizonaDelRio]

I just read an article about this plane in Air & Space magazine. It's biggest problem was vibration: One test pilot reported so much vibration on take-off he literally couldn't see straight. Just too much power as opposed to prop driven seaplanes. The other problem was practicality: The Navy realized it was much more feasable to use carrier ships to cart around a bunch of planes and use as a floating base rather than have them buzzing around on their own. Cool vid, though.

[snifferenator]

Bet you thought that annoying music was great

[BigWheelHawaii]

What stupid frigging musica,,, great video,

stupid music...

I think they lost one testing, and the other

one sat out behind a hanger at Linbergh Field for years... If they put that into service,

they better have a ton of inventory...

years...

[Schwarze0001]

Post it again without the annoying music....plz

[Ghill3man]

I bet that thing had corrosion like a mother effer

[felixu95]

@Ghill3man I bet they weren't stupid enough to build it out of iron lol

[HighAltitudeAttitude]

@Ghill3man Not really(had protective coating).Main problem was take of&landing-both were impossible with waves over 3 feet high.

[rjrassets]

cool video and music.......seperate. .. why does everyone on here have to ruin documentary videos with musik?

[jongoffinet]

looks very similar to the B58 Hustler.....maybe based off of it?

[ryanspeed]

Both aircraft, the B-58 Hustler and the F2Y Sea Dart, were built by Convair.

[Grommo]

Correct. Both were developments of the delta wing designed by Dr Alexander Lippisch, designer of the Me163 rocket fighter.

Lippisch brought his Delta Wing technology to Convair after settling in America postwar.

watch?v=MvtxjSrImHw

[sakoshooter48]

Methinks you wouldn't know a Hustler if it bit you in the ass!!!!! How about an F-102?????

[NickB1967]

@sakoshooter48: All three aircraft produced by Convair, later General Dynamics, now Lockheed Martin. I am sure some design borrowing and "cross pollination" (for want of a better term) was going on.

[fener4e]

awesome!And who needs the clumsy carriers any more

[jungfraujoch11333]

is the music joe satriani?

[tresillo]

Sounds like Joey Tafolla to me...but, not sure...

[iriwan]

it didn't work coz there was too much vibration and the swell had to be perfect

[alcamino0]

cool