My good friend Tom Curtis made the base these water bombers are stationed at for X-Plane. Can`t wait for someone to
make a good model of the plane for X-plane 10. Would love to see one for real.

And I remember the news reports of its use to save Kelowna. And the A-Team movie sequence.

Not the first man limited to one-handed web surfing, but I guess you don't like the Martin Mars that much... :O

You wonder how that massive hull can overcome the drag of the water to gain enough speed for ever getting airborne...

HUGE thick wing...massive low-speed lift...gain a bit of speed, less resistance in the water, gain a bit more speed, even less water to "push", next thing you know, you are picking up speed in the air!

But seeing them just sitting in the water floating like giants, it just doesn't "feel" like it could fly.

that's why the c130 will never be a floatplane

boatplanes are designed with hulls that will plane at a relatively low speed, raising them out of the water and effectively reducing the wetted area of the hull.

why boatplanes and amphib boatplanes are not more popular i'll never understand - they are so versatile and the building cost is not that much more (sometimes even cheaper) than normal aircraft.

I guess operation costs may be more for the floating hull design.