Birth of the Flying Boat

This is one in a series of posts on the hisstory of the United States Navy.

On October 5, 1913, the first amphibious flying boat was tested at Hammondsport, New York. The flying boat was designated as OWL, which stood for Over Water Land Type. This test led to a deeper program and eventually to the many amphibious flying boats that have served theis country ever since. One of the mopst famous that eventually resulted from this was the classic PBY (Catalina) flying boat used so successfully during the Seconed World War.