On Sep 30, 9:43 pm, Eunometic wrote:
On Sep 30, 1:01 pm, "Mike Kanze" wrote:

Longer answer: Attempts at large-scale revival of seaplanes in the U.S. will likely meet the same ends as
attempts to revive LTA.
a.. Too few suitable seadrome possibilities near most U. S. coastal population centers. And no possibilities
at all in the continental heartland, other than the Great Lakes cities like Detroit or Chicago.

I would raise two counter arguments to this:
a/ The Sea planes could be made 'amphibious' in that case they can
operate on airports, perhaps only those with 11000ft runways, and they
could then use seaplane ports in locations where a 11000ft runway
would be prohibitive due to cost or geography.

The seaplane hull has never been as aerodynamic as a land planes: it's
less efficent. Now you want to go ahead and add landing gear too? More
weight. Now even fewer miles per ton of fuel.

b/ Oversize seaplanes could opperate in a niche all by themselves
competing for coastal cargo.

Possibly, but don't waste effort making them amphibs.

c.. Need for major infrastructure improvements (large hangars, ramps, etc.) along increasingly expensive /
scarce near-urban .shoreline.

Quite serious: floating concrete structures?

Good enough for docks. But it's like hydrogen fueled cars: which do
you build first; the millions of hydrogen fueling stations or the
millions of hydrogen powered cars? If socity hadn't gone done a
different econmic track doing both at once might have been worth while
but substitues do exist and it's hard to justify the investment for
another way of doing the same thing.