Sure, he could have. But where would he fly it? There were no runways
as long as the ocean. Very big engines mean lots of weight, means that
no mere mile long runway would be enough. There weren't many mile
long runways at airports.


In article , Chris W wrote:
John Ross wrote:

On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 18:32:13 GMT, Chris W wrote:

What I want to know is why didn't Hughes go after *that* record in his
land plane? What was it about the sea planes that they were so much
faster than the land planes?

IIRC the Schneider cup rules specified all entrants HAD to be
seaplanes, so that's what were built. I don't think the Hughes racer
could have taken the record if pontoons had been built for it.

JR

What I meant is why couldn't Hughes build a land plane that would go faster
than the fastest sea plane?