HOW PLANES LAND ON WATER

Who needs a runway when there's so much water around?

- WORDS SCOTT DUTFIELD

Ever since the Wright brothers took flight in the world's first successful aeroplane, people have been flying in planes that can land on the water rather than on solid ground. Seaplanes first dipped their wings into the water in 1910, when French aviation pioneer Henri Fabre unveiled the Hydravion, an 8.45-metre-long aircraft with a 14-metre wingspan. The rotary-engine Hydravion inspired a new wave of seaplanes, of which there were two varieties.