Republic RC.3 Seabee

Interesting stuff guy’s!

Seabee curiosity

And here’s some more Seabee trivia. This strange looking object is a homebuilt speedboat, made from the central pontoon (i.e. hull) of a Republic Seabee that was imported into Australia from India. It was extensively damaged in a hangar fire at Bankstown (NSW), but obviously the hull survived.

It was donated to Australia’s Museum of Flight (www.museum-of-flight.org.au) a couple of years ago, and defied all attempts at identification for at least a couple of years. I do have the Indian registration written down somewhere, one of a pair used there by the same operator I seem to recall.

http://www.seawings.co.uk/
Under the gallery section of this WONDERFUL (really) site you can find seabees and more ….
Cheers,
Olivier

Is it just me, or is the Riviera the aircraft the SeaBee should have been? As far as I can remember there is not much to choose between them for performance though how their handling compares I know not.

Egg on face 😮 😮

And here is another one from Oshkosh (04), took some time to locate it 😉

Except this one is a SIAI-Marchetti FN.333 Riviera….

And here is another one from Oshkosh (04), took some time to locate it 😉

roll over rocktober!

1420/22 3xy, Thank’s RBF Paul 😉 .

Yep, back in the 70’s as a kid, I was a mad fan, as my older sister’s alway’s had radio’s blasting out xy 🙂 ,
Spent lot’s of time on Melbourne’s bay beache’s, and only now think I do remember that plane Flying Tadpole and other’s, doubled as a shark spotter’s too I 😉 .

(When Jaw’s hit the screen’s 😮 , I can remember that people at the beach were a little timid to go far out,
Myself and some other boy’s, swam out one day, and were screamed at to get back in QUICK, saw latter film on new’s that night,
From the spotter plane we had watched over head and waved at, a nice school of LARGE Hammer head’s,
Just out from where we had all been 😎 , I was MOST dissapointed at that age 🙁 , that I didn’t even get to see a fin break the water!!!,
Was a big let down compared to that Hollywood stuff!!!! :rolleyes: :p ).

Great Picture Newforest Mate!!! 😀 ,

Thank’s so muchly for bringing in to us all, 😉

Yep Mike 🙂 , That’s is one great Seabee site 😎 , I am still exploring all the link’s 😉 .
Thank’s mate!! 🙂

There are some other pics in the link listed in the seventh post in this thread. oOnce the home page comes up click on the main picture and on the next page scroll down untill you come to a product listing, then click on UC-1 Twiinbee. Some good pics there.

3xy?

yep thats the one
paul 😎

Nice picture of a twin job! :rolleyes:

3xy?

iirc there’s still one downunder owned by ron lee was at moorrabin airport a few years ago but maybe at coolangatta with the rest of his collection.
was flown in the seventies by a local radio station as the flying tadpole.
paul

Great Stuff!!

Yep I remember that Bond bit now, Chick’s were nice as alway’s too!!!

Mr Currill, would you perhap’s have a picture of the twin job,

Sound’s nice!

Wow, what a great site for information! http://www.seabee.info/ Check out C-GNVS for a PT6A turbine conversion!

That looks very tasty now all we need is someone to do that to the Twinbee.

Wow, what a great site for information! http://www.seabee.info/ Check out C-GNVS for a PT6A turbine conversion!

There are quite a lot of Seabees currently flying. Watch the link below.

Also, the Seabee had its 15 minutes of fame in the 1974 James Bond movie “The Man With the Golden Gun”. The Seabee used, and intentionally destroyed in the movie was N87545.

http://www.seabee.info/

Regards,

Jan

Thank’s so muchly, as alway’s papa,

That much H’MMM, I WANT ONE!!!!

Of course you could always be more ambitious and go for the Twin Bee, basically a twin engined SeeBee and a better looking machine IMO

There’s a very nice one at the local airstrip, and another being restored at another nearby field.
25 years ago they were cheap and as a type, rather neglected..(famous movie pilot Frank Tallman flew one into a shack in an early 1970s TV movie) Now there is a lot of interest in them with an active club and many modificationas available.

Most now days have larger engines and upgraded avionics as well as some airframe modifications.
As Texantomcat said, they’re not cheap (or neglected any more).

BTW, the USAAF ordered 12 in 1945 as OA (Observation Amphibian) -15s
….but they were cancelled before delivery.

Thank’s so muchly, as alway’s papa,

That much H’MMM, I WANT ONE!!!!