A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes . Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers , could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are regarded by some as the first aircraft carriers and appeared just before the First World War .
30-588: Kamikawa Maru ( 神川丸 ) was a seaplane tender in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The ship was initially built at Kawasaki's Kōbe Shipyard and launched on 13 December 1936 as a merchant vessel for the Kawasaki Kisen K. K. Line . On 18 September 1937 the IJN requisitioned her as an aircraft transport ship and she was refitted in 1939 as a seaplane tender. The ship subsequently saw service in
60-622: A group of houses"), from * haim ("home, village, hamlet") and gard ("yard"). The term, gard , comes from the Old Norse garðr ("enclosure, garden"). Hangars are used for protection from the weather, direct sunlight and for maintenance, repair, manufacture, assembly and storage of aircraft. The Wright brothers stored and repaired their aircraft in a wooden hangar constructed in 1902 at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina for their glider . After completing design and construction of
90-574: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Seaplane tender In maritime parlance a tender is a vessel that is used to support the operation of other vessels. In British usage, the term tender was used for small craft, with the term depot ship being used for large seagoing vessels. Flying boats and float planes even when based at home in ports and harbour had a need for small support vessels to operate. British tenders were small craft of launch to pinnace size. These were used to ferry crews, stores and supplies between shore and
120-722: Is in Akron, Ohio and the structure was completed on November 25, 1929. The Airdock was used for the construction of the USS Akron and her sister ship, the USS Macon . Hangar One at Moffett Federal Field (formerly Naval Air Station Moffett Field ), is located in Mountain View , California. The structure was completed in 1931. It housed the USS Macon . The U.S. Navy established more airship operations during WWII. As part of this, ten "lighter-than-air" (LTA) bases across
150-687: The Wright Flyer in Ohio , the brothers returned to Kill Devil Hills only to find their hangar damaged. They repaired the structure and constructed a new workshop while they waited for the Flyer to be shipped. Carl Richard Nyberg used a hangar to store his 1908 Flugan (fly) in the early 20th century and in 1909, Louis Bleriot crash-landed on a northern French farm in Les Baraques (between Sangatte and Calais ) and rolled his monoplane into
180-510: The Battle of Tsingtao , from 5 September 1914, the Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane carrier Wakamiya conducted the world's first naval-launched air raids from Kiaochow Bay . The four Maurice Farman seaplanes bombarded German-held land targets (communication centers and command centers) and damaged a German minelayer in the Tsingtao peninsula from September 1914 until that November, when
210-592: The Hangar do Zeppelin [ pt ] for the German Zeppelins , and the U.S. government constructed Moffett Field , Mountain View , California and Lakehurst Naval Air Station , Lakehurst, New Jersey . Many warships carry aircraft and will often have hangars for storage and maintenance. Such hangars may be situated adjacent to the flight deck on cruisers , destroyers and frigates or underneath
240-559: The Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific Campaign of World War II . On May 29, 1943, Kamikawa Maru was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Scamp approximately 250 miles (400 km) northwest of Kavieng , New Ireland at 01°36′S 150°24′E / 1.600°S 150.400°E / -1.600; 150.400 . This article about a specific military ship or boat of Japan
270-812: The Second World War , both the American and the Japanese Navies built a number of seaplane tenders to supplement their aircraft carrier fleets. However, these ships often had their catapults removed, and were used as support vessels that operated seaplanes from harbours rather than in a seaway. These aircraft were generally for long-range reconnaissance patrols. The tenders allowed the aircraft to be rapidly deployed to new bases because their runways did not have to be constructed, and support facilities were mobile much like supply ships for submarines or destroyers . Nazi Germany 's Kriegsmarine , in
300-550: The "Hein Mat" – a sheet towed behind the vessel, once the aircraft was on the mat it was effectively stationary with respect to the ship and could be hoisted aboard. In the inter-war years, it was common for cruisers and battleships to be equipped with catapult -launched reconnaissance seaplanes . A few navies – especially those without true aircraft carriers – also acquired catapult-equipped seaplane carriers for fleet reconnaissance. During
330-527: The American FAA proposed legislation of how a hangar can be used on airfields that receive government funding. The definition of allowed activities included final assembly of aircraft. Airship hangars or airship sheds are generally larger than conventional aircraft hangars, particularly in height. Most early airships used hydrogen gas to provide them with sufficient buoyancy for flight, so their hangars had to provide protection from stray sparks to keep
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#1732765959466360-762: The Germans surrendered. On Christmas Day 1914, the British carried out the Cuxhaven Raid ; seaplanes carried within range of their targets attacked German naval targets in the Heligoland Bight . These carriers had hangars for storing and maintaining the aircraft, but no flight deck as in a true aircraft carrier. Instead, they used cranes to lower the aircraft into the sea for takeoff and to recover them after landing. The ships were normally converted merchant vessels rather than specially constructed for
390-534: The Second World War, did not operate any seaplane tenders. However, the Luftwaffe had nineteen seaplane tenders. These ships were mostly converted from existing civilian seaplane tenders, and were capable of carrying 1–3 seaplanes. The French and Italian Navies also had seaplane tenders. Seaplane carriers became obsolete at the end of the Second World War. A few remained in service after the war but by
420-670: The United States were built as part of the coastal defence plan; a total of 17 hangars were built. Hangars at these bases are some of the world's largest freestanding timber structures. Bases with wooden hangars included: the Naval Air Stations at South Weymouth , Massachusetts (1 hangar); Lakehurst, New Jersey (2); Weeksville, North Carolina (1); Glynco, Georgia (2); Richmond, Florida (3); Houma, Louisiana (1); Hitchcock, Texas (1); Tustin (Santa Ana), California (2); Moffett Field, California (2) and Tillamook, Oregon (2). Of
450-581: The aircraft entrance. The bigger the aircraft to be introduced, the more complex a structure is needed. According to the span of the hangar, sizes can be classified thus: XXL hangars are built for the largest aircraft in the world like the Airbus A380 , Boeing 747 and the Antonov 225 , which are the most complex to erect. Hangars are usually regulated by the building codes in the countries and jurisdictions and airports where they reside. In August 2014,
480-558: The aircraft, to maintain the buoys used to mark out "taxiways" and "runways" and to keep these clear of debris to prevent foreign object damage , and in the case of emergency to act as rescue craft and airport crash tenders . All those functions that on land would require wheeled ground support equipment had a need for a watercraft equivalent. When deploying flying boat squadrons, bases could rapidly be established in areas lacking infrastructure by sending flying boat depot ships in addition to small craft tenders. These ships could carry out
510-465: The drag and weight of the floats. Seaplane tenders had largely been superseded by aircraft carriers in the battle fleet by the end of the First World War, although aircraft were still of minor importance compared to the firepower of naval artillery. The British HMS Ark Royal was a seaplane tender with a flying-off deck. Seaplanes could be recovered while the ship was under way through
540-612: The farmer's cattle pen. Bleriot was in a race to be the first man to cross the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, and he and set up his headquarters in the unused shed. In Britain, the earliest aircraft hangars were known as aeroplane sheds , and the oldest survivors of these are at Larkhill , Wiltshire. These were built in 1910 for the Bristol School of Flying and are now Grade II* Listed buildings . British aviation pioneer Alliott Verdon Roe built one of
570-617: The first aeroplane sheds in 1907 at Brooklands , Surrey and full-size replicas of this and the 1908 Roe biplane are on display at Brooklands Museum . As aviation became established in Britain before World War I, standard designs of hangar gradually appeared with military types too such as the Bessonneau hangar and the side-opening aeroplane shed of 1913, both of which were soon adopted by the Royal Flying Corps . Examples of
600-429: The fixed hangar is a portable shelter that can be used for aircraft storage and maintenance. Portable fabric structures can be built up to 215 ft (66 m) wide, 100 ft (30 m) high and any length. They are able to accommodate several aircraft and can be increased in size and even relocated when necessary. Hangars need special structures to be built. The width of the doors have to be large; this includes
630-562: The function of barracks, workshops and control towers, i.e. those functions which in a land based airfield would be fulfilled by buildings. The first seaplane carrier appeared in 1911 with the French Navy La Foudre , following the invention of the seaplane in 1910 with the French Fabre Hydravion . La Foudre carried float-equipped planes under hangars on the main deck, from where they were lowered on
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#1732765959466660-662: The gas from exploding. Hangars that held several airships were at risk from chain-reaction explosions. For this reason, most hangars for hydrogen-based airships were built to house only one or two such craft. During the "Golden Age" of airship travel from 1900, mooring masts and sheds were constructed to build and house airships. The British government built a shed in Karachi for the R101 , the Brazilian government built one in Rio de Janeiro ,
690-529: The largest in the world. Hangar 1, Lakehurst, is located at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst (formerly Naval Air Station Lakehurst), New Jersey. The structure was completed in 1921 and is typical of airship hangar designs of World War I. The site is best known for the Hindenburg disaster , when on May 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg crashed and burned while landing. Hangar No.1 at Lakehurst
720-448: The late 1950s most had been scrapped or converted to other uses such as helicopter repair ships. Examples of seaplane tenders include: Hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft . Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word hangar comes from Middle French hanghart ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish * haimgard ("home-enclosure", "fence around
750-937: The latter survive at Farnborough , Filton and Montrose airfields. During World War I, other standard designs included the RFC General Service Flight Shed and the Admiralty F-Type of 1916, the General Service Shed (featuring the characteristic Belfast-truss roof and built-in various sizes) and the Handley Page aeroplane shed (1918). Sheds built for rigid airships survive at Moffett Field, California ; Akron, Ohio ; Weeksville, North Carolina ; Lakehurst, New Jersey ; Santa Cruz Air Force Base in Brazil; and Cardington, Bedfordshire . Steel rigid airship hangars are some of
780-455: The sea with a crane. La Foudre was further modified in November 1913 with a 10 m (32 ft 10 in)-long flat deck to launch her seaplanes. Another early seaplane carrier was HMS Hermes , an old cruiser converted and commissioned with a flying-off deck in mid-1913. However, HMS Ark Royal was the first ship in history designed and built as a seaplane carrier in 1914. In
810-404: The seventeen, only seven remain, Moffett Federal Field , (former NAS Moffett Field), California (2); former Tustin, California (former NAS Santa Ana and MCAS Tustin), California (2); Tillamook Air Museum / Tillamook Airport (former NAS Tillamook), Oregon (1) and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst /Naval Support Activity Lakehurst (former NAS Lakehurst), New Jersey (2). A hangar for Cargolifter
840-520: The task. As aircraft improved, the problems of using seaplanes became more of a handicap. The aircraft could only be operated in a smooth sea and the ship had to stop for launching or recovery, both of which took around 20 minutes. The tender was often stationed 10 mi (8.7 nmi ; 16 km ) or so in front of the main battle fleet with the cruiser screen so that it would not fall significantly behind when it launched its aircraft. Seaplanes also had poorer performance than other aircraft because of
870-602: Was built at Brand-Briesen Airfield 1,180 ft (360 m) long, 705 ft (215 m) wide and 348 ft (106 m) high and is a free standing steel-dome "barrel-bowl" construction large enough to fit the Eiffel Tower on its side. The company went into insolvency and in June 2003, the facilities were sold off and the airship hangar was converted to a 'tropical paradise'-themed indoor holiday resort called Tropical Islands , which opened in 2004. An alternative to
900-754: Was used to build and store the American USS Shenandoah . The hangar also provided service and storage for the airships USS Los Angeles , Akron , Macon , as well as the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg . The largest hangars ever built include the Goodyear Airdock measuring 1,175x325x211 feet and Hangar One (Mountain View, California) measuring 1,133 ft × 308 ft × 198 ft (345 m × 94 m × 60 m). The Goodyear Airdock ,
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