A type of aircraft which has all but disappeared from the scene is the flying boat. Much of the blame for this lies with WWII when airfields were built on many of islands of the world. It did not help that land planes had been improving over time to where not only were they more reliable, but had the range necessary to fly the legs of several thousand miles in some cases, to go from island airfield to island air field. Of course, they did not disappear overnight, but as they became worn out, most were simply scrapped.

However, before this happend, the flying boat was a very important part of not only long range passenger transport, but also with the various air arms of the world. Flying boats of all sorts of sizes and types were in service in roles anywhere from training to maritime reconnaissance where the planes were in the air for a dozen hours or more. Most enthusiasts are familiar with the Sunderland or the Cataline, but few know much, if anything,

The French divided their flying boats according to their range and endurance, from the smaller, single engine boats used for artillery spotting and training to the long range recce boats that often had multiple engines. To us, they were pretty much divided into short, medium and long range.

One thing about French flying boats is that, for the most part, function was more important than form. If you have seen photos of many 1930s French bombers, then you know about which I speak. Some of them were lovely aircraft, but most of them were, well to put it nicely, utilitarian.

This particular book covers every aircraft that was around during World War II. Some were nearing the end of their career, some were still entering service and some were simply paper projects. There are two things that struck me about these aircraft. One is the number of them that had wooden hulls. I had thought that aluminum hulled boats were pretty well standard stuff by the 1930s, but that is not the case. Same goes for the wings with many of these aircraft having fabric wings; even those from the middle 1930s.

I also discovered that many of the larger aircraft were built in very small numbers. Many with only a handful and some with just one or two. Of course, some of the latter can be explained by the boats being completed just prior to the Armistice in 1940 when all French aircraft production came to a halt, though some were completed afterwards. Another factor is the snail's pace production speed of the French aviation industry. This aspect of France's troubles in the late 1930 with rearming is fairly well known and extended even more so to the building of flying boats, which were not very high on the priority list.

The book begins with an introduction into French naval aviation and then continues into the bulk of the book where each type is listed alphabetically and then by manufacturer's designation. This includes those aircraft built under license, which are few, and starts with the Breguet-built Shorts Calcutta. Each section has a superlative selection of period photos of the aircraft in question. Many of these are arranged in landscape format to provide the largest image possible. This is also done with the many full color profiles that is a feature of this series of books.

MMP has a deserved reputation for providing superbly researched and usable books that are a delight for both the enthusiast and modeler. This one has raised that bar another notch in terms of the sheer wealth of information that has been provided on what is to many, a pretty obscure, yet historically important subject. It is an absolute must have for any modeler and a book that gets my highest recommendation.

November 2013