It’s like some beached whales: though their main element is water, we see a few amphibias in the International Aerospace Exhibition and Conferences, in Berlin.
The Consolidated PBY 5A Catalina, that could be seen in Biscarosse one
month ago, is one of the regular participants of the airshow.
We were able to see the interior of the plane, I don’t envy the
pilots, who have to crawl to reach the cockpit. They offered me to try
it, but I rather missed it out. But the sight from the side “bubble”
windows was very attractive.
This year only one Dornier aircraft was displayed, a private Lake
Renegade, not like two years ago, when they brought their S-Ray 007
and the big Do 24 ATT, what was very popular.
Russian companies also participated, but they brought only models and
pictures of their aircrafts.
At the stand of Beriev Aircraft Company there were a few new models of
their seaplanes as well as pictures of Be-103 and the Be-200, their
huge firefighter. They also promoted the Gidroaviasalon which will be
held in September.
There was a smaller company from Samara next to their stand,
AeroVolga, that introduced their new hydroplane La-8 which is capable
to seat up to eight passangers. In the last picture it can be seen
that the amphibia can operate in nomad conditions.
Last, but not least there was a great interest about the hungarian
turboprop express amphibia (what is still under development), the
AVANA Larus T601. They didn’t bring the prototype, since last year the
plane was damaged during transportation. The enlargeable picture of
the airplane was taken in Friederichshafen.
