Seaplane - Suijōki (English spelling)

Japanese: 水上機 - すいじょうき（英語表記）seaplane

Airplanes that can take off and land on water. There are floatplanes, which have floats instead of wheels on land planes, and flying boats, which have boat-shaped bodies. There are also amphibious planes, which are seaplanes with wheels, and utility planes that can take off and land on water, land, snow, ice, and mud. The first floatplane to successfully take off and land on water was made in 1911 by American Glenn Curtiss. After that, they were widely used as military aircraft, and in the interwar period between World War I and World War II, they were also widely used as civilian passenger aircraft. However, many of them are vulnerable to waves and can only take off and land on calm water. For this reason, takeoffs and landings on choppy water must be done at low speeds and over as short a distance as possible, and there is also the problem of corrosion caused by water, so the development costs are higher than for land planes. There are also helicopters that can take off and land on water.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

水の上で発着できる飛行機。陸上機の車輪をフロートに替えたフロート機と，機体が舟になっている飛行艇がある。また水上機に車輪をつけた水陸両用機や，水，陸地，雪，氷，泥の上で離着できる多用機もある。史上初めてのフロート式水上機が離着水に成功したのは 1911年で，アメリカ合衆国のグレン・カーティスによる。その後，軍用機として広く使われ，第1次世界大戦，第2次世界大戦の戦間期には民間旅客機としても多用された。しかし多くは波に弱く，静かな水面上でなければ離着水できない欠点もある。このため波のある水面での離着水は低速で，できるだけ短距離で行なわなければならず，水による腐食の問題もあって，陸上機に比べると開発費が高い。このほか離着水の可能なヘリコプタもある。

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