Word: amphibianism
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TIME airwriter erred. In TIME for Aug. 13, under Aeronautics, this appeared: ". . . it was the Sikorsky S-42, world's largest amphibian." The 542 is neither an amphibian nor the world's largest anything. It is the largest American-built flying boat and, beyond a doubt, outperforms any ship of its kind in the world, but that is all. World's largest amphibian is Sikorsky Model 540, better known as the Yankee and Caribbean Clippers. 542 will always be strictly a flying boat. TIME airwriter undoubtedly mistook beaching wheels for landing gear...
Neither the Sikorsky 540 nor 542 may correctly be called amphibian, as they never descend on land, have retractable landing gear which is used only when the boats are beached for overhauling. They are properly called flying boats...
...until the post-Lindbergh aviation boom did real success come to Sikorsky in the U. S. From his factory in Bridgeport, Conn., since then, has gone many an amphibian to the U. S. Navy, many a transport to Pan American Airways, many an air-yacht to U. S. tycoons. Two years ago his Russian mechanics built the world's first giant amphibian (S-40), the famed 40-passenger Yankee Clipper used on Pan American's over-water routes...
From its one long thin wing, its four mighty motors, the row of portholes in its fat body, many an observer rightly guessed that it was the Sikorsky 8-42, world's largest amphibian. What they did not know was that it was on its final acceptance test-flight for Pan American Airways; that it was breaking eight world's records by flying the greatest load the greatest distance at the greatest speed...
...Colon, Panama the motor of an Army amphibian exploded, hurled a jagged piece of metal into the stomach of Private Ralph H. Lawson, killed...