Seaplane in Flight Maldives

Looks like a seaplane Seaplane in flight Maldives 2013.kmz (762 B)

May 26, 2016 9:57:43 GMT yamla said:

Looks like a seaplane

Its a seaplane! 

Thanks for clearing that up

Yup, ET has an instinct for these things!  

More specifically it's a De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter of Maldive Air Taxis.  It's an easy spot from above - twin-engined high-wing monoplane; straight square-ended wings, no taper, 65 ft wingspan; straight, square-ended tailplane; very often (but not always!) black bars chord-wise across the wings behind the engines (I think these are either for heat management or to prevent the high level exhaust discolouring the livery).  Here she is:


Photo by Darren Wilson, courtesy Airliners.net


A hugely - and rightly - successful, much-loved, rugged and reliable workhorse of an aircraft, these have been in production in umpteen variants for more than 50 years, initially with piston engines, now with turboprops.  They were developed from the original DH Otter, which had a single huge radial engine, which first flew nearly 70 years ago; many are still in use all over the world:


DHC-3 Otter.  Photo by Mark Swaffer, courtesy Wiki

Here's where Maldive Air Taxis operate from:

Seaplane Terminal.kmz (758 B)


Cheers,

Frank