In The 1950s, The USA, UK, USSR And France Raced To Build Supersonic Seaplane Interceptors

The vulnerability of large paved runways and large aircraft carriers in a war between the NATO and the Soviet Union made designers all over the world wonder whether it might make more sense to use lakes and seas as a runway. This video explores the weird and wonderful world of jet-powered seaplane fighters in the Cold War.

Major Sources:

"Saunders and Saro Aircraft Since 1917", by Peter London is an indispensable guide to the company's realised and unrealised projects

"Naval Fighters Number Twenty Five: Sea Dart", by Billy Jack Young is the only single volume of note on the Sea Dart. It is now quite a dated format and read, but it is technically rich

"Convair Deltas From Sea Dart To Hustler", by Bill Yenne is probably a better buy than Naval Fighters as it puts the Sea Dart into context of Convair's other projects

https://afirsov.livejournal.com/39753... contains some useful information on Soviet projects

Theory on planing hulls is in this technical document: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD06...