Aeromarine
Aeromarine 39
The Aeromarine 39 was a two‑seat floatplane built by the Aeromarine Aircraft Company in the United States during the early 1920s. Designed initially as a trainer for the United States Navy, the 39 first flew in 1919 and entered service in 1920, becoming one of the first naval aircraft specifically engineered for water operations. Its biplane configuration featured equal‑span wings with fabric‑covered wooden ribs and a sturdy steel tube fuselage. Power was supplied by a 100‑horse‑power Hall‑Scott A-7a engine driving a two‑bladed wooden propeller, giving the aircraft a maximum speed of roughly 75 mph and a range of 300 miles. The Aeromarine 39 was equipped with detachable floats that allowed quick conversion to a landplane by swapping them for a conventional wheeled undercarriage, a versatility appreciated by both military and civilian pilots. Over 150 examples were produced, many serving as primary trainers at Naval Air Stations along the Atlantic coast. The type’s reliability, ease of maintenance, and pioneering seaplane design helped establish training doctrines that shaped later naval aviation programs, and it remains a notable milestone in early American aeronautical engineering to this day.
