Usage
Amphibious aircraft are heavier and slower, more complex and more expensive to purchase and operate than comparable landplanes but are also more versatile. Even if they cannot hover or land vertically, for some jobs they compete favorably with helicopters and do so at a significantly lower cost. Amphibious aircraft can be much faster and have longer range than comparable helicopters, and can achieve nearly the range of land based aircraft, as an airplane's wing is more efficient than a helicopter's lifting rotor. This makes an amphibious aircraft, such as the Grumman Albatross and the Shin Meiwa US-1A, useful for long-range air-sea rescue tasks. In addition, amphibious aircraft are particularly useful as "Bushplanes" engaging in light transport in remote areas, where they are required to operate not only from airstrips, but also from lakes and rivers.
Read more about this topic: Amphibious Aircraft
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