Flying-boats helped open up far-flung parts of the British Empire to air travel in the 1930s.

A flying-boat is an aircraft which, instead of using a wheeled undercarriage to take off and land from the land, does so from a water ‘runway’.

Flying-boats have boat hulls and keels with floats underneath each wing to give them stability. Before the advent of large transport aircraft, flying-boats were the only aircraft capable of flying long distances with a sizeable cargo or passenger load. Flying-boats helped open up far-flung parts of the British Empire to air travel in the 1930s.