The Albatross: An Ancient Mariner And Jack Of All Trades

Albatross Trivia

Five things you might not know about the Albatross:

1. The engines on the Albatross (essentially the same as those used on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and North American T-28 Trojan) are high enough off the ground that one can walk under them while they’re running. Most of us will duck involuntarily, but we won’t have to unless we’re eight feet tall.
2. The floats near the ends of each wing do not retract, and each can be used to carry 200 gallons of fuel.
3. The landing gear on the Albatross retracts at three different speeds: nose gear first, then one main gear leg and the other. This induces yaw during gear retraction and extension, but not a critical amount.
4. Many larger seaplanes are equipped with some sort of water rudder. The Albatross is not. However, using thrust reversing on one or the other propeller allows the aircraft to be turned quite crisply in the water, and of course, putting both props in reverse will allow the airplane to back up.
5. Singer Jimmy Buffett’s Albatross “Hemisphere Dancer” is a 1954 model HU-16 that saw the very last (known) combat exposure for the type…in 1996. Thinking Dancer was a drug runner’s plane. Jamaican authorities shot at Buffet’s globe-trotting amphibian while it was water-taxiing near Negril in Jamaica. Bono of the band U2 was also aboard at the time, but no one was injured. The song “Jamaica Mistaica” on the Banana Wind album was written about this incident.

Bonus Videos

Here is part 1 of a USAF training film about how to operate the HU-16.

[youtube id=”oYs9do-ZJHg” width=”800″ height=”454″ position=”left”]

Here is part 2 of the USAF training film about how to operate the HU-16.

[youtube id=”Rz9VqWqPEaQ” width=”800″ height=”454″ position=”left”]

Bonus: Here is the story of the Air Force Museum’s HU-16 and the altitude record-setting flight before she was retired and flown to Dayton.

[youtube id=”8xk301qUyHk” width=”800″ height=”454″ position=”left”]