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Right profile drawing of a Martin MS-1 scouting seaplane.
The Martin-built MS-1 Bureau of Aeronautics No. A-6525 was the only one of the 12 small seaplanes to undergo full tests with the submarine S-1 in 1926.
J. M. Caiella

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A Floatplane on a . . . What? (Part II)

By Norman Polmar, Author, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet
February 2019
Naval History
Historic Aircraft
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During World War I, several navies gave consideration to operating scouting aircraft from submarines. The aircraft could extend the search area of the low-lying submarine, which was vital for seeking out merchant ship targets as well as possible threats from warships.

Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States experimented with aircraft-carrying submarines between the world wars, but during World War II, only Japan actually employed submarine-launched aircraft—and it did so to a significant degree. Indeed, the only air attack on the continental United States was by a Japanese E14Y “Glen” floatplane from the submarine I-25, which twice carried out bombing missions over Oregon forests in August 1942. (No significant damage was inflicted.)

The largest non-nuclear submarines ever constructed were the Japanese I-400 class, with three boats completed in 1944–45. They were intended to conduct bombing attacks on U.S. cities, with each carrying three floatplanes launched by catapult, but they became operational too late to be used in the war.1

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1. See Dorr Carpenter and N. Polmar, Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1986), 54−55, 111−15.

2. This section is derived from Gordon Swanborough and Peter M. Bowers, United States Navy Aircraft since 1911 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1968), 480.

3. During World War II, these submarines served in the U.S., British, and Polish navies.

4. See N. Polmar and K. J. Moore, Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines (Washington, DC: Brassey’s/ Potomac Books, 2004), 250−54.

Norman Polmar

Norman Polmar is an analyst, consultant, and author, specializing in naval, aviation, and technology subjects. He has been a consultant or advisor on naval issues to three Senators, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and three Secretaries of the Navy as well as to the director of the Los Alamos national laboratory, and to the leadership of the U.S., Australian, Chinese, and Israeli Navies. He has written or coauthored more than 50 published books.

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