Aeromarine 40 / 41 ![]() 40B
The Aeromarine Model 40 was a two-seat floatplane trainer aircraft serving the United States Navy. The aircraft was produced by the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company of Keyport, New Jersey, and had already made a name for itself by supplying the US Navy with its first carrier-landed aircraft in the Aeromarine Model 39. Whereas the Model 39 could be utilized as a land-based and floatplane aircraft equally (requiring the conversion of the undercarriage to suit each task), the Model 40 was a dedicated flying boat using wing panels and struts of Model 39 on a new flying boat hull. One or two 40-F may have been tested by the Coast Guard.
The Model 40 was designed and built in response to a 1918 Navy Department order for a two-seat seaplane trainer, 200 Model 40's were initially ordered by the US Navy in 1918.
Very similar in general design to the Curtiss model MF trainer, which it was intended to augment, serialed A5040-5089, fifty 40-Fs were built.
Although the first civil model 40 may have flown in 1918 with a 150 hp Aeromarine U-8 engine, the first documented flight of the Navy model 40F occurred in 1919. When World War I ended, the original Navy order for 200 aircraft was reduced to 50, and all examples were delivered after the armistice. The model 40-F was operated by the US Navy as a trainer. The end of the war in November ultimately signified the end of the production contract, leaving only 50 Model 40 examples produced. Model 40's still managed to see service in the post-war world solely with the United States Navy. Overall, their operational use proved the airframe too fragile for the constant rigors of water-born operations, to which these results helped in future American flying boat designs. During service, some model 40Fs were reportedly refitted with 150 hp Hispano-Suiza engines to improve performance and payload.
![]() The civil versions (40 and 40B, 140 hp Hispano-Suiza engine; 40C, 150 hp Aeromarrine engine; 40L 130 hp Aeromarine L engine; 40T, 100 hp Curtiss OXX-6 engine; and 40U, 100 hp Aeromarine U-6 engine) were produced in 1919 and sold for around $9000 each. An estimated six civil models were built.
The Aeromarine Model 40 was further developed into the Model 41 to which some existing Model 40's were converted to this newer design.
![]() The Aeromarine 41 flying boat were conversions of Model 40s mentioned in 1922.
40
40
Engine: Curtiss OXX-6, 100 hp
Prop: 2 blade wooden fixed pitch
Upper wingspan: 48 ft 6 in
Length: 26 ft 11 in
Empty weight: 201 lb
Loaded weight: 2592 lb
Max speed: 71 mph at SL
Ceiling: 3500 ft
Range: 250 mi
40-B
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