(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Photo Diary: A Close Look at the Benoist XIV Seaplane [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-15
The first regularly-scheduled passenger airline in the world happened in Tampa Bay, when a Benoist XIV seaplane began making regular runs between St Petersburg and Tampa. I diaried that history here.
Today the St Pete history museum displays a replica of that Benoist XIV. Usually it hangs up on the ceiling, but occasionally it gets lowered to the floor so that restorers can clean it off and make any necessary repairs and maintenance, and I just happened to catch one of those days. So I got to take a closer look at the plane’s interior—usually out of sight way up there by the ceiling.
Some photos.
The Benoist rests on the floor
Inside the cockpit. No instrument panel: just a control stick and throttle lever, and some primitive rudder pedals.
The “pusher” propeller was driven by an oversized bicycle chain and sprocket
The 6-cyclinder inline engine and the gas tank
The radiator
Museum staff confer before lifting it back to the ceiling
Up she goes
One person controls the vertical lift while another turns the plane as necessary
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/15/2301450/-Photo-Diary-A-Close-Look-at-the-Benoist-XIV-Seaplane?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
