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Description
| Manufacturer: | Republic | |
| Base model: | RC-3 | |
| Designation: | RC-3 | |
| Nickname: | SeaBee | |
| Basic role: | Flying Boat | |
Specifications
Propulsion
| Powerplant: | Franklin | ||
| Horsepower (each): | 215 | ||
Performance
| Cruise Speed: | 103 mph | 165 km/h | 89 kt |
| Max Speed: | 120 mph | 193 km/h | 104 kt |
| Climb: | 750 ft/min | 228 m/min | |
Examples of this type may be found at
| Museum | City | State |
| New England Air Museum | Windsor Locks | Connecticut |
RC-3 on display
New England Air Museum |
Recent comments by our visitors
| Larry Goodman , FL | In 1955, I took seaplane training, GI Bill, at the Sausalito base in CA. I flew the Luscomb, Cessna, and the Seabee.
Flying over San Francisco Bay was a real great adventure. We also went to Highland Lakes for our nighttime flight. There are not many float planes here in central Florida. Larry 02/21/2008 @ 18:41 [ref: 19739] |
| Jason , OTH | Just uploaded a screenshot from "The Man With The Golden Gun" clearly indicating the one float missing! 09/28/2007 @ 11:07 [ref: 18042] |
| Don , NY | Sorry the cockpit photo was the wrong up load please remove it. 12/30/2006 @ 11:08 [ref: 15043] |
| S. Saevdal , OTH | I have a Seabee website dedicated to the history of this fantastic airplane - my favorite! Please visit;
http://www.seabee.info I will very much appreciate any Republic Seabee stories and photos from all you Seabee enthusiasts out there... Best regards Steinar Saevdal (Norway) www.seabee.info 09/27/2006 @ 11:19 [ref: 14304] |
| Richard Eimert , NY | During the post war era, I maintained two SeaBee's for the Lambros Seaplane Base in NJ. They were used for flight training on the GI bill program and accumulated a lot of hours along with a number of Widgeons and other light aircraft. We had many operational problems with the Bee related to design but they survived. We were disappointed with the normal cruise speed and one day I modified the Hartzel prop blade settings to eliminate the reverse feature and give more available pitch for forward flight. This increased to cruise to about 120 MPH (as I remember) with quite a large change in nose down trim. I never followed through with an approved FAA change. 05/14/2006 @ 05:12 [ref: 13274] |
| Joe C. , MD | Ummmm, hey guys, just for the record, the 'Bee thats in the level right tun in the bottom right picture is actually a photo of the prototype. An RC-1. It was actually called the thunderbolt I think. You can tell by the floats and gear. 03/30/2006 @ 18:32 [ref: 12984] |
| Brett McAleer Denpasar, OTH | The Seabee in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN was (still is?) owned by Colonel Claire and has FAA Registry # N87545. After refusing to rent it to the Bond producers he offered to fly it to the location as long as he could fly it in the movie. Which he did. The real plane was not blown upm but an Art Department mock-up was destroyed in its place. Colonel Claire was apparently injured during one take of him beaching the Seabee up onto the beach. The source of all information I quote here can be heard on the DVD commentary track. Cheers one and all. 8>) 01/07/2006 @ 01:51 [ref: 12096] |
| tom aman Chicago, IL | One of these landed on Dam Lake in northern wisconsin around Aug 1962.....severe weather was approaching, and my father let the pilot anchor the plane in the lake. They stayed up all night drinking beer while waiting out the severe electrical storm. The plane made it thru the night fine, and the next morning, the pilot took us all up...it was our first flight, and I'll never forget it. The pilot landed on the surrounding lakes at the summer resorts and took vacationers up for short flights, for like $10....does anyone know who that pilot was? Anyone remember that particular plane? It was dark blue in color.... 11/06/2005 @ 13:56 [ref: 11633] |
| Wes Tomaszewski , ON | Hi this is quite a story a friend of mine owned a seabee and didn't have a licence but I had one but only for land planes and the largest one I flew was a cessna 172. But he asked to take him for a ride in his seabee and me being very adventerous said ok. well getting it started was easy but the rest was nuts, I taxied it out and we were on our swing to line up with the center line when he tripped the tail lock, the power was on and we were not straight and heading for the grass, so ahead went the column and a little rudder and we were off in the right direction, first time I ever bounced taking off trim was way off on the indicator, we got her off the ground and now I have to worry about landing, but what the hay its a float plane right and no water time, I put on 20 degrees of flat and pulled the power back and man I passed an anvil on the way done to the lake, not a good glide path. Intersting enough I got it down, then for take off I was in a fast boat but I couldn't get it to fly. Again with a heck of a tug on the stick we break out of the water and in a funny looking flying angle. That was enough flying back to the airport, strangly enough landing was very good we got it stopped before we entered the grass. After that I went and got a proper check ride on type and I got to fly him around more often. Wes 09/14/2005 @ 20:18 [ref: 11234] |
| Jay Howard Alpharetta, GA | I saw a minor accident involving a Seabee this weekend at Orlando Executive Airpoort. The wind was blowing about 20+ knots at takeoff (at 2:00 position off the airplane's nose).
They revved to full power, let off the brakes, then applied way too much right rudder to compensate for the wind. The aircraft rolled about 100 ft. then did a 270 degree spin on it's main gear and went off the runway. The rotation was rapid..about 1 second to spin nearly all the way around. They definitely sheared the tail wheel assembly away. Aircraft was N713ET, painted in red,white and blue. 05/10/2005 @ 15:47 [ref: 10176] |
Recent photos uploaded by our visitors
