Talk:Seaplane

Merge proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

To merge floatplane and flying boat into seaplane for overlap and context. Klbrain (talk) 11:48, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

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I am not convinced it is beneficial to have three separate articles on seaplanes, floatplanes and flying boats. The content in the current three articles is duplicative and poorly distinguished (for example, the flying boat article discusses floatplanes extensively, especially in the History section). The floatplane article is short and refers back to Seaplane which overlaps extensively with flying boat. I propose merging floatplane and flying boat into seaplane since this is the catch-all term. The distinction between floatplanes and flying boats could then easily be made within sections of a single article while their overlapping history and operational aspects could be treated coherently without duplication. YFB ¿ 22:35, 21 June 2025 (UTC)

I agree that this should change, I as never happy with the status quo - the floatplane article is inadequate. If I had free reign myself, I imagined merging the seaplane and floatplane articles together under floatplane - from there, a hat note directing to flying boats for those aircraft with hulls designed for entering the water directly. However, I never took on the task, much to my discredit. Kyteto (talk) 12:39, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Kyteto, yes we could merge down to two articles rather than one. My reservation there was that I'm not sure how much there actually is to say about floatplanes that isn't also relevant to flying boats, apart from the bit about the floats vs. boat hull (which I think could be more elegantly and less dupicatively covered in a single article), and a little bit about optimal float configuration (which can be dealt with in a section a couple of paragraphs long)? The majority of the seaplane article deals primarily with flying boats too, so the sum of words specifically about floatplanes is small across both articles. YFB ¿ 14:13, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

I would agree with merging floatplane and flying boat into this article. Especially as this article points out float planes and flying boats are both types of seaplanes. CambridgeBayWeather (solidly non-human), Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 23:31, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

• Support: Merging the two articles about the different types of seaplanes into the main seaplane article makes the most sense. "Seaplane" also seems to be the common name for this type of craft, rather than "float plane", so that should be the primary entry. regards, TryKid ^{[dubious – discuss]} 15:08, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

  Y Merge completed, although with some post-merge consolidation to do. Klbrain (talk) 11:59, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

Now tidied; there was a lot of duplication, or near-duplication. Klbrain (talk) 15:20, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

repetition

this repeats a while section starting with the Daily Mail prize, almost word for word. Ncvm (talk) 12:43, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

Indeed, it happened in the merge last year. There was one paragraph missing which may have been accidentally deleted so that was restored with its citations. Hopefully it is all straight now. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by) 13:28, 22 February 2026 (UTC)