Plans Are Announced For Seabee Anniversary Celebration At Oshkosh

We cover a lot about what’s going on at AirVenture in AeroSports Update because it is, after all, the place where we celebrate sport and recreational aviation. It also gives us the opportunity to expound on some of our favorite aircraft, and the Republic Seabee happens to be one of them.

Seventy years ago this year, the prototype Republic RC-3 Seabee seaplane made its first flight in Farmingdale, New York, and seaplane enthusiasts will recognize that milestone at EAA AirVenture in just over a week from now. A dozen or more examples of the four-seat, all-metal amphibians are expected to attend and participate in special activities both on convention grounds and at the Vette Seaplane Base.

While the Seabee is always referred to as being produced by the Republic Aircraft Corporation, it didn’t start out that way. The original version of what became the Seabee was designed by an aviation pioneer named Percival Hopkins Spencer, but he was always simply known as, ‘Spence.’ Named the Spencer S-12 air car amphibian, it hardly got started when World War II got in the way.

Spence joined with Republic Aviation as an engineer and test pilot in 1941 and eventually sold the rights to his is S-12 Air Car to Republic. From there, it eventually morphed into what Republic produced as the RC-3 Seabee. Republic Aviation built a total of 1,060 Seabees with the last one being produced in 1948.

However, Spencer was not through with this design, and in 1968 formed a company to produce a homebuilt version of the Seabee that was closer to his original version. Four variations of the Spencer Amphibian Air Car were eventually offered and a number of these aircraft have been built and are flying. One of these homebuilt versions is currently on display at the EAA museum.

At AirVenture this year, Land-based Seabees will be parked in rows south of the ultralight landing strip for most of the week, while at the Vette Seaplane Base a number of activities are planned for the latter part of the week and weekend.

On Friday there will be flybys at both the seaplane base as well as at Wittman, with special parking of all the attending Seabees in the lagoon to try and set a world record of Bees all in one spot. According to the seaplane chairman, they already have 12 airplanes confirmed to attend.

(Image provided by EAA)

FMI: www.eaa.org