Contemporary seaplanes could not reliably cross the Atlantic with the commercial loads Lufthansa wanted to carry. Mail was dense cargo, and the route demanded more payload than specially lightened long-range aircraft could conveniently provide. Lufthansa therefore stationed tenders in the ocean or near islands as intermediate aviation bases. A flying boat could land beside a ship, be craned aboard, refuelled, placed on a catapult, and launched for the next leg. The arrangement shows how maritime logistics extended commercial aviation range without turning the supporting ships into aircraft carriers.
Chapter · 6:54-11:28
A floating support system for transatlantic airmail
The German tenders served as mid-ocean refuelling and relaunch stations that made heavy interwar airmail loads more practical.