1. We took a floatplane to the trail head. Our taciturn guide pointed out that it was this robust aircraft that had helped to open up the wilderness in the Fifties.

2. An hour later, taxiing across the glimmering surface of the lake, the floatplane approached the jetty.

3. Travel by bush plane is so common that Anchorage's Lake Hood Seaplane Base is the busiest floatplane base in the world, with about 200 flights passing through each day.

4. As we were loading our kayaks onto the boat for the trip back to Petersburg, a floatplane suddenly came roaring overhead, skimming above the treetops as it came in for a landing on a nearby bay.

5. The Reid Flying Submarine (RFS-1) was a true mongrel, constructed by Reid in his spare time using leftover parts from other aircraft and, like Ushakov's design, it was a floatplane.