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In the early 1930s, Coast Guard Commandant Frederick Billard
decided to acquire state-of-the-art flying boats capable of
performing rescues by landing on the open sea. The first aircraft
designed from the start for Coast Guard use, these new amphibians
became known as the Coast Guard's “FLBs” or Flying Life Boats. The
Coast Guard awarded a $360,000 contract to build five seaplanes to
the American Fokker Aircraft Corporation, then known as the General
Aviation Manufacturing Corporation. They were the last Fokker
aircraft built in the U.S.
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December 6, 1934 - Coast Guard planes (top to bottom - Flying
Boat Acamar, Amphibian Sirius and Flying Boat Arcturus) from the
Coast Guard Air Station Miami, Florida, greet the new 165-foot
patrol boat Pandora upon her arrival station. (Photo from U.S. Coast
Guard Collection)
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General Aviation's planners based the new FLB design on the
Fokker F-11 flying boat, a smaller single-engine amphibian produced
for civilian use as an “Air Yacht.” The FLB specifications called
for a strong and durable aircraft capable of “observing, landing and
returning with rescued crew of distressed craft and/or capable of
landing, taking aboard fifteen or more passengers and standing by
for lengthy periods on [the] surface until rescued members can be
transferred to surface craft.” The FLBs incorporated a retractable
beaching gear, wheels used only for exiting the water onto land, two
reverse-facing pusher engines located above a nearly 75-foot
wingspan, watertight bulkheads, long and short wave radio, and the
latest in direction finding equipment.
The FLBs differed from
other Coast Guard aircraft in receiving names in addition to numeric
designations. The FLBs were all named for important stars whose
names began with the letter “A.” General Aviation delivered the
first FLB, FLB-51, in April 1932, and Billard's daughter christened
her Antares. General Aviation delivered the four other FLBs later
the same year. The Coast Guard accepted the last one, FLB-55, in
November 1932 and stationed it at Air Station Miami. The Service
christened it Arcturus and it would become the most famous of the
FLBs.
On Sunday, New Year's Day 1933, Lt. Cmdr. Carl
Christian Von Paulsen, Class of 1913, started out on what would
become one of the Service's most famous aviation search and rescue
missions. At mid-day, Von Paulsen and his crew took off from Air
Station Miami in Arcturus to rescue a teenage boy blown offshore by
a severe storm near Cape Canaveral. Arcturus met stiff headwinds,
rain and low visibility during the rescue mission, but Von Paulsen
located the missing teenager adrift in a skiff 30 miles southeast of
the Cape and managed to land the aircraft in seas between 12-15
feet. The crew rescued the boy, but the aircraft had sustained wing
damage during the landing preventing flight thereafter.
Von
Paulsen taxied Arcturus toward the coast and the seaplane lost parts
of her wings to the stormy seas. However, the amphibian's
boat-shaped fuselage rode the waves comfortably and the crew and
survivor landed safely on the beach. Through his dogged
determination and skillful handling of Arcturus, Von Paulsen
completed the mission. This was the first aviation rescue case to
receive the Gold Lifesaving Medal and it demonstrated beyond a doubt
the importance of aviation for Coast Guard search and rescue
operations.
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January 31. 1935 - Commemorative photograph of the officers and enlisted men at Air Station Miami posing on
Flying Boat Arcturus. (Photo from U.S. Coast Guard Collection)
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On Monday, June 24, 1935, U.S. Army Transport Republic
radioed from near the Bahamas requesting emergency medical
evacuation for an Army officer. The officer required
immediate medical attention, so that afternoon, Coast Guard
Lt. Carl Olsen, Class of 1928, took to the sky in Arcturus.
After flying over three hours and 300 miles through dark
clouds and dangerous thunderstorms, Olsen sighted the lights
of the transport and landed close to the ship. Despite heavy
seas, the transfer of the patient by lifeboat from the
Republic to the Arcturus took only 45 minutes. The transport
then shone its searchlights into the eye of the wind to
illuminate Olsen's take-off path and the Arcturus was again
airborne. On the return flight, Olsen contended with further
storms, rain and lightning, as well as faulty navigation
equipment broken by the rough water landing. Weather
disrupted radio communications, so Olsen could not obtain
information on weather or alternate landing fields.
Finally, in the early morning hours of June 25, Arcturus
arrived at Miami Air Station and an ambulance whisked away
the officer to the hospital for an emergency operation. For
this rescue case, Olsen received commendation letters from
the commandant and treasury secretary and he received the
Coast Guard's first Distinguished Flying Cross. Regarding
these honors, Olsen later commented “Back then in the Coast
Guard you were just supposed to do the job—if not, you got
court-martialed.”
After Miami, the Service assigned
Arcturus to Air Station Salem, Massachusetts and, in
December 1938, transferred it to Air Station St. Petersburg,
Florida. Arcturus had flown under a number of notable Coast
Guard pilots, some of whom earned the highest honors
bestowed on aviators. By 1941, after nine years, Arcturus
had reached the end of her service life and, in August 1941,
the Service decommissioned Arcturus, cut it up and scrapped
it. Arcturus served as an important search and rescue
platform for members of the long blue line, and helped shape
the history of Coast Guard aviation.
By William Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2016
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