Seawind in the Desert

There's something about Mojave that just attracts the strangest-looking aircraft. And it's not enough that we create our own here, even the transient aircraft that stop by have that futuristic, spacey look, like this Canadian-registered Seawind 3000 amphibian that took off this morning.

The Seawind 3000 was originally a kit-plane, although sales of kits have ceased as the company, Seawind LLC of Kimberton PA, attempted to get a production version, the 300C, certified and into production. Unfortunately, the fatal crash of the flight test aircraft in August 2007, as well as funding issues, threatened to cancel the project. In late 2008, the company announced that additional funding had been secured, so we'll see if this unusual seaplane makes it into production. In the meantime, it was certainly a delight to see this one here in the desert.