Flying Boat

The 2-man flying boat is produced by Polaris Motor, the first Italian producer of hang gliders and ultralights.

Since 1987 more than 1000 units have been sold around the world (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, Red Sea, Argentina, Madagascar, USA etc.) Toyota bought 80 FIBS, many units operate from tourist resorts, and are on maxi yachts. The navy seals of Singapore use FIB's for special missions. 

Greenpace has two FIB's and used them during the French nuclear testing .

The strength of the FIB is given by his simplicity: in only 10 hours of flight lesson you are perfectly capable of flying in safety. 

Technical features

FIB 503 is equipped as follows : Rotax 503 two stroke, two cylinder, air cooled, twin ignition, twin or single carburetor, two blade wood propeller with special protection on leading edge, wing single surface 19.6 sqmt.

The FIB's is designed to fly on all water surfaces including the sea which is the largest runway available in the world.

The pontoon's system, popular in the ultralight field, was not found safe and seaworthy for a weight shifting machine. It's well known that a single hull seaplane has better performances in rough sea than the conventional pontoon's like the catamaran style . 
For this reason the most popular seaplanes in the world are all single hull : like the Catalina, the Canadair, and more .

After two years of testing Polaris Motor chose a specially made RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) for floating, that permitted safe take off and landings even in fairly rough sea. 
The boat jumps from one wave to another with out any problems till it reaches it's take of speed. 
The boat also protects the whole machine (including the propeller) from the water during take off with big waves, leaving the pilot, passenger, and engine 100% dry. In case of very bad landings, the boat slips around avoiding capsizing and relative damages .

Compared to a machine equipped with pontoon catamaran style, the inflatable boat has a more naturally aerodynamic shape that reduces the drag in the air and does not interfere negatively with the control of the aircraft. 
For this reason the FIB allows take off and landing up to sea strength 3/4 without any problems. 
Without a wing FIB is a very fast airboat. 
With the wheel kit the FIB can be transformed in few minutes in a land trike to fly in land or, with ski, on ice and snow. 
The fiberglass hull of the RIB is specially designed for surfing fast with low power, this allows the FIB to reach the take-off speed in a very short run. 
It's easy to understand that the FIB is very safe while taxiing in water to reach take off and landing areas, and has many advantages if compared to other sea ultralights : transport on a little trailer, storage, parking on beaches, docks etc.