Talk:Type 2 Large Flying Boat/@comment-5492702-20150428130856/@comment-20059377-20150428151731

Seaplanes are little planes (single-engines) which have floats instead of landing gear. Flying boats are huge planes with a hull with the bottom shaped like a boat. The H8K had a crew of ten, to give an illustration.

http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/469717-4/H8K-27s  <- size comparison

The float planes also had those floats taken off when they were stowed and so on, so they got much smaller.

Float plane tenders couldn't berth, maintain or supply something that big, whilst flying boat tenders couldn't deal with many small charges at once.