Naval Aircraft Factory Giant Boat

The Naval Aircraft Factory Giant Boat, designated GB, was a 1919 project by the Navy's own aircraft factory for a maritime patrol flying boat larger, heavier and longer ranged than any then in existence. The design was a triplane with a wooden hull, steel spars and duralumin ribs, powered by nine 400 horsepower Liberty engines in three triple-engine nacelles that drove huge propellers through shafts and couplings, and it was planned at 70,000 pounds maximum takeoff weight. Labor and funding shortages after World War I slowed the work, the second prototype was canceled, and in 1921 the Navy ended the project with only the hull finished. The incomplete prototype was probably broken up after 1925.