Roden Aircraft 1/48 Beechcraft SD17S Staggerwing WWII USAAF Floatplane Kit
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ROD-448
With the onset of WWII, and especially after the USA's entry into the war a great number of civil machines were requisitioned by the government for military use. Some float Staggerwings had this fate, along with their land based equivalents, and were given the military designations of GB-1 and GB-2. These airplanes were used both in the mainland USA and in more remote areas of the country, in Alaska. Their active service was quite extensive: they had to look out for potential saboteurs entering the country and their attempts to damage large reservoirs. Certainly, the likelihood of such a situation was small, but it did not diminish the part played by the Staggerwing in military applications.
After the end of the war the former civil, then military, airplanes became mainly civil again, being released by the government to civil aviation once more, to airline companies and private owners. Some Staggerwing floatplanes were being used for commercial purposes as late as the early 1970's.
