[Gibbon1]

I think passenger sea planes faded as airports were built and faster piston, later jet aircraft became available.

There are still some large sea planes used for fire fighting service and a few airworthy PBY Catalina's.

See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-415

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_PBY_Catalina

Catalina's were heavily used in WWII for scouting and rescue in the Pacific. There is a partial documentary of some guys flying a Catalina around the world which was cut short when they were forced to abandon it in Saudi Arabia.

[caf]

Catalinas were also used during the war as part of the Australia-England air link, cross the Indian Ocean from Perth to Ceylon.

https://www.qantas.com/travel/airlines/history-catalinas/glo...

[Gibbon1]

I had never heard of that route.

> The flying boats, travelling at about 200km/h, would take an average of 28 hours to complete the journey, but up to 32 hours nine minutes when winds were unfavorable.

Description of flying those was, they were docile but didn't have power assisted controls. Flying one for 30 hours in shifts even must have been brutal.