Storm Aviation Sea Storm

The Sea Storm is an Italian homebuilt amphibious flying boat that was designed and produced by Storm Aircraft of Sabaudia. Storm Aircraft was originally called SG Aviation srl. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.

Design and development
The Sea Storm features a cantilever shoulder-wing, a two-seats-in-side-by-side configuration, with four seats optional, an enclosed cockpit under a hinged canopy, retractable conventional landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration. There are two small airfoil sponsons for water balance mounted low on the fuselage. The aircraft has a highly swept fin and rudder.

The aircraft wings are made from aluminum sheet with some fibreglass parts, while the hull is composite. Its 9.24 m span wing mounts large flaps and has a wing area of 12.25 m2. The cabin width is 125 cm. The acceptable power range is 100 to 260 hp and the standard engine used is the 115 hp Lycoming O-235 powerplant.

The Sea Storm has a typical empty weight of 309 kg and a gross weight of 609 kg, giving a useful load of 300 kg. With full fuel of 100 L the payload for pilot, passenger and baggage is 229 kg.

The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off on land with a 115 hp engine is 122 m and the landing roll is 145 m. On the water the take-off run is 250 m and the landing run is 189 m for the two place version.

The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit as 700 hours or 550 hours from the quick-build kit.

Operational history
By 1998 the company reported that 25 kits had been sold and 12 aircraft were completed and flying.

In February 2014 one example was registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration, although two had been registered at one time.