An amphibious seaplane, one of the Sherut Avir's first ten planes. In 1937 a pair of pilots planned a small amphibious plane with a rear mounted engine. Due to financial difficulties, the prototype did not fly until seven years later, in July of 1944.
Technically, the plane was a success, but it failed commercially, initially: the price tag was too high. Modifications were made, production costs were reduced, and the plane's price dropped from a whopping $12,000 to just $3,500. The SeaBee began selling well, and turned into a hit, with almost ten planes being sold every day.
A SeaBee that had been purchased by an American lawyer was donated to 'Aviron' - a private Israeli aviation company. It arrived disassembled, and was reassembled at Lod. However - the assembly was not carried out properly (the mechanics had no prior experience with this plane) and when Moddy Alon - commander of the First Combat Squadron - tried to land the SeaBee on water, the plane's landing floats broke.
From that day onwards, the SeaBee had to content itself with landing on terra firma. The IAF's lone SeaBee was destroyed in the Egyptian bombing of Sde Dov in northern Tel Aviv.