In this column, we're particularly keen on, how to call them, flying-floating shell-ish constructions with wings (and sometimes wheels, too)?

Whatever their correct name might be - amphibious airliners? - we mentioned 15 of them up-to-date, including seaplanes on floats, all of them, interestingly, multi-engine (up to 12 in the case of Dornier X!).

"Wait a sec!" one could remark vigorously, "what about single-engine 'air yachts'?!"

Indeed, such innovation was developed in the US as "executive aircraft," but was also used as air taxis or for "regular" commuting (think of it next time you find yourself inside a cramped bus). That said, these were never a thing in Europe, and only a single unit is preserved as a museum exhibit, the Loening Air Yacht C2C.

In the summer of 1935, the Norwegian Thor Solberg together with the American Paul Oscanyon, who operated the radio, completed the first-ever America-to-Norway flight. By going through Greenland, Iceland, and the Faeroe Islands, the craft, christened Leiv Eiriksson, followed the footsteps of the Vikings. The trip took a mere month to complete, at least when compared to Leif Erikson, a Viking ship replica, which needed 79 days in 1926.

Since 1960, Leiv Eiriksson has been peacefully resting its wings, wheels, and air-filled underbelly in the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo.