DEDALO seaplane tender

Dédalo was the former German merchant ship Neunfelds, built in England in 1901 and seized by the Spanish Navy in 1918 to compensate the Spanish losses caused by German Navy in WWI. The ship was transformed in 1921 with an installation for balloons at the bow and an internal hangar for the seaplanes, but the lack of a flight deck, turned it into a seaplanes tender instead of a seplanes carrier. The seaplanes took off from the sea and were lowered and uploaded by cranes. In 1925 Dédalo took part in the Alhucemas landings, carrying out bombing and ground support missions within the Rif War’s operations against the Moroccan insurgents. In April 1934, a De la Cierva C-30 autogyro landed and took off from its deck, being the first time that a rotorcraft type aircraft did it in the World. The ship was decommissioned in 1934 and scrapped in 1940.

DEDALO sh gallery and more info