Donnet-Lévêque “Flying Fish” Restoration Nearing Completion in Sweden

The Flygvapenmuseum (Air Force Museum) in Linköping, Sweden, just south of Stockholm is reporting significant progress in the restoration it’s 1913 Donnet-Lévêque Type A flying boat. The restoration project is being performed by the Tullingebergsvägen Group, an association of dedicated and highly-skilled enthusiasts who have a workshop located within the former crew mess hall of the Swedish F 18 Wing in Tullingebergsvägen.

The Donnet-Lévêque was originally purchased in 1913 by pioneering aviator, “the flying Baron,” Carl Cederström for his flying school, Scandinavian Aviatik AB who named the craft “Flygfisken” (Flying Fish), applying a fish-scaled motif to the craft; Cederström sold it on to the Swedish Naval Aviation Service (NAS) later that same year. NAS assigned the craft the designation L 11, serial number 10 and it served until 1918, being donated to Stockholm’s Maritime Museum in 1919 before being transferred to the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology in the 1930s where it was on display, hanging from the ceiling until 1983 at which time its condition had deteriorated to such an extent that it was pulled from public view and placed in storage. The Flygvapenmuseum took ownership of the flying fish in 1997 and the restoration project began in 2010.