Purpose of coloured, slanted lines on a seaplane

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

Originally Posted by Kutscha

Sergio, amphibian a/c have wheels that can be lowered for movement on land like this PBY, http://www.warbirds-eaa.org/images/pby_lg.jpg .

That´s correct, but how you call the earlier ones without the wheels? First PBY models had no wheels. Now I remember in Brasil we call Aerobote or Flying Boat.