We took a floatplane to the trail head. Our taciturn guide pointed out that it was this robust aircraft that had helped to open up the wilderness in the Fifties.
Travel by bush plane is so common that Anchorage's Lake Hood Seaplane base is the busiest floatplane base in the world, with about 200 flights passing through each day.
The Reid Flying Submarine (RFS-1) was a true mongrel, constructed by Reid in his spare time using leftover parts from other aircraft and, like Ushakov's design, it was a floatplane.