The Eastman E-2 Sea Rover, also called the Beasley-Eastman E-2 Sea Rover, was a light seaplane built in the late 1920s for business and shuttle use.
The E-2 was designed by former Ford engineer Thomas Towle for industrialist Jim Eastman of Eastman Laboratories. Towle was in the process of starting his own company, the Towle Marine Aircraft Engineering to produce his twin-engine amphibian design, the Towle WC. Eastman founded the Eastman Aircraft Corporation of Detroit to build the E-2 [1]
The prototype E-2 was flown with a single 900NaN0 Anzani 6 engine. The production model was outfitted with a 1200NaN0 Warner Scarab. The E-2 received type certificate #338 on 17 July 1930 [2] By the end of 1929 Eastman Aircraft had been merged into the Detroit Aircraft Corporation.
The E-2 used a wooden hull with aluminium cladding. The aircraft used a parasol wing supported by large V-struts with secondary lower shoulder wings with tip floats at the ends. The single engine was mounted in the center of the wing root of the upper wing with a rear teardrop fairing.[3]
An E-2 is on display at the British Columbia Aviation Museum. It is a composite made up of the wreckages three E-2s recovered throughout British Columbia.[4] [5]