It was the start of a line of very similar aircraft designed by David Thurston.

In 1946 David Thurston established the Colonial Aircraft Corporation at Sanford Maine to build his design for a small amphibian flying boat, the Skimmer.

The resulting design was an all-metal shoulder-wing cantilever monoplane with a single-step hull and stabilizing floats fitted under each wing.

The Avco Lycoming engine with a pusher propeller was pylon-mounted above and aft of the enclosed cockpit.

The prototype XC-1 Skimmer first flew on July 17, 1948, powered by a 115 hp (86 kW) Lycoming O-235 engine, but was later re-engined with a 125 hp (93 kW) Lycoming O-290 engine.