Hydroski Testing films

[SSgt Baloo]

I've been looking into novel means for unsticking my seaplanes so they can accelerate to flight speed from the water. This is very inspirational.

https://youtu.be/yolgS1bn7P8

[Shpaget]

When facing such problems, I usually ask myself "Why haven't they done that?". So, why don't seaplanes have such hydrofoils? If it was a significant improvement over a regular flying boat body it would be present. Since it is not present on modern seaplanes, you'll have to find the answer to the question "What's wrong with it?":

[SomeGuy123]

10 hours ago, Shpaget said:

When facing such problems, I usually ask myself "Why haven't they done that?". So, why don't seaplanes have such hydrofoils? If it was a significant improvement over a regular flying boat body it would be present. Since it is not present on modern seaplanes, you'll have to find the answer to the question "What's wrong with it?":

It could be that there is nothing wrong with it other than a lack of market size and money.

Private aviation prop planes now cost a quarter million dollars new and they mostly still use engines with manual fuel/air mixture controls.  The actual engines are these air cooled rotary things that look like something out of an old movie.  I agree, the ski looks like a no-brainer.

Edited December 27, 2015 by SomeGuy123

[Scotius]

Probably there is not much of a market for these things - and so there is no money for research and development cycle. Modern planes have enough range to do transoceanic flight in one go. Smaller "puddle jumpers" that are most useable in environments like Alaska, Siberia of Finland (lots of lakes and rivers) are apparently good enough already at what they do.

[SSgt Baloo]

I have been experimenting and getting mixed results. A design that works well for one airframe is a disaster on another. The successes are quite encouraging.

[SSgt Baloo]

This is the plane that started the inquiry. Without the foils on the forward parts of the fuselage, the pictured plane could not gain enough speed to take off. With the addition of them, the front lifted far enough out of the water that the reduced drag allowed the plane to then accelerate to flight speed. I tried this sort of foil on several different designs and they didn't work very well for most of them.

Edited December 27, 2015 by SSgt Baloo