• Welcome aboard HomebuiltAirplanes.com, your destination for connecting with a thriving community of more than 10,000 active members, all passionate about home-built aviation. Dive into our comprehensive repository of knowledge, exchange technical insights, arrange get-togethers, and trade aircrafts/parts with like-minded enthusiasts. Unearth a wide-ranging collection of general and kit plane aviation subjects, enriched with engaging imagery, in-depth technical manuals, and rare archives.

    For a nominal fee of $99.99/year or $12.99/month, you can immerse yourself in this dynamic community and unparalleled treasure-trove of aviation knowledge.

    Embark on your journey now!

    Click Here to Become a Premium Member and Experience Homebuilt Airplanes to the Fullest!

Float design safety

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Doggzilla

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2013
Messages
2,352
Location
Everywhere USA
Was recently watching a video of a ground effect aircraft skimming the water on a lake and it occurred to me how the design of most floats is unstable after a crash and could drown an unconscious pilot.

Consider this...

If you take a float aircraft and turn it sideways and drop it in water... what happens?

For most aircrafts the top half would sink, since that’s the heavy half, and the bottom half would float due to having the floats attached.

A quick google shows this is quite common in float plane crashes.

Landing on any side but the bottom of the floats will likely invert the aircraft and leave it floats upward.

What solutions are available for this?

Personally I believe adding a small floats similar to a large head rest would greatly reduce the threat. This would result in a sunken aircraft turning sideways and not being completely inverted by the floats. Not perfect, but definitely superior to being completely inverted. Especially as it would give vastly better access to any boaters acting as rescuers.
 
Back
Top