Richard Riley wrote:
On Sat, 16 Sep 2006 18:51:57 -0500, "dlevy" wrote:

Wouldn't it be cool to retract conventional floats?

Cool? I guess.

It would be complex - probably significantly more complex than
retracable landing gear. I'm not sure you'd actually save any drag.
Floats are big, when compared to the fuselage. So you'd have to
increase the size of the fuselage to contain them when they retract.

You'd reduce your wetted area some. Weight would go up. My guess is
you'd end up with an airplane that wasn't any faster.

OTOH, you could think of a flying boat as one with the floats
permanantly retracted and faired in.

Richard, just thinking offhand here, with two glasses of a sweet red
wine, and counting.

Think of the Dyke Delta's gear retraction, with two sets of legs.
Instead of pulling wheels into the fuselage, pull a set of floats up.
They could be semi-hidden in the fuselage to decrease the wetted area.