Amphibious Aircraft

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! An amphibious or amphibian aircraft is an aircraft that can take off and land on either land or water. All Amphibian aircraft are thus classified both as seaplanes and make up the rarest subclass of seaplanes. Like all seaplanes, Amphibious aircraft are typically flying boats and floatplanes but while their major physical attributes are those placing them within those broad classes, amphibians are also engineered with retractable wheels making them amphibious at the expense of extra weight and complexity, plus diminished range and fuel economy factors comparative to planes specialized for land or water only. While floatplanes sometimes have floats that are interchangeable with wheeled landing gear, it is rare for a floatplane to successfully incorporate retractable wheels whilst retaining its floats, the Grumman J2F Duck would be a notable example of one exception which does. Some amphibian floatplanes, such as the amphibian version of the Cessna Caravan, incorporate retractable wheels within their floats.... Mehr