Grumman Wildcat on floats !!!

[ccheese]

Didja know ? Grumman decided to put the F4F-3 "Wildcat" on floats, and designated it the F4F-3S, "Wildcatfish".

There was a Spitfire on floats, a Ju-52 and a C-47, a Beech-18 (aka C-45), a Zero and a bf-109 on floats, and a Staggerwing, too.
I suppose, if you have the time, money ard equipment, you could put a P-38 on floats !!

Wonder what else wound up on floats ?????

Charles

 

[meatloaf109]

That is too cool!

 

[Airframes]

One of the few times sticking whacking great floats on the underside of an aircraft has improved the look! (goes off, whistling tunelessly ....)

 

[tyrodtom]

There was a test version of the P-38 designed for floats, had the tail raised about 16-18 inches to keep it out of the salt spray.
The high tailed version was tested, but floats were never fitted.

 

[N4521U]

Floats only work with Root Beer!!!!!! IMHO.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Always thought what they called it was ingenious!

My favorite is when the Martin B-12 was put on floats:

 

[gumbyk]

This has to be the best float conversion... the XC-47C!

 

[ccheese]

I've always liked the Beech-18 (aka C-45) on floats. Canada is full of them !

Charles

 

[nuuumannn]

I'd love to go to Canada and check out the floatplanes; Beavers, Otters, Twotters...

 

[johnbr]

Great posts.

 

[fubar57]

Cutting Edge and Just Plane Stuff did a conversion for the 1/48 Tamiya kit years ago though I think they are long out of production. Cutting Edge made the floats and Just Plane Stuff made the non folding wing conversion. Back to work but home tonight.

Geo

 

[herman1rg]

XC-47C Largest floatplane ever? As opposed to a proper seaplane such as the Short Sunderland or Martin Mars

 

[Airframes]

Ju52/3M was also fitted with floats.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

I liked the Staggerwing with floats. But the XC-47 looks at home with them to.

 

[R Pope]

The C-47 floatplane worked well, but loading it through the cargo doors was very difficult due to the height and the fact that the floats were in the way, so although quite a few float kits were built, only the one was ever so fitted.
The p-38 with the high tail was an attempt to stave off the effects of compressibility, not to enable it to accept floats.

 

[gumbyk]

The C-47 floatplane worked well, but loading it through the cargo doors was very difficult due to the height and the fact that the floats were in the way, so although quite a few float kits were built, only the one was ever so fitted.

"Pilots found the C-47C difficult to launch in rough water, and performed like a pogo stick when landing on anything but a mirror smooth body of water. It had a high tire failure on land, and was difficult to handle in a crosswind landing. The C-47C was slow on take-off and JATO bottles did little to improve its performance. It was also about 30 mph slower than its sisters without floats." from: dc3history.org

Actually sounds like it was a bit of a dog.

But, it also looks like there was a DC-3 that was covnverted in the 70's as well.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Today I received in the mail American Combat Planes of the 20th Century by Ray Wagner, and it had a plane on floats I'd never seen before:

The TBD Devastator

 

[Wayne Little]

Cool!

 

[norab]

another odd bird

Helldiver prototype

 

[ccheese]

All good pic's. Like I said, if you have the time, manpower and the funds, you can put (almost) anything on floats.

Charles