Here's a link to a series of photos and descriptions of a number of WW II era airplanes that were at least flight tested on floats and skis.....pretty remarkable collection of photos: http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/ ... heels.aspx

MTV

Great find MTV!

Neat to see the "ski pants" on several of those old aircraft. I often wonder why so many current ski designs employ upswept thin broad ski tips, as this is about the most horrible arrangement aerodynamically. For laminated wood, it makes sense, but for composite skis, bonded upper shells would offer great advantages.

mtv wrote:Here's a link to a series of photos and descriptions of a number of WW II era airplanes that were at least flight tested on floats and skis.....pretty remarkable collection of photos: http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/ ... heels.aspx

MTV

Great find! It's going to take a while to make it all the way through that!

Very interesting. With my limited experience on floats, I'm surprised that the float-equipped airplanes' performance was still adequate enough for military service to pursue all the testing on various airplanes. All I've flown so far is a stock 160hp 172 and the modified 180hp 172 with CS prop I trained in, both on straight floats. The 160hp version was most affected--cruise was easily 15 knots slower than when on wheels. The hot rod version was about 10 knots slower than my airplane, which is a near clone on wheels. Both of them were a bit truck-like in flight, compared to other 172s, with greater longitudinal stability.

Now I have a question for the ski-plane experts here. Is it practical at all to put skis on a trike like my P172D? I've never flown on skis, but retractable skis would be a consideration, if they're practical at all on a trike.

Cary

That was brilliant, what simply amazing photos!

Lots of skis there!
http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/ ... heels.aspx

Cary,

In response to your question regarding tri gear planes on skis, yes, the 172 can be converted to skis. In fact, I've flown 172 and 182 on straight skis, and 206s on retractable skis.

If you can't go with straight skis (not many places in the lower 48 you can) then you're left with either penetration skis or with hydraulic retractable skis. You'll find that hydraulic retractables are VERY expensive (I haven't priced new ones lately, but for a tri gear, I'd bet you're looking at close to $20 new) and VERY heavy. For a 172, both those are serious impediments.

For a pair of penetration skis, you're looking at somewhere around 100 to 120 pounds additional weight just on the mains. Now add a 30 to 50 pound nose ski......

But, it can and has been done.

MTV

WOW!! Ditto the 'cool find' comments, Mike. I especially like the Spitfires on floats and the Ryan Recruit. Always liked both of these planes but definitely have a better 'cool' factor on floats.

I once had the pleasure of dining with the gentleman who did all the initial flight testing of the C-130 Hercules on skis. He was an Air Force pilot at the time. The flight testing was all done at Bemidji, with many landings on Lake Bemidji. This was all in the 50s. The purpose of this development program was to use these transport aircraft to fly in the parts of the D.E.W. Line radar sites that were to be located on the Greenland Ice cap.

He then flew the lead aircraft, fully loaded, and made the first "real" landing on the Greenland ice cap.....with a full load of building materials. He said it was a full out white out condition, so they just set up as if landing on glassy water, skis down, flaps set for landing, and flew it on. And, that's where the first site was located....more or less where the AF wanted it....

Then the second Herc landed nearby, and hit a large chunk of ice, which wiped off one main ski and landing gear......but, the good news was that the second airplane carried a small bulldozer, which was then used to build an ice runway.

They made dozens of trips in there after that, basing out of one of the airports on the coast of Greenland.

Amazing things done in those days.....

And, yeah, I'd like to get some time in a float equipped Spitfire......or a ski equipped Mustang for that matter.

If you're interested, do a search of that web site from the link I posted.....Canadian warplane heritage. You can subscribe to their newsletters, which contain such jewels as this one.

MTV