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An 'amphibious' or 'amphibian aircraft' is an aircraft that can land on either land or water.
An amphibian is a defined as a flying boat or floatplane with wheels.
Floatplanes are common in today's marketplace, as true amphibians have not been built in forty years.
An example of a true amphibian is the Grumman Goose, a flying boat, designed and built in the mid 1930's.
Aircraft originally designed to land on the ground, if an amphibious version is desired, will be challenged by extra drag and weight of aftermarket floats. It is highly unusual for a land based aircraft to have a fuselage which can be modified and strengthened to land on water. Amphibious aircraft which are based originally on land aircraft are usually not flying boats, therefore, but float planes.

Amphibian aircraft have their uses, not least as transport aircraft in remote areas, where there are few airstrips but plenty of lakes and rivers.
Amphibian aircraft are heavier, more complex and more expensive to buy and run than comparable landplanes but they are very versatile. And yet, on the whole, are cheaper to buy and operate, and simpler than helicopters that compete for the same types of jobs, if not quite as versatile. Amphibious aircraft have longer range than comparable helicopters, as an aircraft's wing is more efficient than a helicopter's lifting rotor.
The flying boat-style amphibian can have nearly the range of land-only aerpplanes.^[1] As mentioned above, seaplanes with floats have shorter range due to extra drag and weight of external floats and supporting structures connecting floats and the airplane. The Grumman Goose has been designed with retractable floats which also act as "winglets." These operate in the same manner as today's commercial airliners with winglets reducing drag and aiding in fuel savings.
Few flying boats are manufactured today but numerous land aircraft are, each year, converted to seaplanes (or amphibious aircraft) by exchanging their fixed landing gear for (amphibious) floats. A handful of manufacturers around the world still produce amphibian aircraft (flying boats with retractable landing gear), such as the Bombardier 415 and Lake Aircraft and the ultralight SeaMax but their numbers are dwindling. A new entrant to the marketplace is Antilles Seaplanes, who own the rights, blueprints and STCs, offering a newly manufactured and updated Goose in both gas and turbined powered options.
There are also several experimental/kit amphibians like the
Glass Goose, Seawind, and the Seastar.

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See also

References

See also

★ California Amphibious Paradise

★ Antilles Seaplanes

★ Beriev

★ List of seaplanes and flying boats

★ Seaplane

★ Flying boat

★ Ekranoplan

References

1. Antilles Seaplanes