Eli5: how do water bombers not noseplant when refilling in a body of water?

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Water landings are said to be near impossible to pull off for anything but hydroplanes (see also: the Hudson miracle) and yet water bombers do it as a matter of routine. How do they keep from crashing (or at least, losing so much speed that they can’t just climb again after scooping up the water) as soon as they hit water?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s very much about engineering and practice. Weight and balance matters, but it also matters which surfaces touch the water first (or at all), and engineering the plane so that those surfaces don’t catch too much resistance and flip things around is pretty critical. Like landing gear on a normal plane, you put the right equipment in the right places. And there’s also training and procedures; you land *differently* on water than on land. If you don’t know what you’re doing it goes… poorly.

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