Quote:
Originally Posted by RogerBW
I do think you'd see more development of retractable floats for long-range and fighter aircraft than happened historically, and you might get the occasional ZLT experiment for land-based interceptors (rocket rails, etc.).
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It's probably worth remembering that c. 1930 the fastest airplanes in he world were the float-plane racers of the Schneider Cup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider_Trophy
These happened to include the progenitor of the Spitfire. so at least for short-range fighters you're not looking at that much performance loss.
Many designs primarily intended for land use had floats that could be added, including the DC-3.
Also, just before and mostly into WWII the largest airplanes in the world were seaplanes.
In terms of pre-WWII aircraft you're losing very little by going to float-planes and boat-hulled seaplanes.