"Ernest Christley" wrote

Think of the Dyke Delta's gear retraction, with two sets of legs.
Instead of pulling wheels into the fuselage, pull a set of floats up.
They could be semi-hidden in the fuselage to decrease the wetted area.

I'll bet you would not gain as much as you think. If it was half retracted
in the wing, the wetted area would be cut only in half. If it was just
pulled up to the bottom, you would only lose the wetted area of the top of
the float. With the CG relatively far forward on a flying wing, there will
be a lot of float forward of the wing, so even with retracting model, you
will not be able to even get half reduction, since the whole front part of
the float forward of the wing will still be hanging out in the breeze.

The "not gain as much as you think" part comes into play with the fact that
you are going to lose some by gaining interference drag, between the float
and the wing! Sucks, huh

Now imagine another problem. Think of the nose high attitude that the plane
has as it sits on the runway. You don't have that attitude as you are
flying through the air at a bit higher speed, like at pattern speed. Your
floats would be pointed tips down, at an angle of the difference of the
angle of the wing at pattern speed, and the angle of touchdown speed. That
would be a pretty big difference, right? All of that drag would be trying
to pull the nose down, and would no doubt take a ton of power, just to
maintain altitude, I'll bet!

All of that drag would be even a greater problem (I'm theorizing, now) as
you slowed for touchdown. Just as you are trying to pull the nose up, the
slower speed means you are starting to lose elevon effectiveness, and you
might not be able to get the nose to stay up.

Are you a sailing man? If you are, you will know the meaning of the word
"pitchpole." If not, it is when the tip of a hull (usually in reference to
a catamaran hull) digs into the water at a "hearty" speed, in your case
because you could not keep the nose up. The result is a forward, rapid,
uncontrolled somersault! Ouch! (at least! ) g

Fun thought problem, huh?
--
Jim in NC