Ditching is still a big issue in airplane certification. FAR/JAR 25.801 requests any airplane certified for flying water routes to be capable of ditching. This must be demonstrated by model tests or by comparison with other types of known behaviour.
Some of the knowledge might be found in the
NACA Report 1 or the
NACA Report 2,
additional experience exists from a few succesfull water landings with different type of piston driven Bombers (lots of them ditched during WWII, mainly in the Pacific), piston driven passenger transport (e.g.
Boeing 307 ) and some jets (e.g. 707, DC9, Comet/Nimrod).
Sick,
although the 146 fuselage will make a perfect boat, evacuation of the cabin is not that easy. Reading the safety card in one, I now know that the two aft exits are under water when a 146 is floating, so you just have the two front ones aviable. And they might be damaged by the Impact. Personally I don´t want to try ditching this type.
But maybe the chance of ditching a 146 after an engine failure might be even less probable if you add two more engines
