Compared with land aircraft and helicopter, amphibious aircraft has its unique advantages and wide application prospects. During the design, in order to ensure the normal use of amphibious aircraft under the water environment, it is necessary to carry out sufficient structural strength design according to the hydrodynamic load induced by the water movement so as to ensure the integrity of the structure. This paper mainly focuses on the development demand of amphibious aircraft, the research status and technical progress on the design and validation of aircraft hydrodynamic load at home and abroad. The researches of wedge model simulation, wave model simulation, water surface effect simulation, whole aircraft model simulation and scaled model test in the development of Chinese large amphibious aircraft are introduced, and the development trend of hydroelastic design for amphibious aircraft is also discussed.