Sponson

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Sponson

Sponsons are projections from the sides of a watercraft

Watercraft

A watercraft is a vehicle, vessel or craft designed to move across water, including saltwater and freshwater, for pleasure, recreation, physical exercise, commerce, transport and military missions....
, for protection, stability, or the mounting of equipment such as armaments or lifeboats, etc.

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Sponsons are projections from the sides of a watercraft

Watercraft

Waterline

The waterline is an imaginary line marking the level at which a ship or boat floats in the water. To an observer on the ship the water appears to rise or fall against the Hull ....
and serve to increase flotation or add lift when underway.

Sponsons are commonly used on jetskis and other personal watercraft such as canoe

Canoe

A canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes usually are pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be covered....
s to provide either additional buoyancy and thus stability against capsize, or hydrodynamic forces to resist capsize. They can often be easily attached to an existing craft in order to improve its stability.

They are far less common on ships than such stabilizing means as pontoons

Pontoon (boat)

A pontoon is a flat-bottomed boat or the floats used to support a structure on water. It may be simply constructed from closed cylinder s such as pipes or barrels or fabricated as boxes from metal or concrete....
, outrigger

Outrigger

An outrigger is a part of a boat's rigging which is rigid and extends beyond the side or gunwale of a boat.In an outrigger canoe or bangka and in sailboats such as the proa, an outrigger is a thin, long, solid, hull used to stabilise an inherently unstable main hull....
s, and dual hulls due to their comparatively poor performance in stabilizing large hulls. Sponsons are sometimes added to improve stability when ships are modified.

Sponsons are used on the fuselages of flying boat

Flying boat

A flying boat is a specialised form of aircraft that is designed to take off from and land on water, using its fuselage as a floating Hull . Such aircraft are sometimes stabilised on water by underwing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage....
s. They take the form of a short wing which when travelling through the water provides hydrodynamic stability during take off and landing.

Sponsons on helicopters are short wings used to provide additional lift when in forward flight. They are often used in larger helicopters where the internal space of the sponson can be used for fuel or to house landing gear without reducing cargo or passenger space in the fuselage as, for example, with the Sikorsky S-92

Sikorsky S-92

The Sikorsky S-92 is a four-bladed twin-engine medium-lift helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft for the civil and military helicopter market....
.

The term "sponson" for armament mounting is sometimes used for land vehicles, such as the WWI Mark I tank. In the case of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which doubles as a troop transport and armament platform, the sponson refers to the aspect of the vehicle body directly over the tracks and includes layers of hardened, bullet-proof materials to protect the occupants. It is also used as a storage space for both vehicle equipment and components, and either ammunition or crew belongings.