oldtimer Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 Seti, if I could skim 10 feet over the ocean from land mass to land mass, I would consider myself to be flying. Damn that would be cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 Apparently, it was designed to fly about 3 metres/10 feet above the water, but turned out to be most efficient around 20 metres/67 feet up. In application, it's more a very fast boat than an airplane. They could be useful in ferry service. Lots of info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle You often see seabirds using the same effect when they fly a few feet above the waves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscarsear Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 This page has info about the ones built... only supposed to fly a three meters above the water. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle This is correct. I saw some program on these awhile ago. They were supposed to be ultrafast troop transport sea going vehicles. The idea was to get just safely above the waves and go like hell for a relatively short distance. It is the same context as our Navies huge hovercraft transports but with obvious design limitations. I think the USSR executed the guy who convinced them to fund this fiasco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 So in stormy seas, are the big waves like big jumps for these ground effect vehicles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 So in stormy seas, are the big waves like big jumps for these ground effect vehicles? Hell yeah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted March 10, 2010 Author Share Posted March 10, 2010 yeh. Imagine that ride. Flying just above the water at 400mph. woo hoo! That big rascal also has forward and rear gunner placements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 Seti, if I could skim 10 feet over the ocean from land mass to land mass, I would consider myself to be flying. *** that would be cool! until you hit an object on a land mass greater than 10 feet in height from sea level. Then it would be painful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 That's what they mean by a hard crash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 It flew. I saw it on the History Channel. It only flies in ground effect, a few feet off of the surface. You get more lift per angle of attack degree in ground effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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