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Plane Flies 18" Over Water at 180 MPH
Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:02 pm
by [Syl]
inventorspot.com/articles/plane_flies_inches_over_water_5661
Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:12 pm
by dlbpharmd
Fascinating.
Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:25 pm
by Cail
Very cool.
Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:53 pm
by Gil galad
That's pretty interesting, i wouldn't like to be flying in it over choppy water though.
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:37 pm
by Nav
Oh those Russian Ekranoplans were awesome machines, it's a shame they've been left to decay the way they have. I'm not sure how Ground Effect is influenced by big waves; whether the craft would happily fly over/through them or if the changes in air pressure would destabilise it. Certainly, I think flying one over the Southern Ocean would be out but certain routes across the Atlantic might be feasible.
IIRC, one of the major problems with planes like this was that they needed a tremendous amount of power to lift them out of the water, then comparitively little to keep them there. All that extra engine weight must've cut into their efficiency some. I believe that a company in the States makes little ekranoplan type-planes that are available commercially. Sort of like a really expensive, and probably rather dangerous, speedboat.