The Hover-Wing HoverCraft Combo

[Bob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FElrrUEQwzs

These things are kits or pre-assembled. Works up to about 10 foot up in the air (but it is classified as a 'boat'), and can travel quite fast, bypassing waves, and can go in calm water in hover-craft mode.

VTOL's are another project to look at (like the little drones with 8 propellers, but with a much larger payload driven by gas/electric genset systems...) another research project in the works - timing TBD :)

For now anyone needing to rapidly get from place to place over nasty conditions, such as water or swamps, this sure looks like it may be a way to go.

[KiwiElf]

A Kiwi farmer built a prototype of this in his garage many years ago, using a modified inflatable raft (the whole thing was inflatable!), but without the vertical thrust or ducted fan (ie it had an unshrouded prop and a longer wingspan). These are quite a bit larger & more sophisticated ;)

EDIT: Here you go - this is the much more refined version he built... (in 2010! the earlier version was quite a bit before this and very basic!) :)

6ih_KBru6Co

[ghostrider]

A w e s o m e ... the future , flying /hovering transportation ...

[Bob]

A w e s o m e ... the future , flying /hovering transportation ...

It certainly IS :)

They call it "ground effect" - or there is a cushion of air between the wing and the ground reducing the need for massively large wings.. As long as it stays within that ground effect cushion, the little stubby wings work perfectly. I hear they are a lot of fun to fly, folks saying it feels like you are much higher.. And they can leap small obstacles and get back down to the cushion region..

The wings attach and detach in about 15 minutes, so loading it back up on a trailer is pretty easy.

Pretty sure anyone with a mind for innovating could look at the whole concept and improve upon it. This type of system doesn't have to have a big powerplant to drive it as would an "air turbine" UFO system such as the "avro-car" of the past. These work :)

[ghostrider]

Its only a matter of time before they convert to a different technology and boom flying cars ... Then comes A.I. and a console / hand print or voice command and the machine will drive you to your destination ...

[Alanantic]

Here's a big one! Russian Top Aircraft Lun Class Ekranoplan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjuZGQ3NzN4

[TargeT]

I wonder if a hydrofoil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofoil) + ground effects wings would create a super stable flight... though you'd have a LOT more drag to content with & probably need a larger engine (though the hydrofoil would provide a lot of additional lift).

Seems like these two things should be mixed... I bet you could make an ocean worthy ship.

[Bob]

I wonder if a hydrofoil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofoil) + ground effects wings would create a super stable flight... though you'd have a LOT more drag to content with & probably need a larger engine (though the hydrofoil would provide a lot of additional lift).

Seems like these two things should be mixed... I bet you could make an ocean worthy ship.

That certainly seems like it would make for an amazing vessel, over the waves, rough seas handling.. pull back the hydro-foils, and go to hover mode, use ground effect wings, and enter land, and travel over land.. Land, Sea, Air (sorta)... It would be a lot of fun trying it ! Something to consider, if one installs a micro or nano-bubbler on the hydrofoils (so the surface is covered with microbubbles continually), the resistance would be diminished immensely, and I think the efficiency goes up and engine size would go down, probably be quite acceptable..