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deafsound

deafsound

Line Up and Wait
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i arrrghhmmmmpppth
Think Ekranoplan, not hairpiece.
I'd like to know how those things can get cruising at 500 knots and not smash into a ship or something.
Also, Boeing has a design for one which would have a wingspan of 500 feet, which I suppose means that it would cruise a couple of hundred feet above the water. Sounds safer. I wonder why there aren't more of these wigs around? Seems like a fast way to get a lot of stuff somewhere.
Also, would the FAA be in charge of these things?

http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekranoplan

http://www.se-technology.com/wig/index.php
 
I think the spruce goose was supposed to be an airplane, not a WIG, but it's true that on the goose's only flight, it never got out of ground effect.
 
I wonder if there are issues in rough seas. Wouldn't want to run into a rougue wave at 500 kts.

Pete
 
deafsound said:
I think the spruce goose was supposed to be an airplane, not a WIG, but it's true that on the goose's only flight, it never got out of ground effect.
Click to expand...

Hughes only had legal permission to taxi the Hercules; it would most likely have flown out of ground effect quite well (especially so lightly loaded), but I guess he felt he'd made his point- that it would get on the step and take off- so he'd gotten himself in enough trouble. :D
If he'd been interested in doing a proper test flight later, he'd have probably tried to do it with less fanfare, in case there was a problem. He was already in a lot of hot water with the Feds over delays in the plane's development as well as rumors of war-profiteer corruption surrounding his companies... an emergency or outright crash would have been a big problem.
Or perhaps he'd learned his lesson after almost buying the farm in the amazing but ill-fated XF-11... :rolleyes:

Anyway, as I recall hearing, the test was a success, no major squawks except some minor but worrisome vibration in the tail section, and engineers and others who built, maintained or studied the Goose over the years have claimed it would certainly fly out of GE.

There is a documentary called "Howard Hughes: the Real Aviator" that is pretty bad, but it includes well-restored footage of his Congressional hearings (during which he tears Sen. Brewster a new a**hole with great skill and erudition; way more fun than in the recent movie) ... AND miles of excellent newsreel footage of the test of the Hercules, shot from speedboats, mostly... it's breathtaking. I was sitting there on the edge of my seat waiting to see light between the hull and the water... if I had a time machine, that day and place would be on my list! So sad that he hadn't gotten it together sooner; a (perfected) seagoing leviathan like that early in WWII would have saved many lives lost aboard Allied ships sunk by the enemy.
It's available on DVD... you can rent it from NetFlix.




I think the Russians' passion for huge, very fast WIGs is based on the fact that they have, internally, some very large bodies of water, as well as oodles of relatively flat, frozen tundra (I've heard of proposals to operate WIGs over such terrain, not just water).
 
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I too thought the goose was meant for relatively low flight, but out of Ground Effect.

~ Christopher

P.S. Has anyone seen the Goose in McMinnville? It's a great sight at a great museum.
 
Remember that jets are far more efficient at altitude. That, and the lack of huge bodies of smooth water in/near the USA means that the planes would have a limited market and would be less fuel efficient running along in ground effect. (OK, I know that drag reduces in ground effect but I don't know if it reduces enough to permit efficient operations.)

Build a WIG, and you can go between specific ports of call. Build an airplane, and you can go to any airport in the world. (Fuel permitting).

-Skip
 
jwriteclub said:
P.S. Has anyone seen the Goose in McMinnville? It's a great sight at a great museum.
Click to expand...
Saw the SG in Long Beach many years ago. Awesome.

And my question on WIGs is how they turn? You can't bank them very much at these low altitudes, so the old horizontal component of lift answer would meet some difficulty. Plus, I note that Boeing's Pelican has downward sloping wings, further reducing the clearance.
 
Well, they shouldn't really be thought of as an aircraft. I have seen some designs that leave a small "tail" in the water for low speed maneuvering. At high speeds, they probably turn very, very slowly, with only a tiny component of horizontal lift. They've got a lot of room to turn thought, so it all works out.

~ Christopher
 
jwriteclub said:
Well, they shouldn't really be thought of as an aircraft. I have seen some designs that leave a small "tail" in the water for low speed maneuvering. At high speeds, they probably turn very, very slowly, with only a tiny component of horizontal lift. They've got a lot of room to turn thought, so it all works out.

~ Christopher
Click to expand...
Yeah, I guess most of the maneuvering they do is at low speeds near the port, where they're more like a boat. Of course, I pity the poor fool of a tanker who happens to be right in their path at full speed! So they have to have SOME maneuverability while in "flight".
 
If you examine some of the linked pictures closely, you'll notice that they are a bit banked, and apparently turning in a couple.

~ Christopher
 
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