> Like similar “Type A” WIGs, the Viceroy’s preferred altitude is about half the length of its 19.8-meter wingspan, so 10 meters above the water. Much above that and a WIG can no longer exploit its aerodynamic edge, and loses stability.
I really want something like this to work, ideally so successfully that it keeps scaling up. Theres such beautiful aerodynamic efficiency from WIG.
Also a huge fan of what looks like a very smart lift generating blown wing, which also could really help this get out of the water fast, give it good efficiency
Regulatory arbitrage is part of the value.
There are hard scale issues. The wings must remain close to the water for ground effect to be a thing. But the thing still needs to bank to turn. That means one wingtip getting higher to the point it can lose GE lift, and the other lower to the point it might strike a bigger-than-average wave. The longer the wings, the less the craft can bank in a turn. Get too large and in-ground-effect flight becomes impractical/dangerous.
I wonder how much turning you could get just from adjusting motors. Especially if each of those 12 motors can individually adjust, I'd imagine you could get some decent yaw.
Also as per the quote which helpfully points out, WIG is typically flying half it's wing height. Since wingspan and altitude are thus linearly corresponded I'm not not sure (not convinced either way) that there's a problem (or not) from wingspan.
RCtestflight has a bunch of cool ground effect videos.
I wonder how many of these will survive the bursting tech bubble?
[1] https://www.metstrade.com/news/sustainability/record-hunters...
And comfort. With a 1.5m swell, you're gonna feel that in a boat. A hydrofoil will still go up and down.
Whereas a ground-effect vehicle is still flying, so a lot smoother.
I see this as more applicable in areas coastal metro areas with sheltered waterways and existing ferry systems.