WIGs have been around for many decades, but never really made it to a commercial usable state. Maybe the Airfish 8 will ? Really cool tech though, using wing in ground effect (WIG).
The AirFish 8
Classified as a boat.
What happens if you need a sharp turn to avoid?
The concept has been around for ages (the Soviets built some huge ‘Ekranoplans’ for their Navy), but AFAIK never really took off. It’s a compelling idea for inter-island transport. I wonder why it never got off the ground (or water, as it were).
There has to be some reason why they aren’t around, not a single one, but it’s not clear to me why.
LeSving wrote:
There has to be some reason why they aren’t around, not a single one, but it’s not clear to me why.Economics? How much more expensive would it be to build a proper aircraft? 80 kts at 80 litres/h is of course good for a boat, but not for an aircraft.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Economics? How much more expensive would it be to build a proper aircraft? 80 kts at 80 litres/h is of course good for a boat, but not for an aircraft.
Not really. WIGs need next to no infrastructure so should be ideal for fast inter-island transport in places like the Caribbean, Great Barrier Reef, etc. Also (at least that’s what the video claims), they don’t need pilots to operate them, although I have no idea what kind of training / license would be required. As LeSving says: there has to be some reason they aren’t around.
How do they cope with landing in rough seas? I’m not sure whether they sound all that fun – no view to speak of. As a commercial proposition, perhaps they could be cheaper and safer for island-hopping than ordinary aircraft?
Rough seas are a big problem for seaplanes. Most people are really surprised to find how little wind (or little waves) are needed to stop operations. Accordingly, they work on lakes and rivers, but on the open sea it is severely limited unless it is something huge. A sustained F5 wind will produce a swell taller than the height of that plane.
Peter wrote:
Rough seas are a big problem for seaplanes. Most people are really surprised to find how little wind (or little waves) are needed to stop operations
… is the key. For this craft, I would imagine that two foot high waves or swells would be the upper limit. Certainly more than that would pound the occupants, and be degrading to the structure in the long term. Couple that with the fact that it can’t go high enough to choose a landing area to glide to in the case of engine failure, and in essence, you must fly over your suitable runway the entire route. On many waterways worth flying across, that would be hard to do. You might find sheltered areas near shore to takeoff and land, but the water in the mid crossing could be very rough, and unwelcoming for a forced landing.
To consider one of these for commercial operations, there would be a lot of operational questions to be answered….
Sounds reasonable.
