ground effect vehicles

8/3/2019 Ground Effect Vehicles

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Ground Effect Vehicles: MassTransport Solution for Indian

Coastal Logistics and Coastal

Defense

Presented by

SAPTARSHI BASUOERC


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INTRODUCTION AND PRESENT SENARIO THE VARIOUS HIGH SPEED CRAFT SOLUTIONS THE WIG-GEV DEFINATION AND EXPLANATION.

SPAN DOMINATED GROUND EFFECT VEHICLES.

CHORD DOMINATED GROUND EFFECTVEHICLES.

L/D RATIO AND VARIOUS TYPES OF CURVES.

EFFICIENCY COMPARISION WITH DIFFERENTMODES.

WING STRUCTURE

DRAG HUMP DIAGRAM


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TAKE OFF TAKE OFF SPEED. & TAKE OFF DRAG

MINIMISING TAKE OFF POWER.

POWER AUGMENTATION. STATIC AIR CUSHION

SAFETY , LONGITUDINAL STABILITY

STATIC PITCH STABILITY/ STATIC HEIGHT

STABILITY. CLASSIFICATION OF GEV-WIG.

COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF WIG CRAFTS.

APPLICATION.


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HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT

. Pelican Container Cargo Aircraft BOEING

PHANTOM WORKS. Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeyev Alexander Martin Lippisch Ekranoplans and the transport industry

EFFECT OF ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY MILITARY APPLICATION TECHNO-ECONOMIC FESIBILITY.

CONCLUSION


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THE COUNTRY SOURROUNDED BY ENIMIES.

COASTAL TRADE IS AT THE BRINK OFCOLAPSE.

RISK OF TERRORIST ATTACK.

INFILTRATION VS INVASION THREAT. ILLIGAL ACTIVITIES ON THE COASTLINE.

STRING OF PEARL STRATEGY OF CHINA.

THE REACH OF THE PIRACY DEEPENING INTO

THE INDIAN OCEAN. ENERGY SECURITY OF THE NATION AND THE

PROTECTION OF THE OFFSHORE ASSETS.

CONTINGENCY RESPONSE AND THE MEDIVAC.


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For many centuries man has been travelling over the

worlds seas at ever increasing speeds. Newgenerations of ships are often faster than the onesthey replace.

It is very unlikely that any "conventional" marine craftwill be able to operate at much higher speeds with

acceptable fuel efficiency. The excessive power requirement of high speed

marine craft is mainly caused by viscous drag, wellover 50% of the drag is caused by water friction.

A WIG boat is a boat with wings that cruises justabove the water surface, it is floating on a cushion ofrelatively high-pressure air between its wing and thewater surface. This cushion is created by theaerodynamic interaction between the wing and thesurface, called ground effect


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A Wing-in-Ground effect craft (WIG) is avessel with wings that cruises just abovethe water surface, it is floating on acushion of relatively high-pressure airbetween its wing and the water surface.

Is also known as a WIGE (Wing-in-GroundEffect), or a Wingship.

It is the ultimate low-drag marine craft. It is a very high-speed, sea-based

platform. Some WIG vehicles have the ability to flywithout ground effect as well, butinefficiently as compared to aircraft.


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WIG is an abbreviation of Wing In Ground-effect. AWIG boat can be seen as a crossover between a

hovercraft and an aircraft. It flies just above thesurface, usually the water surface, therefore othersuse the term WISE or WISES (Wing In Surface EffectShip). The Russians use the word Ekranoplan (Ekran =screen, plan = plane), which is also commonly usedin other languages nowadays.

Ever since the beginning of manned flight pilots haveexperienced something strange when landing anaircraft. Just before touchdown it suddenly feels likethe aircraft just does not want to go lower. It justwants to go on and on due to the air that is trappedbetween the wing and the runway, forming an aircushion. The air cushion is best felt in low wingaircraft with large wing areas. This phenomenon iscalled (aerodynamic) ground effect.


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Lift induced drag is due to the generationof lift. The average pressure differencetimes the surface area of the wing isequal to the lift force.

The wingtip vortex causes The energythat is stored in those vortices to be lostand is experienced by the aircraft asdrag.

The amount of induced drag isdependent on the spanwise liftdistribution and the aspect ratio of thewing

A high aspect ratio wing has lowerinduced drag than a low aspect ratio

wing since its wingtip vortices areweaker. Span dominated ground effect, in free air

the vortices around the wing tips havemore space to develop than when theyare bounded by the ground


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The air cushion is created by highpressure that builds up under the wingwhen the ground is approached. This issometimes reffered to as ram effect orram pressure. When the ground distancebecomes very small the air can evenstagnate under the wing, giving thehighest possible pressure, pressure

coefficient unity. The nose suction peek is also somewhat

more pronounced in ground effect, whichindicates that separation is likely to occurat the nose. This has been confirmed bywind tunnel tests.

Ground effect not always increases lift. Itis possible under certain conditions thatlift reduces when an airfoil approaches theground. This is the case when the bottomof the foil is convex and the angle ofincidence is low, in that case a venturi iscreated between the foil and the groundwhere high-speed low-pressure air sucks

the airfoil down


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L/D RATIO AND VARIOUS TYPES OF CURVES The lift increases when the ground is

approached and because of the increasinglift the induced drag may not even

decrease in absolute numbers, but even aslight increase still leads to an increasedL/D ratio.

The L/D ration is commonly used toexpress the efficiency of a vehicle.

The higher this ratio, the higher itsefficiency and the lower its fuelconsumption (for a given weight). As theL/D of a wing increases with decreasingground clearance the craft becomes moreefficient in ground effect

Different transport vehicles can becompared with the Von Karman-Gabriellidiagram. In this diagram the L/D is givenas a function of the speed. Differentvehicles have been indicated in thediagram ranging from a bicycle to the

concorde

The Von Karman - Gabrielli diagram


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EFFICIENCY COMPARISION WITH DIFFERENT MODES Fuel efficiency, the amount of fuel used

per passenger per km, is proportionalto the inverse of the transport

efficiency, which is a measure for theefficiency that is especially suitable forcomparing different types of transportvehicles operating at different speeds.

The cruise power per unit weight,expressed as the P/W ratio is very lowfor WIG boats as compared to otherforms of transport as explained in thegraph below. Full advantage of this

very low power requirement in cruiseflight can only be obtained when theinstalled power comes down towardsthe cruise power so that the enginesrun at their optimum rating at cruise

setting.


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WING STRUCTURE

The commonly known wing sections for aircraft the NACAsections.

A very popular wing section used to be the Clark Y section,because of its flat bottom, which was assumed to be good inground effect.

More recent and advanced WIG designs always have wingsections that have been optimized for that specific craft.

Section is defined in terms of a camber line and a thicknessdistribution

In ground effect the shape of the lower side of the wing is veryimportant. In many cases designers opt for a flat lower sidebecause a convex lower side may in certain situations lead tosuction at the lower side, either hydrodynamic or aerodynamic.A concave bottomed wing section leads to very poorlongitudinal stability: it further exaggerates theabovementioned pitch up tendency


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DRAG HUMP DIAGRAM For WIG boats the drag in the

take-off run is much higher thanthe drag at cruise speed. Thismeans that the engines must besized for take-off and only run onvery low power in cruise,sometimes as low as 30-40%.Although this is an illustration ofthe efficiency of flying in groundeffect, it is not very desirablebecause of the weight and costpenalty.

The extra power cannot be usedfor increasing the cruise speed,since WIG boats, by their nature,have a very limited speed range.For most WIG boats there is amaximum safe speed above whichthey become unstable.

It may be clear that the power mismatch can

be solved by minimizing take-off drag. The

drag during take-off consists of several

contributions, the most significant of whichare the hydrodynamic contributions due to

viscous and wave pattern drag. This wave

becomes higher as the speed increases and

lower as the displacement decreases. As a

result the wave drag has a maximum

somewhere before take-off. This maximum is

sometimes referred to as the hump drag andthe associated speed as the hump speed


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TAKE OFF Takeoff is a very critical regime for the WIG craft. It causes the

transition from the hydrodynamic to the aerodynamic regime.

The hydrodynamic regime has four different phases. Displacement regime

Transition regime

Pure planing

And planing by dynamic support of the power augmentation or air cushion.

To overcome the hump-drag even the best surfaces requireapproximately 2.3 times more power than necessary for groundeffect cruise, thus requirement power for a short time only, whichraises the weight and the operating expenses.

The Russian ekranoplans have been successfully using the poweraugmentation as a take off aid, jet blowing under the bow enginesis deflected under the wing, recreates a lift that decreases the

displacement of the craft. Flugmechanik designers who deflected a small portion of the

propeller stream is deflected and guided between the catamaranhull where a static air cushion is built up. This air cushion supports80% of the weight even when stationary.


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TAKEOFF SPEED. & TAKE OFF DRAG Many regular seaplanes have a sophisticated

wing and flap design for creating as much lift as

possible at take-off in order to reduce the take-offspeed and thus the hydrodynamic loads and drag.

A seaplane can rotate so that the angle of attackat take-off is much higher than that in cruise

flight. This way the lift coefficient at take-off maybe 10 times higher than in cruise flight.

The easiest way to minimize the take-off speed isto design for a low wing loading, but this severely

limits the maximum speed. The maximum contribution is from pressure

under the wing rather than suction over thewings.


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MINIMISING TAKE OFF POWER.

The take-off power is determined by the take-off drag,so the drag must be minimized. Since drag increases

with the speed squared the take-off speed should beminimized.

The drag can only be decreased by optimizing the waythe hull generates its lift or introducing other lift

sources. The two main ways, other than aerodynamics,to carry loads are hydrodynamic lift and aerostatic lift.

Hydrodynamic lift can be generated by the hull, ahydroski or a hydrofoil and aerostatic lift by airinjection (PAR) or a static air cushion.

Some ofthe more recent Russian craft like the Volga-2and the Amphistar have inflatable cushions under thehull and endplates. These cushions are powered by aseparate fan and not only alleviate loads but alsoensure good sealing of the endplates in wavyconditions.
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POWER AUGMENTATION

Power Augmentation (PAR) or air injection is

the principle of a jet or propeller in front ofthe wing that blows under the wing at take-

off.

The cavity under the wing is bounded byendplates and flaps, so that the air is trapped

under the wing. This way the full weight of the

WIG boat can even be lifted at zero forward

speed.

Hydrodynamic friction drag is therefore

theoretically eliminated and consequently the

hump drag is reduced.


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POWER AUGMENTATION Almost all Russian WIG boats employ this

principle and it is very effective, although not

very efficient. Russian ekranoplans, such as the Volga-2 and the

Amphistar show that using propellers a moreefficient PAR system may be possible.

The efficiency of the power augmentation isdifferent for the wings with different aspect ratio.The smaller the aspect ratio more effective thepower augmentation.

In spite of many disadvantages, the poweraugmentation is possibility the only way to securethe take off of the WIG craft (weight > 100 tonne)in rough sea conditions.

STATIC AIR CUSHION


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STATIC AIR CUSHION A very recent development is

the use of a static air cushionfor take-off, similar to SES and

hovercraft. A hovercraft or SES-like static air

cushion is sealed all around andair is injected somewhere in thecavity under the wing.

The Hoverwing uses air fromthe propeller that is captured bya door in the engine pylon topower up the cushion.

In hover mode the green skirtsgo down and the blue doorbehind the propeller opens up,so that air is pushed throughthe blue channels into the cavity

under the body.
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SAFETY , LONGITUDINAL STABILITY Although it may be argued that the safety of a WIG is

excellent since it is always above the runway, this very

same "runway" also presents some potential problems. A WIG needs a certain minimum flying height to be fuel

efficient so it will always fly at the lowest possibleheight, dependent on the actual wave height.

A WIG must either be allowed to strike a wave everynow and then (rigid construction) or fly at a heightwhere it will never meet one and thus be less efficientthan it could be.

Longitudinal stability of vehicles operating in groundeffect is very critical. When not designed properly WIGboats show a potentially dangerous pitch up tendencywhen leaving (strong) ground effect.


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SAFETY , LONGITUDINAL STABILITY The working line of the lift vector of a wing is

located relatively far aft at very small groundclearances and moves forward when climbingout of ground effect. The stability problem canbe overcome by installing a relatively largehorizontal tail.

A WIG boat cannot be stabilized by c.g.movement alone, the location of the c.g. is veryimportant for achieving acceptable longitudinalstability.

Some wing planforms are more stable thanothers, the reversed delta from Lippisch provedto be very good, therefore it has been verypopular lately. Recent research showed thatwing sections with an S-shaped camber line aremore stable than conventional wing sections.Many new designs have such an S-foil.

STATIC PITCH STABILITY/ STATIC HEIGHT STABILITY


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STATIC PITCH STABILITY/ STATIC HEIGHT STABILITY

For a WIG craft in stationary cruise conditionthere must be equilibrium of forces and

moments. In practice this means that the CGmust lie on the working line of the resultingvector of the aerodynamic forces.

In order to remain in this stationary condition any

disturbance must be counteracted with a force ormoment in the opposite direction, so that thecraft returns to its original condition. Thisprinciple is called (static) stability.

A craft can still be unstable in the case that theforces are not sufficient or too big. In this casethe craft is statically stable, but dynamicallyunstable


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STATIC PITCH STABILITY/ STATIC HEIGHT STABILITY Two different movements in the longitudinal direction can be

recognized: pitch and height. For an aircraft height stability is irrelevant.

A WIG craft must be stable in both height and pitch. So after adisturbance not only the pitch angle of the WIG craft, but also the

height above the surface must be restored to their initial values.

An increased pitch angle should be counteracted with a negative

pitching moment. Note that a nose-up pitching moment is positive.

Increased height would indeed lead to a decreased lift and apparently a

stable condition, but the fact that the moment coefficient also changes

due to the height change is not taken into account.

The choice of airfoil and wing planform have a tremendous effect on the

stability margin. The so-called Lippisch planform has proven to be morestable than a square wing. The Lippisch planform is a forward swept

wing with strong taper and negative dihedral, sometimes also called a

reversed delta.


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CLASSIFICATION OF GEV-WIG

The ICAO/IMO classifies the vessel as per the height

of detachment from the surface(water): HSC

TYPE A

TYPE B

TYPE C

The classification of the vessel as per Designfeature:-

1st generation Ekanoplan.

2nd generation Ekanoplan. Lippish

Tandem

Special designs.


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COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF WIG CRAFTS. The potential benefits of WIG boats are:

WIG boats can fulfill the need for increased speed of marine transport and may thus fill thegap between shipping and aviation.

WIG boats achieve high speeds while still maintaining high efficiency, especially whencompared to other high speed marine craft.

Due to the marine nature of WIG boats their operating cost are low as compared to aircraft.

The infrastructural requirements for WIG boats are very low, any existing port is sufficient.

Especially in a wavy sea the comfort level in cruise is very high as compared to other highspeed marine craft.

High load . relative to aircraft (both weight and volume)

Low complexity.

Low operational/maintenance cost.

Low capital cost relative to aircraft.

Low power requirement and Low fuel consumption relative to aircraft.

No wake .

Immune to sea currents.

No sea sickness

On the other hand WIG boats do have their limitations: WIG boats are sensitive to weather conditions such as wave height and wind speed.

WIG technology is not mature yet, so initial WIG boats will not be able to fulfill all thepromises.

Small WIG boats are less efficient than big ones and are even more sensitive to weatherconditions


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COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF WIG CRAFTS.For certain applications the benefits far outweigh the limitations so

that WIG boats are a viable alternative to competing means of

transport. An operator will only seriously consider to operate WIGboats when some conditions and requirements are met :

The characteristics of the WIG boat must match the requirementsfor that specific application and route, so the WIG boat must have(big) advantages over alternatives.

Operation of the WIG boat must be profitable.

The WIG boat must be absolutely safe. Legislation must be clear.

Obvious, but inevitable: WIG boats must be available.

Low sea states


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APPLICATION. In the near future relatively small WIG boats could prove useful as

water taxis in sheltered waters. These 2 to 10 ton craft willaccomodate approximately 6 to 30 people (or an equivalent

amount of freight) and they can operate in waves from 0.25 to 2metre in height. Possible areas where these craft could be operatedare: Sheltered seas like the Baltic and the Medditeranean.

Large lakes like the great lakes in the USA.

Large river deltas like in Brazil and the USA.

Sheltered coastal areas like the Great Barrier reef in Australia. Some archipelagos like in South East Asia and the Caribbean.

Another interesting application for these craft may be thetransportation of perishable goods.

Somewhat larger WIGs could be developed to provide scheduled

passenger and freight services. Areas where these medium sizeWIGs can be operated are the same as the above but their betterseaworthiness allows them to operate almost all year around (up to2-3 m waves). These craft could accommodate 20 to 300passengers and they may weigh up to 100 tons.

S O O G O O


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Just before the second world war someexperimental WIG craft were built in Scandinavia.

It was not until the nineteen-sixties however, thatthe first serious WIG boats were developed. Thecontributions of two individuals were verysignificant: the Russian Rostislav Alexeiev and the

German Alexander Lippisch. They independently worked on WIG technology with

entirely different backgrounds, encountered thesame problems and came to very different solutions.

In the USSR the WIG developments took place at theCentral Hydrofoil Design Bureau (CHDB), lead byAlexeiev.


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Alexeiev received personal support from

Kruchev including virtually unlimited financialresources.

This very important development in WIGhistory lead to the Caspian Sea Monster, a 550

ton military Ekranoplan, only a few years afterthis top secret project was initiated.

The 550 ton KM (Russian abbreviation for

prototype ship) was baptised in 1966. The KM was built in the (at that time) closed

city Gorky, now called Nizhny Novgorod. Noforeigners were allowed there.

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HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT After the experimental craft the Russian ekranoplan

program continued and lead to the most successfull

ekranoplan so far, the 125 ton A.90.125 Orlyonok. TheOrlyonok incorporated many features that had beentested separately in earlier designs: it was amphibious,it had a huge turboprop engine for cruise thrust at thetop of the fin and two turbofans in the nose for air

injection. The most recent large ekranoplan from the former

Soviet Union is the 400 ton Lun which was built in 1987as a missile launcher. It carried six missiles on top ofthe hull.

The second Lun was eventually renamed to Spasatel,the military systems were removed and work started tofinish the craft as a rescue vessel. Unfortunately therewere financial problems and the work had stoppedcompletely by the mid-nineties

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HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT After the collapse of the Soviet Union, developing or

maintaining big ekranoplans became impossible for the

Russians and the design bureaus started focusing onsmaller ekranoplans for non-military use. The CHDBhad already developed the 8 seat Volga-2 in 1985.

The story of Alexeievs western counterpart, Lippisch,also started around 1960. At that time he was asked to

build a very fast boat for Mr. Collins from Collins RadioCompany in the USA.

The boat for Collins, the X-112, was at least asrevolutionary a design with its reversed delta wing and

T-tail. This design proved to be stable and efficient inground effect and although it was succesfully testedand followed up by the X-113, Collins decided to stopthe project and sold the patents to a German companycalled Rhein Flugzeugbau (RFB) which further

developed the reversed delta WIG boat.

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HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT In Germany the military potential for WIG boats was

recognised and RFB was contracted by the Germanmilitary to develop the X-114, requiring it to flywithout ground effect as well as in ground effect. Itbecame apparent that the conflicting requirementsof a WIG boat and an aircraft lead to a compromisewith little advantages and that the true power of

WIG technology lies in staying close to the surface. Hanno Fischer had taken over the project from RFB

and he pursued Lippisch' work at his own companycalled Fischer Flugmechanik. Their two seat Airfisch

3 was a very successful design, which has recentlybeen scaled up to seat 6 passengers. This craft, theFS-8 will soon be series produced by a Singapore-Australian joint venture called Flightship.

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While the Airfisch technology was being made readyfor the market, Fischer was already working on the

next generation of WIG boat with hovercrafttechnology to assist at take-off. The 2 seat hoverwingprototype HW-2VT has been successfully demonstratedmany times and now development continues with a 20seat version.

Although Alexeiev discarded the tandem wing principleafter having tested the SM-1, the concept was laterrediscovered by the German Gnter Jrg. After manyradio controlled models he succeeded in developing a

stable WIG boat with two wings in a tandemarrangement, the first manned craft was the Jrg-II.The tandem WIG boat excels in simplicity and low costand is the most boat-like of all WIG concepts.

Pelican Container Cargo Aircraft
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A concept aircraft currently under

development at Boeings PhantomWorks Research and Developmentunit might be the largest airplane toever fly, but it wont set any altituderecords.

Its called the Pelican and it wouldhave a normal cruising altitude ofonly twenty feet because it uses theconcept ofground effectto achievelift.

Performance specifications say thisground effect vehicle (GEV) will havea wingspan of 150 meters and be ableto carry up to 1,400 tons of cargo.

BOEING PHANTOM WORKS.



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Pelican Container Cargo Aircraft It has a range of 10,000 nautical miles in trans-oceanic

flight. Operating from paved runways, the plane has thirty-eight fuselage-mounted landing gears with seventy-six tires

to distribute the weight. The Pelican is designed to be a hybrid GEV, allowing it to

also fly at higher altitudes up to 20,000 feet. But the rangewould be greatly reduced to 6,500 nautical miles when notusing the ground effect.

Pelican currently stands as the only identified means bywhich the U.S. Army can achieve its deploymenttransformation goals of deploying one division in five days,or five divisions in 30 days, anywhere in the world. Ifnecessary, the Pelican could carry 17 M-1 main battle tanks

on a single sortie. Commercially, the aircraft's size andefficiency would allow it to carry types of cargo equivalentto those carried by container ships, at more than 10 timesthe speed.

It would be the biggest bird in the history of aviation.

C i f R l ti $/lb d


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Comparison of Relative $/lb and

Speed to Move Cargo

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

R

elative$/lb

of

Payload

Speed, kts

Ship

Aircraft

WIG


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Ekranoplans and the transport industry We have seen that Ekranoplans offer similar utility to

that of an aircraft, without the large capital andmaintenance costs associated with aircraft.

Aviation carries with it very high unseen fixed costs,e.g. airports and services, air traffic control, supportstaff, which is not required by the Ekranoplans.

Ekranoplans, on the other hand, offer a comparablespeed of service off the quayside. The conceptdecouples fast transport from high infrastructurespend.

East Asia is attractive from the point of view of growthover the long term, but marketing will require countryspecific local knowledge.

EFFECT OF ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY


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EFFECT OF ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY1. That the market leaders in Ekranoplan transport may not be from

the existing pool of fast ferry players

2. Once established, Ekranoplans could take market from theexisting players. Develop away from the initial niche markets intomore mainstream markets, taking market share from existingplayers.

3. Provide the builder and user a new level of technology (e.g.lightweight structures, aerodynamic lift, high speed operations

etc.) that could be transferable to high-end conventional fast craft.This could be considered as a strategic advantage over non-Ekranoplan players, insofar as it is a resource denied to thecompetition. and so may lock out existing players from the high-end sector in the future.

4. Existing players will be unable to catch up.

5. Hoverwing concept brings with it a massive increase in payloadvolume, giving greater passenger comfort and enabling such craftto carry loads that would not fit in an aircraft.


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MILITARY APPLICATION In the military environment WIGs attributes are:

Ability to cover a wide area within a short time Rapid response capability rapid closure.

Genuine capability to intercept almost all other marine vessels.

Zero wake stealth

Potential paramilitary applications might include: Over-horizon and littoral operations

Drug-running interdiction

Anti-piracy

Border patrol

Fleet patrol/asymmetric threat protection

Search and rescue Medevac

Pollution / environmental monitoring.

Ship to shore transport.

Covert and special operations

MILITARY APPLICATION


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MILITARY APPLICATION The high interception speed

combined with stealth means that

persons undertaking illegal activitiescan be caught red-handed, leading tomore effective enforcement,especially beneficial in areas withhigh incidences of piracy, terrorism orsmuggling.

Such WIG vehicles could have a greatdeal of presence.

In addition these craft may be difficultto detect by mines or sonar, makingthem suitable for crossing minefields,mine clearance or ASW work.

Opportunities certainly exist tosubstitute WIG vehicles forhorrendously expensive andmaintenance intensive helicopters Forces getting smaller Logistics decreasing


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Sea Sniper:An Example for ASW

Based on RAMICS technology could put this on a WIG

Moving Target/Moving Shooter

Uses a 30mm Bushmaster II chain gun for shallow water mines

Stationary Target/Stationary Shooter


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ASCMs: An Example for Large Ship ASUW

Utka: Armed with six SS-N-22 SUNBURN missiles. Length 242 ft.

NOTE: Due to ship construction techniques used, ONI has concluded

that Utka would be difficult to destroy.


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Clear a Path Through a Minefield?

Have a WIG drop and control a number of UUVs designed to hunt/kill mines on its way

over the minefield, and have them clear the path in a parallel effort, as opposed to

starting at one edge of the minefield and working through it in a serial manner.

Hop over the minefield?

A WIG will travel over the top of a minefield at very high speed, without damage, and

perform its mission on the other side.


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Small Boat ASUW

Lethal

30 mm chain gun Same one for Sea Sniper

Look down/Shoot down

Stay out of lethal range of small boat weapons

Other guns and/or missile systems Non-lethal

Active Denial Technology HPM system causing intense skin pain for exposed personnel

Running Gear Entangling System Specially designed boat-stopping rope

The Airbone Gun ship.

The Air borne Laser.


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Use as heavy military transport

The possible benefits from the use of these craft with apotential increase in performance and efficiency overexisting transport mediums has been the momentum fortheir development as heavy lift and cargo platforms.

The primary mode of operation for current and

envisaged WIG craft is over and in water. Allowable sea states for efficient cruise, landing and take

off form the bounds of the performance envelope.Operational considerations such as speed, range andpayload abilities are similar to aircraft.

Amphibious potential for operation from beachheads,waterways or runways and autonomous operation at seaare also possibilities for WIG craft. WIG craft also havethe potential for high stealth and weapons delivery.


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Active Denial Technology

The Air Force is investigating an airborne version of this

current ACTD. Whatever they develop could be adapted

to WIGs.
http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/factsheets/images/ADT-1.jpg


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Additional military uses

AC-130 Gunship w/ 105mm gun Airborne Laser

While not WIGs, these examples indicate that other, large weapon systems

have, and are, being integrated into airborne platforms. This could be done

for WIGs.


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TECHNO-ECONOMIC FESIBILITY. The WIG is not a flight of fancy by a commercially viable option to

todays aircraft and ship technology. The key to WIG success must surely be its simplicity. The

agricultural Citroen 2CV car is a highly complex vehicle bycomparison!.

WIG competes with all other forms of transport; with speeds inexcess of 80 knots the obvious comparison is with aircraft.

Constraining component design to ship/surface vehicle technologyrather than aerospace technology brings further reduction inmaintenance. costs and so strengthens WIG.s position vis--visaircraft.

Opportunity also exists in those counties with under-developed air

transport while the other countries can be excluded from the list oflocations for startup.

The flexibility offered by WIG is that most of its asset value is in therevenue earning craft; this enables it to be re-deployed asnecessary, thus giving it a strategic advantage in an uncertain world.


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CONCLUSION

At present four major classification bodies, the Russian

Register, Germanischer LLyods , China classificationsociety, the LLyods London registers, and Australiantransport bureau have developed the constructioncodes and structural rules for the craft and equipment.When these leaders have taken the initiative that mustnot be for no reason.

And not surprisingly the market analysis projects themaximum benefits near the south Asian country. Wehave also seen what defense and policing roles thesecraft can be deployed into. We have also seen that thiscraft has the capability to give medivac and search andrescue facilities much better that other crafts.


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CONCLUSION However, Research in India at least in the public domain

has not started in nay big way. This transportation solutionholds several opportunities for our country in specific.

The various advantages are:-

1. India being a cash strapped country can greatly benefitfrom the reduced expenses on the development of the

aerodromes and the airports which is offered by this craftwhen majority of the air freight and small critical portionof the sea freight will be offloaded on to this solution. Lotof the minor ports are not having enough sustainabletraffic these can be converted into berth and loading

points for WIG crafts at negligible expense2. Huge saving on the aviation fuel bill and decongestion of

the air traffic routes. The coastal flights such as fromBombay to ports like GOA, CHOCHIN, MADRAS, etc can becompletely off loaded to this sector of the WIG crafts.


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CONCLUSION3. A credible back up of search and rescue support to our

fishermen, who risk their lives. Saving the seafarers innear coastal distressed vessel.

4. The factory ships of mass fishing can deployed causinghuge augmentation in the available food for thepopulation and the same can be effective transported tothe beach head at no extra refrigeration costs by theekranoplans the logistic chains can take over to put thecatch to the cold storage warehouse, from there to retailchains can take over by logistic support over ground. Thiseliminates the needs for fishermen going out in smallwooden boats out at sea and co-operatives made on the

model of Amul can be realized for fishermen who operatemuch larger, safer, cleaner, hygienic vessels like thefactory ships which will reduce their risk to lives andenvironment ( by stopping the use of wood for the boats).


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CONCLUSION5. India geo-political reality is severe and we are

surrounded by enemies. Chinas string of pearlstrategy is a direct threat to our maritimesecurity and their transgressions are becomingintolerable by the Day. If we plan to avoid theHimalayan disaster at sea we must act fast and

now.6. The development of the military ships is a time

consuming process and the very expensive andthe fighter aircrafts are also procured from

outside at a tremendous expense. The WIGcrafts have an advantage of being massproduced at a very short notice and they are asseen in paper half as expensive as the airplanes.


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CONCLUSION7. The interconnectivity of the Andaman and the Nicobar

Island is critical to support the population and the

retention of the islands. Where most of the food and theconsumables are imported from the main land includingthe medicines. This can be done extremely effectively bythe WIG especially with respect to the transportation ofperishables like milk, juice, vegetables, medicines, agro

products8. The Lun and other military crafts like pelican has vast

potential and can petrol a long coastline, outrun anypirate skiffs, detect intruders and intercept invaders andgive a fast and decisive punch to coastline security. We

can have a fortress India program where heavy artillerysupport in bunker forms the fixed defense line while fleetof ekranoplans can have the rapidly deployable forwardmobile defense platforms. They can also detect and lowlying craft avoiding Radio detection by Radar.


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CONCLUSION9. We have more Oil and Gas Fields coming up deeper into

our contiguous zone, we need credible defense to assert

our presence and deterrence to dissuade diabolicalregimes against misadventures. The fire power that canbe packed in the Ekranoplan and the transportationcapability to move heavy assets like tanks and infantry andpersonal carriers at much higher speed than the

traditional landing crafts gives a decisive striking edge.10. We have the second largest pool of scientist in the world

by a synergistic approach of the intelligence agencies,foreign affairs ministry, DRDO, our research institute wecan cut short the development cycle and deploy

maximum number of this crafts for a coastal defense. Andcommercial applicant is also set to have a growthmultiplier effect which is economically andenvironmentally friendly.

ground effect vehicles

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