WIG Craft and Ekranoplan.pdf

WIG Craft and Ekranoplan

Liang Yun · Alan Bliault · Johnny Doo

WIG Craft and Ekranoplan

Ground Effect Craft Technology

123

Liang Yun

Marine Design and Research Institute

of China (MARIC)

1688 Xizhang Nan Road

200011 Shanghai

People’s Republic of China

liangyunb@yahoo.com

Alan Bliault

A/S Norske Shell

4098 Tananger

Norway

alan.bliault@shell.com

Johnny Doo

Teledyne Continental Motors

2039 Broad Street

P. O . Bo x 9 0

Mobile, AL 36601

USA

dsn99@aol.com

ISBN 978-1-4419-0041-8

e-ISBN 978-1-4419-0042-5

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-0042-5

Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009937415

permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York,

NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in

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or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden.

The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are

not identiﬁed as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject

to proprietary rights.

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Preface

In the last half-century, high-speed water transportation has developed rapidly.

Novel high-performance marine vehicles, such as the air cushion vehicle (ACV),

surface effect ship (SES), high-speed monohull craft (MHC), catamaran (CAT),

hydrofoil craft (HYC), wave-piercing craft (WPC) and small water area twin

hull craft (SWATH) have all developed as concepts, achieving varying degrees of

commercial and military success.

Prototype ACV and SES have achieved speeds of 100 knots in ﬂat calm condi-

tions; however, the normal cruising speed for commercial operations has remained

around 35–50 knots. This is partly due to increased drag in an average coastal sea-

way where such craft operate services and partly due to limitations of the propulsion

systems for such craft. Water jets and water propellers face limitations due to cav-

itation at high speed, for example. SWATH are designed for reduced motions in a

seaway, but the hull form is not a low drag form suitable for high-speed operation.

So that seems to lead to a problem – maintain water contact and either water

propulsion systems run out of power or craft motions and speed loss are a problem

in higher seastates. The only way to higher speed would appear to be to disconnect

completely from the water surface.

You, the reader, might respond with a question about racing hydroplanes, which

manage speeds of above 200 kph. Yes, true, but the power-to-weight ratio is

extremely high on such racing machines and not economic if translated into a useful

commercial vessel.

Disconnection of the craft from the water is indeed a logical step, but it has its

consequences. The craft must be propelled by air and it will have to be supported by

air as well. A low ﬂying aircraft? In some ways – yes – but with a difference. When

an airplane ﬂies very close to the ground a much higher pressure builds up under the

wings – ground effect. Some early hovercraft were conﬁgured to capture air as they

moved forward – captured air bubble craft.

Combine ground effect with a geometry speciﬁcally designed to enhance the

effect and you have a craft that might be able to achieve much higher cruising speed.

Flying above waves, its motions might also be much reduced. This idea gave birth

to the wing-in-ground effect (WIG) craft.

The original type of WIG can be traced from at the beginning of last century.

Actually, in 1903, the Wright Brothers ﬂew their ﬁrst airplane over relatively long

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