C J Campbell wrote:
On Sun, 7 Jan 2007 10:52:24 -0800, Danny Deger wrote
(in article ):


"Tony" wrote in message
oups.com...
I haven't found a decent reference for this -- can anyone help?

Consider a clean low speed airplane -- maybe one of the kit built ones.
Does anyone have some quantitative measure of how much drag is reduced
if the airplane is flown say half or quarter of a wingspan above the
ocean?


If I recall correctly it is about 20%. It is enough that the Russians built
an seaplane with small wings that cruised in ground effect to reduce drag.
It is not just a couple of percent for sure. Your technothriller will be
valid to assume a substantial reduction in drag by flying in ground effect.

I remember there was some discussion a couple years back of building a giant
ground effect container ship/plane. It would cross the Pacific in ground
effect, then fly the short distance to a coastal airport. Probably not
economically feasible, but it could be done. For one thing, why fly it to an
airport? All the cranes to unload it are at ports. Seems to me that skipping
the flying step would greatly simplify things.

Two problems that killed the Russian's ideas (besides money):
(1) The huge waves encounted at sea means the thing has to rise out of
ground effect, and (2) the span and power needed to fly to the airport
ruin the economics of the thing.

Dan