"Ground Effect Demystified: Perfecting Soft Field Landings! 🛬https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ph7FlMgnpG8 #AviationTips #PilotLife #FlightTraining #GroundEffect #SoftFieldLanding #FlySafe"

Unraveling Ground Effect: The Secret to Effortless Takeoffs! 🛫 🚀 Unraveling Ground Effect: The Secret to Effortless Takeoffs! 🌟 Ever wondered how planes seem to lift off with such ease? It's all thanks to the ground effect, which boosts lift and reduces drag as aircraft approach the runway. Fly higher and discover the science behind smoother takeoffs! ✈️ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/t4-9XcqA6OE #AviationMagic #GroundEffect #AviationScience #EffortlessTakeoff #FlyHigher #PilotLife #AeroDynamics

Ground-Effect Vehicle to Carry Passengers Around Hawaii https://hackaday.com/2024/01/27/ground-effect-vehicle-to-carry-passengers-around-hawaii/ #TransportationHacks #groundeffect #passenger #seaglider #airplane #hawaii #ferry #boat

A Paddle Wheel Ground Effect Vehicle https://hackaday.com/2024/01/25/a-paddle-wheel-ground-effect-vehicle/ #groundeffect #rctestflight #ekranoplan #MiscHacks

Engines of Our Ingenuity 3068: Birch Trees

Episode: 3068 Birch: The tree honored across the North, and the true substance of the Spruce Goose. Today, the Birch Goose.

Read More >>

#akademgorodok #betulaPendula #birchBeer #BirchEnsemble #BirchGoose #BirchTree #birchWine #birchWood #CelticWorship #DomodedovoAirport #folkMedicine #greenland #groundEffect #HowardHughes #iceland #JamesRussellLowell #plywood #russia #silverBirch #SongOfTheVolgaBoatmen #SpruceGoose #veneer

I like to imagine someone somewhere using all those videos from #rctestflight for reference, when designing a large, non-rc #hovercraft or #groundeffect vehicle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxhJ9T_VkEc

sadly there don't seem to be any passenger/cargo-planes of that kind around anymore.

Even the best gear doesn't last forever. I just got a new GroundEffect vest for my daily bike commute. My old one finally wore out after about 15 years of use.

Designed and made in Aotearoa-New Zealand!

#bike #BikeGear #Aotearoa #NZ #GroundEffect

https://www.groundeffect.co.nz/collections/all-products/products/jetson-windproof-water-resistant-vest

This Machine-Vision Ekranoplan Might Just Follow You Home

What is it that's not quite either a plane or a boat, but has characteristics of both? There are probably a lot of things that fit that description, but the one that [Nick Rehm] is working on is known as an ekranoplan. Specifically, he's looking to make the surface-skimming ground-effect vehicle operate autonomously.

If you think you've heard about ekranoplans around here before, you'd be right -- we've covered a cool LIDAR-controlled model ekranoplan that [rctestflight] worked on about a year ago, and more recently, [ThinkFlight]'s attempts to make an autonomous ekranoplan that can follow behind a boat. The latter is where [Nick] enters the collaboration, and the featherweight foam ground-effect vehicle shown in the video below is his test platform.

After sorting out the basic airframe design and getting the LIDAR integrated, he turned his attention to the autonomous bit, which relies on a Raspberry Pi 4 running ROS and a camera with a wide-angle lens. The Pi uses machine vision algorithms to find an "AprilTag" fiducial marker in the scene, which gives the flight controller information about the relative orientation of the ekranoplan to the tag. [Nick] tested tag tracking using an electric longboard, and the model ekranoplan did an admirable job of not only managing the ground-effect, but also staying on target right behind him. And hats off to [Nick] for keeping all the balls in the air and not breaking his neck in the process.

We're looking forward to seeing what [Nick] built here end up in [ThinkFlight]'s big ekranoplan build. Ground-effect vehicles like these are undeniably cool, and it seems like they've got the potential to solve some interesting transportation problems.

#dronehacks #apriltag #ekranoplan #fiducial #gev #groundeffect #machinevision #raspberrypi #ros

Ground Effect Aerodynamics On An RC Car

Ground effect aerodynamics will return to Formula 1 in a big way in the 2022 season, hopefully washing away the bad taste left in fan's mouths after the recent controversial season decider. [Engineering After Hours] has experimented with F1 aerodynamics on RC cars before, and decided that it was time to try and implement a proper ground-effect design himself.

The aim of ground effect aerodynamics is to create a constriction for airflow between the bottom of the car and the ground underneath. This constriction accelerates the flow beneath the car, and as per Bernoulli's principle, causes a corresponding pressure drop, sucking the car down onto the track. Viscosity also plays a role; from the car's perspective, the road beneath the vehicle is moving backwards at some speed, pulling on the fluid thanks to the boundary layer on the ground itself. This further helps increase the strength of the effect.

A vacuum-formed undertray complete with side skirts was installed on the RC car in order to generate ground effect downforce. A quick test with a leaf blower indicates the system works, and that the side skirts are a key component.

Lateral acceleration was significantly improved by around 20% in testing with the ground effects installed, though [Engineering After Hours] admits that without a wind tunnel, the results aren't the most scientific. However, with the undertray being relatively lightweight, we suspect the aero elements are likely providing plenty of benefit without too much of a negative effect on acceleration or handling.

Check out some of the other aero experiments [Engineering After Hours] has undertaken, too. Video after the break.

#mischacks #f1 #formula1 #groundeffect #rccar #radiocontrol

Autonomous Ground Effect Vehicle Demonstrator Aims To Speed Up Maritime Shipping

Ground effect vehicles, or ekranoplans, have the advantage of being more efficient than normal aircraft and faster than boats, but so far haven't been developed beyond experimental prototypes. Fortunately, this doesn't stop companies from trying, which has led to a collaboration between [ThinkFlight] and [rctestflight] to create a small-scale demonstrator for the Flying Ship Company.

The Flying Ship Company wants to use unmanned electric ekranoplans as high-speed marine cargo carriers that can use existing maritime infrastructure for loading and unloading. For the scale model, [rctestflight] was responsible for the electronics and software, while [ThinkFlight] built the airframe. As with his previous ekranoplan build, [ThinkFlight] designed it in XFLR5, cut the parts from foam using a CNC hot wire cutter (which we still want a better look at), and laminated it with Kevlar for strength. One of the challenges of ground effect vehicles is that the center of pressure will shift rearward as they leave a ground effect, causing them to pitch up. To maintain control when moving into and out of ground effect, these crafts often use a large vertical stabilizer high up on the tail, out of ground effect.

A major feature of this demonstrator is automatic altitude control using a LIDAR sensor mounted on the bottom. This was developed by [rctestflight] using a [simple foam board ekranoplan](https://hackaday.com/2021/04/29/rc-ekranoplan-uses-lidar-to-fly-in-ground-effect/#more-474188) and [Think Flighs]'s previous airframe, with some custom code added to ArduPilot. It works very well on smooth, calm water, but waves introduce a lot of noise into the LIDAR data. It looks like they were able to overcome this challenge, and completed several successful test flights in calm and rough conditions.

The final product looks good, flies smoothly, and is easy to control since the pilot doesn't need to worry about pitch or throttle control. It remains to be seen if The Flying Boat will overcome the challenges required to turn it into a successful commercial craft, and we will be following the project closely.

#transportationhacks #ardupilot #ekranoplan #groundeffect #lidar #rctestflight #thinkflight