WIG boats

[skippervs]

I'm looking for people who are in WIG boats. Have started to buildstrange one and would like to find the same guys. Anybody please?

[kach22i]

You might get some support in the UK Hoverclub.

Link:
http://hovercraft.org.uk/FUDforum2/i...a0906a36277bf8

Guest can also post in replies at the Hovercraft Club of America.

HCA:
http://www.hoverclubofamerica.org/

Never fly higher than you are willing to fall.

EDIT: The Universal Hovercraft WIG started out as a RC model.
http://www.hovercraft.com/content/in...73f665d3321b1c

I've done some poking around and the RC people have built a lot of WIG's.

Unfortunately some of those who have built the real thing are no longer with us (hint).

The latest WIG with a boat like hull never went into production as it proved to be unpredictable.

[AK-uniflite]

Could I ask what a WIG boat is??

[skippervs]

Hi, kach 22i. It's a pity, I am not in UK at the moment.
S Korea are building a new WIG at the moment and the same boat is in progress in Iran. Both are Lippish type and both have special but not a simple stepped bottom.
I am interested to investigate the situation in existing WIG boats and check all the info around.
Do you know any WIG boat UK or USA privet owners ?

[skippervs]

Hi,AK- uniflite. WIG boat is a boat just flighing very low and actualy with the help pair or more of wings or a plane impossible to fly to the sky.
This boat may be very usefull in a vast flat areas like North Siberia or Northen Pole or Antarctics or so.

[RatliffFranklin]

http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers...mber/i_pw.html

Take a look at Boeing's proposed Pellican giant ground effect aircraft.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by skippervs

Hi, kach 22i. It's a pity, I am not in UK at the moment.
S Korea are building a new WIG at the moment and the same boat is in progress in Iran. Both are Lippish type and both have special but not a simple stepped bottom.
I am interested to investigate the situation in existing WIG boats and check all the info around.
Do you know any WIG boat UK or USA privet owners ?

The one pulled from the market was a very handsome Lippish type design.

The only WIG's (Wing In Ground Effect) craft I've seen are the slower (safer) hovercraft type brought to the national hovercraft rally in Ohio on June 22-24th (father's day weekend).

The last guy in the UK to build a WIG came around a bend in a river and was hit by a cross wind, he died.

The key to having a safe WIG is slow air speed and the forgiveness of an air cushion that only a hovercraft can provide. But that's just my opinion take it for what it's worth.

Just like aircraft, the faster the top speed is the faster the take-off speed is, and the higher the stall speed (very bad) is. The WIG's flown by Universal Hovercraft are as simple and afforadble as they come. You can pick one up on e-bay from time to time for half the cost of a new one or for about what the owner put into it material wise if homebuilt.

This Korean company Hanjinsc (HHIC) makes a lot of different craft (no WIG's that I can find):
http://www.hoverclubofamerica.org/fo...showtopic=1042

EDIT:
I have posted a lot of WIG pictures before, most are easy to find doing a Google image seach, this one looks to be rare.

http://www.reaa.ru/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB...0236;start=0#0

[pilgrim3927]

Originally Posted by skippervs

Hi, kach 22i. It's a pity, I am not in UK at the moment.
S Korea are building a new WIG at the moment and the same boat is in progress in Iran. Both are Lippish type and both have special but not a simple stepped bottom.
I am interested to investigate the situation in existing WIG boats and check all the info around.
Do you know any WIG boat UK or USA privet owners ?

Hi there,
Am a newby but been interested for a long time.
Try this site www.wigetworks.com .
This is the company that now is working onthe Flightship 8 or FS8.
They are based in Singapore and I received a reply from them on Thursday, 1 October 2009!!! so they are current.
Am also seriously looking at building or buying a wig.

Have some crude plans for an ESKA-1, an old Russion but Lippisch style design. looks very simple.
Have lots of info on these things.
Cheers

[rwatson]

Originally Posted by pilgrim3927

Hi there,
Am a newby but been interested for a long time.
Try this site www.wigetworks.com .

I had trouble with one statement on their website

"It costs a ground effect craft a lot less than a conventional aircraft in free flight mode to carry the same payload, yet still travels at a comparable speed and at an improved safety. "

How these aircrafty can be safer 10 feet off the ground at the same speed as aircraft - totally baffles me

[daiquiri]

Originally Posted by rwatson

How these aircrafty can be safer 10 feet off the ground at the same speed as aircraft - totally baffles me

I would also like to point out that maybe the admin of this site should advocate the use of "search" tool more agressively.

There are a plenty of discussions about WIGs or Ekranoplanes in this forum, and some are pretty technical. I think that big part of what we could add here has already been written before...
Examples:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/ope...ect-24854.html
Studing WIG (Wing In Ground Effect)
WIG wing questions - chord and calculating lift
Wingboat Design
etc...

Cheers!

[pilgrim3927]

Thanks Daiquiri.
these links are a great start for me.
I am not an engineeer but an industrial chemist, but reasonably mathematically minded.
Engineering is very much in my family history. In fact my great grandfather and his brother started what was to become one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the 1800's.
Also my father was a pilot during WW2 flying Chance Vought Corsairs in the Pacific.
Hence my interest in flight but more particularly new technology.

Would like to keep in touch.
Where are you at with building or flying WIGS?

Cheers