Hip hydrogen-powered "EkranoYacht" - nice WIG design

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by joceline, Jan 28, 2011.

  1. joceline
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    joceline Junior Member

  2. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    Very interesting as sculpture crossed with science "fiction". Also excellent renderings in the slide show.

    From http://student.designawards.com.au/application_detail.jsp?status=2&applicationID=9492
    Humans are always thinking of new ways travel and improve their dynamic lives. My design is a ‘blue-sky concept’, but this type of forward and different thinking could possibly turn into a reality one day. My project has the liveability of a yacht and the convenience of an aeroplane.

    The craft was designed through market research, sketches, 3d models, clay models and final 3d cad models for rapid-prototyping. I feel the design is extremely resolved and aesthetically pleasing - bringing the super car flavour to the water.


    Likes like a "design" exercise without any engineering or consideration of the technical issues.

    More:
    The craft performs at approximately 400kph in full flight. It can tackle waves of up to 3.5 m and can also be used as normal yacht when necessary. The 36.5m craft can house 6 people comfortably. The interior design was a very important part of the project, because if people are going to give up their static home living arrangements, there can’t be any sacrifice moving on to the EkranoYacht. I designed for open floor plan living, with large windows for natural light.

    No reason to believe it actually would work. A windtunnel test could be very interesting.

    It was also important for the craft to be environmentally friendly, because it will be used in all different eco-systems the design needed to follow regulations and standards. An electric drive motor can be used when moving through sensitive coastal areas. The craft uses a hydrogen fuel cell to power the jets and provides electric power for the users on board.

    Lots of good words but how does a hydrogen fuel cell power the jets?
     
  3. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    A designer's ability to actually see their designs built and used depends to a large degree on their ability to understand "reality" and make the appropriate tradeoffs.

    I worked in the auto industry managing the enginering design of new cars, and worked very closely with designers. The most effective designers were the ones who understood the basics of engineering and manufacturing applicable to their designs, or who at least knew enough to know when to listen and ask questions.
     
  4. kerosene
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    kerosene Senior Member

    I studied industrial design but work in video game trailers. This falls to the scifi game world.

    Looks neat and all but students would be better off if they understood that non restricted "conceptual work" is fun brain teasers and important but only half the job even for those in the rare "wild positions".

    Its easy to make CG renders that have neat flowing lines even though aerodynamically they are disasters.

    Hydrogen... such a lame thing too. In late 90s every second student were "designing" hand held gadgets for virtual nomads - you know phone, pda, gps and all that in one package. All most of these exercises were compilations of hip features (invented by others). Nothing fresh in itself the way they were toed together and every cell phone company would already had made one if the compactness and price of the tech would have been ready.
    Same way now (last decade) everyone draws vehicles that are powered by hydrogen and solar and bio. YEay! great - except the student didn't have to do anything except say that this design is using the most fanciest non polluting technology. Unfortunately that fancy tech is not ready and often fundamentally flawed.

    Environmental pleasure WIG? HA I say.


    Now if it was pure fiction and The pleasure Wig of James Bond villain in 2015 - then sure I can appreciate it much much more - after all aesthetically it IS very cool and the renderings are high quality too.


    edit: had to continue bitching as I am waiting for renders myself...
    -Afterburner jets powered by fuel cells?
    -How does that wide thing act as a normal yacht again?
    -Maybe there is a reason why ekranoplan had the motors in the front? Oh indeed they did have reason - they were creating sort of hovercraft effect by blowing air under the wings. How many HP does thing need to get off on the foils?
    -what keeps the nose elevated? Even non aero person can see that the lift is all in the rear of the craft.


    More importantly - if we accept this as pure wild exercise - what relation does this have to any real life problems? What problem is it trying to solve or get us closer to a solution? How can 400ph flying home be even remotely considered "environmental" - even if its exhaust was rose petals it would be horrendous disservice to environment to build on for 6 people.

    Its scifi - and should not be awarded in real life design world. We need true innovation. I can draw a neat flying car and say it uses hydrogen and takes people into exotic places to learn the beauty of other culures with ease and makes commuting for modern people fun and fast. But what would such thing achieve? nothing besides being a styling exercise with no connection to real world problems that might actually benefit from clever designers.
     
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  5. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    sexy - yes
    Fast - umm, not the way he has explained it
    Flying - in a strong gale, very likely
    Dangerous - undoubtedly, as in " a little knowledge is "

    I was a fan of Lambourghini sports cars until I discovered they were designed for deaf, rich dwarves that never had to reverse park.
     

  6. Zurael
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    Zurael New Member

    An aesthetically pleasing design, and although I'm not qualified to evaluate it technically as a watercraft, I can say that as an aircraft, it is extremely impractical.

    Anything; a cube; could fly with enough thrust, albeit very badly. Firstly, the rearward vertical fins, which don't even appear to have control surfaces on them, would render the aircraft uncontrollable about the vertically axis, and the small surface area of the fins would make the aircraft very directionally unstable. Coordinated turns would also be impossible without vertical control, either from a rudder or vectored thrust (or possibly even differential engine thrust if the differential were great enough and the moment arm sufficient.).

    Secondly, at first it seemed that the aircraft also lacked any lateral form of control! An aircraft with no lateral control, because even flying wings achieve lateral control with control surfaces, would simply tumble over or backward and crash immediately without some kind of vectored thrust (like a missile)...

    Thirdly, after looking at other photos, there seems to be a forward airfoil under the bow, this is a very odd place to put a... what I can only assume is a canard to provide lateral control. (although again I can't see control surfaces, perhaps they just were not rendered on this model but were considered?). An airfoil, which at certain flight attitudes, would undoubtedly because of its position under the fuselage, be subject to extreme interference, and whilst under this disturbed condition, a severe loss of control would be likely in my opinion. Although CFD simulation would be needed to determine effects accurately.

    Fourthly, the short stubby wings without any noticeable high lift device (slats etc., I don't even see flaps, but again, perhaps this was simply omitted from the computer model for simplicity), and even with high lift devices, the sheer weight of any aircraft will result in landing speeds far in excess of watercraft top speeds. At these speeds, the very low slung appendage which I am calling a canard beneath the bow, which would have a lot of leverage due to the distance between it and the C of G, would probably catch the water on landing and flip the craft upside down, similar to ditching an aircraft with unusually long gear unretracted. Example : Even the Japanese flying boat, the Shin Maywa US-2, which employs a very sophisticated powered boundary layer control system for STOL, must approach to landing above 90 KM/H.

    Fifthly, there is a reason that Bi-Plane wings are not common on aircraft anymore. One would think that twice the wings makes twice the lift, but that is not the case, due to interference between the wings. In fact, adding another wing usually increases lift by a mere 20 percent! Drag, however, both induced and parasite, is increased by a much greater amount.

    Sixthly, the downslope of the wings is called an anhedral or negative dihedral. Most aircraft have wings in which the tips are higher than the root. That is because this design is very stable about the roll axis. Conversely, anhedral is a very unstable, albeit maneuverable, design choice. On an aircraft that is not to be used as a fighter jet, anhedral doesn't make much sense.

    And Seventhly, in the images at the gallery linked above, the exhaust from the engines appears luminescent and even features shock diamonds? Like a turbojet afterburner or rocket. Why an aircraft intended for speeds below 400 KM/H would feature engines with exhaust velocities above subsonic speeds, I do not know.

    In conclusion, if I were to see this on an art website or something, I would say. "Cool design and nice modeling work. Not very practical though." Not something I would have expected to see featured for a technology award, at least as an aircraft. I really didn't expect this post to be this long.
     
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