61failures. So nowadays, also thanks to enhanced control of the
vehicle brought about by the development of modern elec-
tronics, these vehicles’ potential has been attracting much at-
tention even if the cost is not for everyman’s pocket: A CYG11
costs about 20 million US dollars, but the fact that high speeds
around 200km/h, which exceed by far those of any naval ve-
LMGPI[LIR¾EROIHF]EPSEHGETEGMX][LMGLMWYRMQEKMREFPI
for any conventional plane is coupled to high level comfort
can be very appealing to military navies, coast guard patrols,
bulk carriers and last but not least to the magical super and
mega yachting world. Worth considering also is the fact that by
containing the size of these vehicles they can slot into today’s
normal infrastructures found in existing ports and marinas.
'IVXEMRP]MJIOVERSTPERIWHIZIPSTWMKRM½GERXP]EJI[RSVQW
concerning navigation at sea will have to be re-written to ac-
count for the presence of these vehicles which would cruise
at the same height off the surface as ships do, but at much
higher speeds. Realistically speaking since 2005 the Internation-
al Maritime Organization (IMO) has foreseen 3 categories of
GEV “ships” according to their capacity of exploiting ground
IJJIGXEPSRISVXS¾]EPWSEXWSQIVIGSKRM^IHHMWXERGIJVSQ
the surface. Nevertheless for the time being the only set of
VYPIWJSVIWIIRJSVXLIGPEWWM½GEXMSRERHGSRWXVYGXMSRSJ+):W
(Ground Effect Vehicles)are still those envisaged by the perti-
nent Russian registry.SRXLIHVE[MRKFSEVH7IZIVEP)YVSTIEREXXIQTXW[IVIEPWS
made in an effort to exploit this vehicle’s potential, perhaps by
¾EROMRKMX[MXLL]HVSJSMPWXSIRLERGIFIXXIVQERSIYZVEFMPMX]
and steering control as was in fact was done in the course of
XLI ́W[MXL±7IEFYW,]HIV²E)YVSTIER'SST4VSNIGX[LMGL
would carry 800 passengers and 120 motor cars.
As we have seen the ekranoplane is, at least in theory a very ef-
½GMIRXZILMGPI[LMGLLEWREXYVEPP]WXMQYPEXIHERHMWWXMPPWXMQYPEX-
ing engineers’ interest and fancy whims from all over the world,
even if they have not yet managed to resolve, in a convincing
way the issues and problems related to reliability and safety
mentioned earlier. At least up until today, the new Russian -
Chinese CY G11 and the German Seafalcon seem to point
out this technology is now ready even if limited to decided-
ly smaller vehicles when compared to the ones tested in the
past. In fact most probably it was the very size of the previous
prototypes that was one of the main causes attributed to past
Boeing’s Pelican ULTRA: 120 m long with a wing span of
152 which never left the drawing board.
“Skimmer”, the recreational GEV which invariably remains
a water toy.
Flying at altitude the vortices generated by wings are ob-
stacle free and spread freely. When flying low near the
surface the vortices cannot expand freely and they’re
compressed and blocked due to the effect caused by the
closeness to the surface, whether it be land or sea.