Wing in Ground Effect (WIG)

[metroid4me]

Well full scale wipeout racing is really not too far off. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEHwRQilPRE

[Lance]

I can't watch the video, but if I recall correctly, all the WIG machines I've ever seen were operable only on water, like lakes or reasonably calm ocean areas. The old Soviet Polyanok [sp?] passenger ships were like that, as well as some later smaller experimentals.

[metroid4me]

this one is on water too. however, ground effect works on land as well. theres a video of some nasa engineers (can't find it right now) on youtube playing with their wig craft inside a test facility. The only reason most of these WIG craft are on water is because they cannot start on land, without wheels of some kind.

[Lance]

Exactly why they're not practical for overland transport. One could race them by starting out with them on dropaway wheeled carriages, but then when you stop at the end of the race, it will do damage from skidding. Unless some brilliant ingenuity is applied, of course. :D

[metroid4me]

or it could be a hovercraft, like the ones shown on hovercraft.com.
As long as it starts out on a smooth surface, shouldn't be a problem for racing.

[Lance]

But hovercraft aren't WIGs; I already did some design work [in my mind] for hovercraft race courses, including equivalents [tricky, dangerous ones] of WipEout boostpads. It could be done, but of course it isn't Anti-Gravity technology. Hovercraft would be better for real-life racing than wing-in-ground-effect craft, in my opinion.

[metroid4me]

The hoverwing is a hovercraft and wing in ground effect vehicle - you can do both! :) Check it out!

http://www.hovercraft.com/content/images/turnkey/19xrw/19xrw01_800.jpg

-- -----------

Lance,
At the end of this video,
watch as the the hovercraft glides over the beach.. VERY COOL!
http://www.hovercraft.com/content/media/video/19xrw_05_256k_lo.wmv
-Josh

[Rapier Racer]

You might want to hurriedly remove that image before Lance comes back to this thread!!!

[xEik]

This time I was faster than Lance. :P
Image edited into a link.

Please, metroid4me you should read the forum rules.
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/announcement.php?f=18
No inline images larger than 50k allowed.

Besides, there's hardly any need to do 2 consecutive posts when you can edit your previous one.

[metroid4me]

Oh whoops I'm a newbie still... :pizza

[Lance]

Ah, but the confirmation email you get when joining tells you to read the guidelines before posting, or at least it is supposed to say that.

-----

Lance was watching Wimbledon and the American Olympic trials and was offline pretty much all day so I could concentrate on those things without distractions.

-----

About the video, I cannot watch the videos; I'm on dial-up and they take far too much time to download unless they're something I already know that I really really really really want to keep. When videos are downloading, I do not have any bandwidth left to do anything else for hours at a time.

[metroid4me]

well I can summarize... The hoverwing can hover in ground effect over land as well as water. The speed doesn't look that great though, maybe a more efficient motor or turbine in the back would be better for thrust.

[Lance]

In that case, I have to wonder if the additional size, weight, and structural complexity of adding the wings to a GEM could possibly be worthwhile. Any increased efficiency of lift over water is cancelled out by the weight and power hunger of the GEM mechanism. Over land the GEM makes the wings unnecessary.