Archived Messages
Count,MessageID,category,ShortTitle,Message,Date,UserName,MsgPswd,Phone,Email,ParentMsgId
"1","852572","12","Hydrofoil lift for Ground Effect Craft||852572","Ray,
When you refer to "ground effect vessel" I assume you are referring to what are also called "wing in ground effect" (WIG or WIGE) craft rather than Air Cushion Vehicles, SES or hovercraft which were once also referred to as "Ground Effect Machines". Yes, hydrofoils have certainly been tried on at least one wing in ground craft. If you refer to Jane's Surface Skimmers 1980 edition, it describes the Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH (RFB) X-114 Aerofoil Boat. The entry indicates that in 1979 the X-114 began a new series of tests after hydrodynamic modifications that included the fitting of hydrofoils beneath the sponsons. No other details of the hydrofoils are provided, however I recall seeing photos of this craft elsewhere which indicated that they were a pair of surface piercing dihedral foils. An additional similar foil may have been positioned at the rear of the fuselage.
I also recall having read 5-10 years ago about a proposal by Intermarine in Italy to develop a WIG fitted with hydrofoils. The artists impression suggested the hydrofoils would be of a fully submerged type. I have never heard any more about this proposal so I suspect it never proceeded beyond an early conceptual stage.
Finally, more recent work in Europe on a small scale WIG included incorporating an air cushion system to assist with take-off and landing. This was seen as being beneficial in reducing the required take-off power, and was probably also the motivation for fitting hydrofoils to the X-114.","2005-06-28","Martin Grimm","nopswd"," ","seaflite@alphalink.com.au","0"
"2","814452","12","Hydrofoil lift for Ground Effect Craft||814452","After world war two the Navy developed the first jet powered supersonic amphibious fighter, the Convair Sea Dart. It was unique in that it used Hydrofoils on the centerline of the fuselage to transition from water to flight and vice versa. I knew the NAVAIR chief test engineer, Gene handler, in Wash DC who ran the tests on the plane. The original Foil was much like a set of skis and did not work well. A fully submerged Supercav Tee foil developed later performed flawlessly Just in time for mothballs. Gene said there was some ground effect especially during landing.
See http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/f7.html
http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avcmast.html#m2
or
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/performance/q0190.shtml
for details.
" The Sea Dart had a vee-shaped hull, and its internal spaces were organized as multiple watertight compartments to keep it afloat if battle damaged. It had twin dive brakes on the lower rear fuselage that could be also be used as water brakes or rudders. Flight controls were hydraulic. The Sea Dart could not take off or land on a runway, but each of the hydro-skis had a small wheel at the end, and a third small wheel was mounted near the rear of the aircraft to allow it taxi onto or off of a seaplane ramp."","2005-04-17","white","nopswd"," ","whitewn@speakeasy.net","0"
"3","812918","12","Hydrofoil lift for Ground Effect Craft||812918","I haven't seen foils used on a ground effect vehicle per se, but there are a few things you might want to look up. One is a modified Lake Amphibian airplane designated the HRV-1, I can send you a pic if you like. Another is an interesting airplane called the Piaggio PC7. There is a web page for it at http://www.aviogatti.it/piaggio1.htm. Since it was a flying boat design as opposed to having floats, the water would interfere with the nose mounted air propellor. There was a clutch to disengage the air prop, and a separate drive shaft to drive a rear mounted water prop. The object was to get it up on the foils using the water prop, at which time the air prop would be engaged for lift off. I think it's pretty obvious why it never got produced in large numbers. But an interesting design none the less.
I also saw a surface effect boat of recent design called the "outrider", that uses a shock-absorber mounted front ski to control front end lift, and therefore angle of attack. This could be replaced by a foil. My understanding of wing-in-ground-effect vehicles is that stability is a major issue. Keeping the hull from "blowing over", or lifting out of ground effect, are serious issues for the design. I suppose a foil system could be developed that contributes to lift, but also prevents blow over. It would be very interesting to see how you would put it all together. Good luck.","2005-04-13","Scott Smith","nopswd"," ","ssmith@veinrxinc.com","0"
"4","810757","12","Archived Messages
Count,MessageID,category,ShortTitle,Message,Date,UserName,MsgPswd,Phone,Email,ParentMsgId
"1","852572","12","Hydrofoil lift for Ground Effect Craft||852572","Ray,
When you refer to "ground effect vessel" I assume you are referring to what are also called "wing in ground effect" (WIG or WIGE) craft rather than Air Cushion Vehicles, SES or hovercraft which were once also referred to as "Ground Effect Machines". Yes, hydrofoils have certainly been tried on at least one wing in ground craft. If you refer to Jane's Surface Skimmers 1980 edition, it describes the Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH (RFB) X-114 Aerofoil Boat. The entry indicates that in 1979 the X-114 began a new series of tests after hydrodynamic modifications that included the fitting of hydrofoils beneath the sponsons. No other details of the hydrofoils are provided, however I recall seeing photos of this craft elsewhere which indicated that they were a pair of surface piercing dihedral foils. An additional similar foil may have been positioned at the rear of the fuselage.
I also recall having read 5-10 years ago about a proposal by Intermarine in Italy to develop a WIG fitted with hydrofoils. The artists impression suggested the hydrofoils would be of a fully submerged type. I have never heard any more about this proposal so I suspect it never proceeded beyond an early conceptual stage.
Finally, more recent work in Europe on a small scale WIG included incorporating an air cushion system to assist with take-off and landing. This was seen as being beneficial in reducing the required take-off power, and was probably also the motivation for fitting hydrofoils to the X-114.","2005-06-28","Martin Grimm","nopswd"," ","seaflite@alphalink.com.au","0"
"2","814452","12","Hydrofoil lift for Ground Effect Craft||814452","After world war two the Navy developed the first jet powered supersonic amphibious fighter, the Convair Sea Dart. It was unique in that it used Hydrofoils on the centerline of the fuselage to transition from water to flight and vice versa. I knew the NAVAIR chief test engineer, Gene handler, in Wash DC who ran the tests on the plane. The original Foil was much like a set of skis and did not work well. A fully submerged Supercav Tee foil developed later performed flawlessly Just in time for mothballs. Gene said there was some ground effect especially during landing.
See http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/f7.html
http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avcmast.html#m2
or
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/performance/q0190.shtml
for details.
" The Sea Dart had a vee-shaped hull, and its internal spaces were organized as multiple watertight compartments to keep it afloat if battle damaged. It had twin dive brakes on the lower rear fuselage that could be also be used as water brakes or rudders. Flight controls were hydraulic. The Sea Dart could not take off or land on a runway, but each of the hydro-skis had a small wheel at the end, and a third small wheel was mounted near the rear of the aircraft to allow it taxi onto or off of a seaplane ramp."","2005-04-17","white","nopswd"," ","whitewn@speakeasy.net","0"
"3","812918","12","Hydrofoil lift for Ground Effect Craft||812918","I haven't seen foils used on a ground effect vehicle per se, but there are a few things you might want to look up. One is a modified Lake Amphibian airplane designated the HRV-1, I can send you a pic if you like. Another is an interesting airplane called the Piaggio PC7. There is a web page for it at http://www.aviogatti.it/piaggio1.htm. Since it was a flying boat design as opposed to having floats, the water would interfere with the nose mounted air propellor. There was a clutch to disengage the air prop, and a separate drive shaft to drive a rear mounted water prop. The object was to get it up on the foils using the water prop, at which time the air prop would be engaged for lift off. I think it's pretty obvious why it never got produced in large numbers. But an interesting design none the less.
I also saw a surface effect boat of recent design called the "outrider", that uses a shock-absorber mounted front ski to control front end lift, and therefore angle of attack. This could be replaced by a foil. My understanding of wing-in-ground-effect vehicles is that stability is a major issue. Keeping the hull from "blowing over", or lifting out of ground effect, are serious issues for the design. I suppose a foil system could be developed that contributes to lift, but also prevents blow over. It would be very interesting to see how you would put it all together. Good luck.","2005-04-13","Scott Smith","nopswd"," ","ssmith@veinrxinc.com","0"
"4","810757","12","Hydrofoil lift for Ground Effect Craft||810757","Has anyone ever come across the use of hydrofoils on a ground effect vessel. The main problem with ground effect flight is the drag of the water against the hull before the craft becomes airborne, so a very powerful (and heavy) engine is required to break from the surface. With hydrofoil technology, the engine size could be greatly reduced. Any thoughts??
","2005-04-10","Ray Benn","nopswd"," ","raybenn@hotmail.com","0"
"5","769165","12","New CAD tool for surfboard design||769165","To bridge the gap between form and function, this 3D modeling tool utilizes a cylindrical lattice to alter the surface contours of a surfboard. The application of a cylindrical lattice extends on free-form deformation (FFD), through which a design object is encased inside a lattice structure that can be deformed to alter the design object. FFD is an efficient and intuitive method of three-dimensional shape design and modification and many types of deformations are possible. However, the parallelepiped (box-shaped) structure of the lattice does limit the range of deformation that is possible. This limitation is resolved with extended free-form deformation (EFFD), which introduces a non-parallelepiped lattice structure, such as a cylindrical lattice.
Please read article:
http://www.the-door.info/cad.htm
Surfboard design theory:
http://www.the-door.info/surfboard_design.htm
Requesting help/exposure to find anyone interested in securing the patent.","2005-01-23","Daniel Webber","nopswd"," ","info@the-door.info","0"
||810757","Has anyone ever come across the use of hydrofoils on a ground effect vessel. The main problem with ground effect flight is the drag of the water against the hull before the craft becomes airborne, so a very powerful (and heavy) engine is required to break from the surface. With hydrofoil technology, the engine size could be greatly reduced. Any thoughts??
","2005-04-10","Ray Benn","nopswd"," ","raybenn@hotmail.com","0"
"5","769165","12","New CAD tool for surfboard design||769165","To bridge the gap between form and function, this 3D modeling tool utilizes a cylindrical lattice to alter the surface contours of a surfboard. The application of a cylindrical lattice extends on free-form deformation (FFD), through which a design object is encased inside a lattice structure that can be deformed to alter the design object. FFD is an efficient and intuitive method of three-dimensional shape design and modification and many types of deformations are possible. However, the parallelepiped (box-shaped) structure of the lattice does limit the range of deformation that is possible. This limitation is resolved with extended free-form deformation (EFFD), which introduces a non-parallelepiped lattice structure, such as a cylindrical lattice.
Please read article:
http://www.the-door.info/cad.htm
Surfboard design theory:
http://www.the-door.info/surfboard_design.htm
Requesting help/exposure to find anyone interested in securing the patent.","2005-01-23","Daniel Webber","nopswd"," ","info@the-door.info","0"
Top