The efficiency of the ground effect
The erstwhile Soviet Union once had plans to transport huge loads over the Caspian Sea with its Ekranoplan aircraft. The wing-in-ground-effect units designed by Flying Ship Technologies are much smaller and thus more agile. Now the US enterprise has landed its first sales agreement.
A European customer who hasn’t been named yet has signed a USD 100 million sales agreement for the purchase of wing-in-ground-effect maritime vessels from Flying Ship Technologies, which is based in Leesburg VA (USA). Bill Peterson, the CEO of Flying Ship Technologies, said that “the vessels will provide fast, low-cost delivery to a wide range of coastal locations in continental Europe and the surrounding islands.”
The first unmanned ground-effect delivery vehicles are 30 – 50% more energy-efficient than aeroplanes of a comparable size, and ten times faster than conventional ships. The basic version are set to be equipped with fully-electric engines with a reach of 500 nm (more than 900 km) and a freight capacity of 1.2 t. Future variants will be able to handle 2.7 t payloads and have double the reach. They will initially be semi-autonomous, will later transition to fully autonomous operations and will be powered by ‘green fuel’.
Peterson hopes the order is the first of many. “As the world looks for ways to reduce greenhouse gases and the logistics market continues to surge, we expect more interest in Flying Ships as a green alternative to ships, trucks, rail and airfreight for the inexpensive and fast delivery of goods,” he said.
