In the late 1960s, decades deep into the Cold War, US intelligence analysts monitoring the Caspian Sea came across satellite images of an oddly shaped, winged machine of huge proportions. The ...

What is it that’s not quite either a plane or a boat, but has characteristics of both? There are probably a lot of things that fit that description, but the one that [Nick Rehm] is working on is known ...

Images of what is claimed to be a Chinese version of the famous Soviet Ekranoplan have found their way on the internet. Technically called a wing-in-ground effect (WIG) vehicle, this is the first time ...

In the last days of July, news surfaced of the Russian military working on a revival of the Soviet-era ekranoplan. To be called Orlan, these brand new ground effect vehicles are to come into existence ...

A new ekranoplan, or ground-effect vehicle, design emerging from China was first noted earlier this week. Now a new image offers our first look at the whole airframe. An ekranoplan, derived from the ...

Editor’s note: On January 17, economist Philip Pilkington wrote an essay, “Why Aircraft Carriers Are Becoming Obsolete,” in The National Interest in which he identified several drawbacks of using ...

Russian researchers are analysing the potential of a heavy freighter design which would rely on ground-effect lift. The aircraft would feature a cargo compartment which would act as a wing, with a ...

The A-050 has a maximum takeoff weight of 54 tons and a loading capacity of nine tons. It can carry up to 100 passengers. With an effective range of 5,000 kilometers, the cruising speed of the A-050 ...

Electric ducted fans blow air under the wing to produce a power-augmented ram effect that reduces takeoff speed and distance. Credit: Flying Ship Flying Ship is a U.S. startup that plans to modernize ...

In the 1960s the Soviet Union began experimenting with what they called ekranoplans, ground effect vehicles (GEVs) that were something of a hybrid between a ship and a large airplane. Their stubby ...

Inspired by Soviet ground effect vehicles, an American engineer proposed a colossal ekranoplan capable of carrying thousands of passengers or entire military units. Designed to fly just above the ...