The Liberty Lifter

[Jolly]

The project keeps moving on...

Link to video

[taiwan_girl]

Interesting. I have never hear before of "ground effect flight".

[Jolly]

The Soviets dumped a lot of resources into the concept. It's interesting reading.

[George K]

@Jolly said in The Liberty Lifter:

The Soviets dumped a lot of resources into the concept. It's interesting reading.

You beat me.

I'm sure @Copper can elaborate, but ground effect is a real thing. As you bring the aircraft near the ground, lift increases, and you have to compensate, lest you run out of runway.

I believe the Soviet research was with aircraft that would cruise at a negligible altitude above the ocean surface.

[Copper]

@George-K said in The Liberty Lifter:

As you bring the aircraft near the ground, lift increases,

Yes, it is like magic.

You have the air stream flowing over the wing, then it goes down and back. This air going down and back creates drag. The air is also flowing off the bottom/end of the wing and coming around to push down on the top of the wing (this is reduced by those winglets you see on airliners pointing up on the end of the wing).

When you get near the ground the air flow is disrupted and therefore the drag is reduced. It really works, just like magic.

If you aren't aware of this it can cause a couple problems.

Landing, as you enter ground effect you lose drag/gain lift this might cause you to float for a while and overshoot your landing.

Take off, as you leave ground effect you create more drag/less lift. This can result in a loss of altitude, not what you want at low altitude.

So what can the pilot do? Be aware of the effect and keep your movements smooth.

[taiwan_girl]

Very cool science.

[George K]

Link to video

[taiwan_girl]

@George-K Thanks George