Most people think of aircraft as things that fly high in the sky, well beyond the influence of ground effect. But interestingly, some heavy transport vehicles are designed to skim the surface of the earth or the water, buoyed by the extra lift that ground effect provides.
You may have heard of ground effect as a “cushion of air” you experienced on landing making you float halfway down the runway. You may not have realized that there have been a number of vehicles designed specifically to flourish in what’s normally a great inconvenience to us pilots.
SCFC Flight Instructor Noa Brown has been fascinated by this interesting class of aircraft for some time and has pulled together an interesting introduction into the various production vehicles that use this in the real world. Come and join us in our seminar where we take a more in depth look at ground effect and some unique and frankly bizarre ground effect vehicles.
Noa Brown has been with San Carlos Flight Center since last summer. He is a former aerospace engineer and got his degree at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. He is particularly interested in historical aircraft.
