A brother of mine used to fly gliders. When he was learning, he was flying alongside his instructor (separate aircraft). They were running out of altitude to make it back the their field. The instructor said "follow me", then stuck the nose down and flew quite fast in ground effect, rising up to miss hedges and trees, and got back to the field with quite a bit of spare speed in hand.
The closeups skimming over the surface of the glassy water are just sublime. I can't imagine what it would feel like to actually fly in a plane like that. Closest to a "spiritual" experience as I can imagine.
Heart felt for you when you lost a week solving ESC issue. Talking us through those kind of problems and how you solved them would be interesting. Thanks for the great videos!
Really impressive. Thanks for including the rough weather conditions, handled it much better than expected. Also just beatiful pictures, the reflections and all, wow.
Absolutely amazing! I remember watching Daniel, as a kid, flying one of his homemade planes, out from his bedroom window, to a distant mountain, and back through his window. You, two, are absolute geniuses. 👍👏
Just FYI, in the aerospace industry, our metallurgists typically have us using LPS-3 inhibitor for general applications. CorrosionX products, including HD, have failed their salt-spray torture exams in the lab, like nearly all consumer-type products do.
Fantastic project and concept! When I was in Germany in 1991 I met the German engineer Dr. Hanno Fischer who was at the forefront of this field at the time. I met with him in hopes of licensing his tech but unfortunately he had recently signed with a company in Westport, CT to make 5-6 seat version. Their ‘sales pitch’ was that you technically didn’t need a pilot’s license as their version could NOT fly out of ground effect. It was technically a boat, governed by the Coast Guard. This made it tremendously efficient as you could use a much smaller engine, and when need be, you could temporarily clear obstacles by compressing the air cushion below the craft and ‘bounce’ over smaller obstacles. The craft was mainly built to use rivers, waterways and open water as highways. To this day I still believe there’s a tremendous value in this concept for passengers and freight. Keep up the great work! 👍
Man, just wow, this whole project is amazing. Having designed (conceptually) an Ekranoplan myself, its amazing to see prototyping and testing at this scale. Congrats!!
This proves the old saying correct "You never stop learning". I'd always thought or assumed that ground effect vehicles could only fly close to the surface but you have opened my eyes some what. I can only imagine flying or navigating or driving this machine and its versatility. Great stuff, thank you.
If he can build a full size WIG craft that can carry 8-10 passengers and navigate over 5'-10ft seas it will overfly all the current WIG craft I've seen fly.
This is a beautiful project and well documented. Congratulations on the work. I am a long time modeler and am still astounded by the newer generation and how much you guys can accomplish. Keep up the great work!
Daniel of RC Test flight is more of a "I've got an idea!" and two hours later he is out using math and electronics to fly a pizza box above the lake. I really like his channel and to see the ideas he has actually take life. This collaboration seems like a great way for us viewers to be able to see how the ideas and proof of concepts can perform when refined.
How far you have come since the days of trying to get a Tupperware container to avoid the sea weed and find its way to your final waypoint. Nicely done!
@@sergouss I was there this summer, saw that soviet monster with my eyes and almost cried of his unlucky fate. Hope someone will continue the history of экранопланs Btw "экран" means "shield", in this case its air shield / buffer
I remember "designing" ekranoplans in X-Plane for the lols. It was most difficult to exploit ground effect in a simulation, not explicitly designed to do so. Glad to see that the company is still alive and kicking and has apparently taken important steps forward addressing the main issue with stability in ground effect. It has become clear that it is virtually impossible to design a self-stabilising and efficient WIGE craft capable of mastering varying real-world conditions. Your contribution might seem playful to some, but others will consider it cutting edge applied engineering. Kudos!
I found it a bit odd that 'the company' gave them pretty much open ended design freedom, and sounds like they came up with the design!!!?? So the company, that's been working on this for some time, didn't even have a concept design????
@@pawspaws101 it has. This configuration of an inverse delta in ground effect is very old, first designed by Prof. Lippisch in the early 60's and first "flown" in 1963. It was subsequently developed into larger more capable (prototype) models that culminated in the design of the company talked about here.
That was awesome! My X’s Grandfather use to own the original US patent for the ground effect ocean craft. He was an Australian who worked for NASA all of his life, and way way way past his retirement age. I was sat next to him on his 80th Birthday, and asked him “when are you going to retire?” He said “When they say I can!”😂😂😂😂
The reverse delta already is one of the more stable forms for ground-effect, but with small aircrafts you really want the extra stability that comes from the surface that is further away from the ground. Canards would like have a similar problem as the wings - their effect would vary greatly depending on how close to the ground it is.
It’s a pleasure to watch a video with engineers that clearly understand the principle or have at least researched the issues associated with the project and not only have you guy designed and build a very competent flying machine but it’s also a work of art and beautifully presented in this video
I've been watching Dan since he was a kid! This is basically one of the most complete projects he's done, with your help of course, and it's really amazing. You didn't even mention that the rotors can tilt! That's sick! I loved his heavy payload vehicles from back in the day, the shuttle style lifting-body drop gliders, his autonomous journeys, his aquatic journeys, fpv, solar.. so much! This wraps it all together into some NASA level shit. Just awesome.
@@poobertop- please don't pay TOO much heed to my critique. It is just my view on how some words adopt a slang usage that is opposite or unrelated to the original definition. I am old, but live easily in every era I have experienced, from the 50s to now. We in our teens had our own slang words for things that were new and cobfusing to those before us. "Sick" and "Dope" are today's compliments or statements of amazement, much like the ones of my teen and young adult era, the psychedelic and hippy influenced era: "crash" was coming down from an acid (LSD) experience. "Far out" was the 1960s and 1970s equivalent of "amazing" or "I really liked that." Your choice of "cool" was understandable by people even younger than I am, because the term "cool" meant "good" and "liked" by the beatniks, who preceded psychedelic hippies. Beatniks were a part of my older brother's era, and used to like getting together at small retail food and coffe shops. In the last 20 years, a strange idolatry of being criminal has woven its way into fashion and language. Take the sagging pants fad that has gone to some wild extremes. It has its origin in prison clothing, assigned to inmates with little regard to whether or not it fit. And since you could not have a belt in prison, since you could hang yourself or someone else with it, prison pants were sagging a lot. On the outside of prison, if your pants fell down low, it inferred you were a felon, a tough guy. It wasn't a gay thing, as some say, but all because of belts being prohibited in prison. Sick and bad came to mean impressive and good for reasons I don't fully get yet. But another modern exclamation by today's youth is "dope." We all know where that word's usage came from. Heroin, being high, and those people liking it. So getting high made people think of dope, and it became a word they wanted to mean something they liked. Peace, pal, and have a good day. A far out day. Rad. Cool. Awesome. Sick. Dope. Wild. Ridiculous. ... and good. So put no stock in my comment, it was purely a generational response.
@@logmeindangit Well, my geriatric friend, it's not critique. Unless you believe rolling your eyes or shaking your head is critique? To include ":::eye roll, SMH:::" in your comment is your own attempt to follow the current trends of pop-language. Your observations are obvious and to understand them is basic. You come off as a hypocritical old man who can't talk to the deer's in his yard so you instead sink the precious few minutes you have left on this planet rambling on in TH-cam comments to people who weren't even trying to engage with you in the first place.
Finally RC ekranoplans/WIG vehicles are getting some attention! I have been building these for years doing all sorts of experiments which has been so fun but there has been such a lack of interest every time I share. So it is really fun to finally get some cool content on these!
TOP QUALITY VIDEO!!! Cool plane design: check. Fantastic camerawork: check. Great music selection: check. It was so entertaining to watch this beauty dancing on the water. A full size version would definitely get the attention of some speadboat and yacht owners, since this is just simply cooler than their super expensive toy.
I loved this video. The blunt commentary is awesome - full of excellently phrased gems of info. I actually Laughed Out Loud at "knocked it out in 30 seconds or so". :-) Great work on the plane and the video!
Really great result of the collaboration between you guys. I was particularly impressed with the rough weather testing, if scaling up proves accurate then the full size vehicle would be able to handle sizeable waves in ground effect 👍
To explain the concept in simpler terms, it is used by pelicans skimming over the waves near the beach... apparently they've known about the WIG effect for eons. :)
I have never wrote a comment on TH-cam before but this time I had to do it. I do a lot of browsing on TH-cam searching for cool projects but this is one craziest things I've ever seen. Congratulations 👏
@@VidarrKerr I'm aware as I watched the video. I've asked for data to see how useful the effect is at this scale. You stated "this would never work at full scale". I don't understand how you could state this as there are plenty of ground effects vehicles at full scale. So I'm wondering what you meant by your comment.
Of all the channels I subscribe to, this is the video I have been most anticipating since your first installment. Have any plans for your first craft? Put the same system in it? If you don’t have plans for it, let me know. I’m interested in getting it to the fully autonomous stage, flying waypoint missions including takeoff and landing. Great work. Great collab! Your fabrication skills are praiseworthy.
@@thinkflight would you be willing to send me the airframe if I cover freight charges? Or let me know how much you would need to part ways with the airframe and onboard electronics (receiver, servos, anything that might difficult or help impossible to remove. ) you I have a selection of autopilots, sensors, batteries, and transmitters. I’m an electronics engineer and embedded systems designer/programmer. I just don’t have mad fabrication skills you’ve demonstrated, though you have inspired me to develop those skills over time. Best wishes and keep up the good work!
This Vehicle was built from: " 4:42 to 6:16 " ! I wish I could build an Aircraft that fast >>> And such good work too ! Thank you , T.F. I needed that ! Seriously, time is limited !
@@Nordic_Mechanic i am expected efficiency to go up. Id like to know by how much. Ground effect craft are kinda niche market and need to prove a lot if they are going to catch on.
Yeah I'd like them to run a few battery tests at least, one flying it as a plane, and another at ground effect and use flight times as a metric for efficiency.
I'm curious about the logic of processing the LIDAR input. Is it an immediate reaction type of thing, or is there an integral component to it to eliminate "structural" variance in the surface (e.g. waves, pebbles etc.)? Was averaging info from multiple LIDARs on different spots on the ekranoplan ever a consideration?
Your dead pan style in humor is gorgeous mate, Bob Newhartian. And dear gods the future has arrived. Howard just rang, really embarrassed about the Spruce Goose thing. I wonder, for the good of human wanders, do you cats time travel! o7 Fly safe!
I hope they paid you a boatload (see what I did there) of money for your IP. Getting their machine working is probably worth at least a million dollars of VC funding to them! Wonderful work, you two are just amazeballs. #ArdupilotFTW !
I would love to see this data. Once in ground effect mod the increase lift would require much less propeller push. I would guess is a trade of speed x efficiency in this condition.
Dude you gotta be nearly my age (50) and you're job is playing with RC toys. Damn, i thought I had it made making knives for a living. Beautiful flying man. Amazing to see the Earth from the air
good idea. The first ekranoplane was built in USSR in 60 by R.Alekseev. He create first hydrofoils and ekranoplanes. I'm always love that concept. Looking forward for small, affordable ekranoplanes
Kudos! Handled those moderate chop and wind conditions much better that I expected. How far will you push the envelope on this, any plans for autonomous sea trials etc?
@@someoneelse7629 I would say that survivability gets worse with increased scale because the length, area, volume, strength, mass, velocity & Rn ratios involved in scaling, full size things tend to be more fragile for their size than models.
The water is beautiful, there's no waves, and the sunset makes for a serene landscape. Great aircraft, great flight footage. Something I would suggest is an RC boat with cameras to get footage from a low angle.
I never thought I would be that guy but please don't run up your props while standing eye level in front of them without any safety glasses. I've had prop nuts let go before and I can tell you the propeller travels forward in a straight line really fast when it happens. Aside from that you and Daniel did a great a job. Keep up the good work.
Ground-effect aircrafts are really interesting, sadly scaling them down does not work so well for flying over water as the effect only becomes really noticeable once you are very close to the surface so waves become a big problem.
The optimal height depends on the size of the airplane and I suppose some other factors but the Caspian Sea Monster hat an optimal ground effect at 20m height.
@@Garium87 "The optimal height depends on the size of the airplane" Yes, hence why i said that downscaling has serious problems as you need to get closer and closer to the surface to get noticeable results, getting ever closer to the wave-tops.
Excellent design & build. Spectacular images (that banked turn dipping the wing at 11:40 & the sunset @12:45 !). Collab with another legend (Daniel). VNV Nation in the soundtrack --> Subbed :-)
A proven design, though it has been 50+ years since it was used. I was wondering if you put the weight of the full sized machine to scale also? The control system in and of itself is quite amazing.
With scaling down a model the behavior is much more sensitive compared to the full size one. In RC planes and helicopters, the larger the model, the more stable it is, so if anything, this video shows that the full scale one would probably be very easy to control (like you said, a proven design).
Great work in all aspects of design of the Advanced Technology Craft. And wonderful production value and edits overall!!! Thanks for sharing your adventures in inventing technology!!!✅
Popular Mechanics Magazine had an article on this principle and they actually had a manned workable model flying feet over the water. This was 20-25 years ago. I was really intrigued by it because it had excellent business potential. I never heard or saw anything about it since.
I've found this type of aircraft extremely interesting from the time I saw reports and videos of the big Soviet aircraft. The fact that they never built more of them, must have something to do with envisioned operations, cost. and political issues. As a layman, the first commercial application of this type of craft that I can see, is transcontinental, and Pacific Ocean area passenger services. If massed produced models can prove that they can be commercial successful, Eco friendly, and cost effective vis jet airliner competitors. The world could have a new way of travel in the future. Bottom line.. can a profitable business model be developed. I'm impressed with the construction of the model in this video. 👍👍😊
So sick at @11:50 how the wing tip just what seems mm's off the top of the glass-like water... now mentioning "glass-like" - are there any issues with the lidar & the water being so mirrorlike/ reflective?
Wow! That last flight - at times it looked like the downward facing LIDAR was doing a low pass filter on the waves as they go by, making the while plane rise and fall gently, just a bit. Or maybe I was just hynotized!
A brother of mine used to fly gliders. When he was learning, he was flying alongside his instructor (separate aircraft). They were running out of altitude to make it back the their field. The instructor said "follow me", then stuck the nose down and flew quite fast in ground effect, rising up to miss hedges and trees, and got back to the field with quite a bit of spare speed in hand.
Ballsy move in a glider, a bit of wing flex and that sh*t can go real wrong
Even noticeable in a hang-glider when the wing is a couple metres from the ground.
@@afrog2666 Wing flex? What are you talking about? Glider aerobatic demonstrations rely hugely on ground effect.
GIGACHAD HOLY
@@thefirstsin what ?
There is some poethic appeal to flying so close to the water surface... simply beautiful!! Congratulations, guys
The closeups skimming over the surface of the glassy water are just sublime. I can't imagine what it would feel like to actually fly in a plane like that. Closest to a "spiritual" experience as I can imagine.
Learn to hang-glide !?
Heart felt for you when you lost a week solving ESC issue. Talking us through those kind of problems and how you solved them would be interesting. Thanks for the great videos!
Really impressive. Thanks for including the rough weather conditions, handled it much better than expected. Also just beatiful pictures, the reflections and all, wow.
Absolutely amazing! I remember watching Daniel, as a kid, flying one of his homemade planes, out from his bedroom window, to a distant mountain, and back through his window. You, two, are absolute geniuses. 👍👏
Just FYI, in the aerospace industry, our metallurgists typically have us using LPS-3 inhibitor for general applications. CorrosionX products, including HD, have failed their salt-spray torture exams in the lab, like nearly all consumer-type products do.
thanks for the tip, on order...
Fantastic project and concept! When I was in Germany in 1991 I met the German engineer Dr. Hanno Fischer who was at the forefront of this field at the time. I met with him in hopes of licensing his tech but unfortunately he had recently signed with a company in Westport, CT to make 5-6 seat version. Their ‘sales pitch’ was that you technically didn’t need a pilot’s license as their version could NOT fly out of ground effect. It was technically a boat, governed by the Coast Guard. This made it tremendously efficient as you could use a much smaller engine, and when need be, you could temporarily clear obstacles by compressing the air cushion below the craft and ‘bounce’ over smaller obstacles. The craft was mainly built to use rivers, waterways and open water as highways. To this day I still believe there’s a tremendous value in this concept for passengers and freight. Keep up the great work! 👍
No way that is amazing that you met him! I'm jealous!
Thanks for reminding me of VNV Nation. It's been a long time, and it's great to see they're still making music I love.
Nothing like a little lake effect flying. Absolutely wonderful.
Man, just wow, this whole project is amazing. Having designed (conceptually) an Ekranoplan myself, its amazing to see prototyping and testing at this scale. Congrats!!
Is the concept all in your head, as I couldn't see anything on your channel?
@@ruzziasht349 no no it was part of my masters thesis
At this scale? You mean tiny little teeny toy scale? What was your model, only drawn on paper?
are you guys fucking high...you did your masters thesis on a concept thats already full scaled in production? th-cam.com/video/-r7mFSq8PRU/w-d-xo.html
This proves the old saying correct "You never stop learning". I'd always thought or assumed that ground effect vehicles could only fly close to the surface but you have opened my eyes some what. I can only imagine flying or navigating or driving this machine and its versatility. Great stuff, thank you.
If he can build a full size WIG craft that can carry 8-10 passengers and navigate over 5'-10ft seas it will overfly all the current WIG craft I've seen fly.
I've been flying RC for 40 years. It makes me very happy to see young people using innovated technology. Good job guys! 👍😀🛩
Finished project looks beautiful, it does have a “ocean ray” appearance. Those props are doing some serious rpm’s, they sound gutsy. 🧐
This is a beautiful project and well documented. Congratulations on the work. I am a long time modeler and am still astounded by the newer generation and how much you guys can accomplish. Keep up the great work!
I'm so glad the cameras can do justice to your wonderful creation.
That's gotta be the most badass ekronoplan I've seen, thus far.
I'm floored this is so Awesome... You all are so Awesome!!!
Daniel of RC Test flight is more of a "I've got an idea!" and two hours later he is out using math and electronics to fly a pizza box above the lake. I really like his channel and to see the ideas he has actually take life. This collaboration seems like a great way for us viewers to be able to see how the ideas and proof of concepts can perform when refined.
What they are doing is an absolute beauty !
I think that’s what we all love about rctestflight!
Well, the USSR developed real ekranoplans in 1975 GEV
Awesome smooth flying 5 cm above water. Congrats for this achievements.
How far you have come since the days of trying to get a Tupperware container to avoid the sea weed and find its way to your final waypoint. Nicely done!
This truely one of the prettiest model aircrafts I've ever seen. Great job
Fun fact: "Ekran" is a soviet innovative word. It means the air buffer between the plane and the water surface.
Here is the one good model developed back in 1987 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lun-class_ekranoplan
@@sergouss I was there this summer, saw that soviet monster with my eyes and almost cried of his unlucky fate. Hope someone will continue the history of экранопланs
Btw "экран" means "shield", in this case its air shield / buffer
"Soviet" isn't a language. It's not even a country. It's just the inhuman war criminal regime that was occupying Russia
Caspian Sea Monster
This is old technology! I’m very happy you are breathed new life in this technology! Thank you so much!
Damn, amazing. The engineering and Daniel and you, three pillars of the hobby.
Super designs. Mad scientists at work. The world should focus more attention on further development of Ekranoplans.
I remember "designing" ekranoplans in X-Plane for the lols. It was most difficult to exploit ground effect in a simulation, not explicitly designed to do so.
Glad to see that the company is still alive and kicking and has apparently taken important steps forward addressing the main issue with stability in ground effect.
It has become clear that it is virtually impossible to design a self-stabilising and efficient WIGE craft capable of mastering varying real-world conditions.
Your contribution might seem playful to some, but others will consider it cutting edge applied engineering.
Kudos!
I found it a bit odd that 'the company' gave them pretty much open ended design freedom, and sounds like they came up with the design!!!??
So the company, that's been working on this for some time, didn't even have a concept design????
@@pawspaws101 it has. This configuration of an inverse delta in ground effect is very old, first designed by Prof. Lippisch in the early 60's and first "flown" in 1963. It was subsequently developed into larger more capable (prototype) models that culminated in the design of the company talked about here.
That was awesome!
My X’s Grandfather use to own the original US patent for the ground effect ocean craft. He was an Australian who worked for NASA all of his life, and way way way past his retirement age. I was sat next to him on his 80th Birthday, and asked him “when are you going to retire?” He said “When they say I can!”😂😂😂😂
Always glad to help with cool projects. Great job on the build and video!
Thanks man literally couldn't have done it without you.
Great video! Are there plans available to purchase for this project?
Impressed with these craft. Tail out of ground effect? What about a canard version instead?
Canards are pretty unstable and how would it perform if it was in ground effect?
The reverse delta already is one of the more stable forms for ground-effect, but with small aircrafts you really want the extra stability that comes from the surface that is further away from the ground.
Canards would like have a similar problem as the wings - their effect would vary greatly depending on how close to the ground it is.
Awesome craftsmanship making the machine, but even more awesome skills, filming and producing the video. The images taken are beautiful, great job!
It’s a pleasure to watch a video with engineers that clearly understand the principle or have at least researched the issues associated with the project and not only have you guy designed and build a very competent flying machine but it’s also a work of art and beautifully presented in this video
I've been watching Dan since he was a kid! This is basically one of the most complete projects he's done, with your help of course, and it's really amazing. You didn't even mention that the rotors can tilt! That's sick!
I loved his heavy payload vehicles from back in the day, the shuttle style lifting-body drop gliders, his autonomous journeys, his aquatic journeys, fpv, solar.. so much! This wraps it all together into some NASA level shit. Just awesome.
"sick" - :::eye roll, SMH:::
@@logmeindangit ":::eye roll, SMH:::" Very Cool, Log'.
@@poobertop- please don't pay TOO much heed to my critique. It is just my view on how some words adopt a slang usage that is opposite or unrelated to the original definition. I am old, but live easily in every era I have experienced, from the 50s to now. We in our teens had our own slang words for things that were new and cobfusing to those before us. "Sick" and "Dope" are today's compliments or statements of amazement, much like the ones of my teen and young adult era, the psychedelic and hippy influenced era: "crash" was coming down from an acid (LSD) experience. "Far out" was the 1960s and 1970s equivalent of "amazing" or "I really liked that." Your choice of "cool" was understandable by people even younger than I am, because the term "cool" meant "good" and "liked" by the beatniks, who preceded psychedelic hippies. Beatniks were a part of my older brother's era, and used to like getting together at small retail food and coffe shops.
In the last 20 years, a strange idolatry of being criminal has woven its way into fashion and language. Take the sagging pants fad that has gone to some wild extremes. It has its origin in prison clothing, assigned to inmates with little regard to whether or not it fit. And since you could not have a belt in prison, since you could hang yourself or someone else with it, prison pants were sagging a lot. On the outside of prison, if your pants fell down low, it inferred you were a felon, a tough guy. It wasn't a gay thing, as some say, but all because of belts being prohibited in prison.
Sick and bad came to mean impressive and good for reasons I don't fully get yet.
But another modern exclamation by today's youth is "dope." We all know where that word's usage came from. Heroin, being high, and those people liking it. So getting high made people think of dope, and it became a word they wanted to mean something they liked.
Peace, pal, and have a good day. A far out day. Rad. Cool. Awesome. Sick. Dope. Wild. Ridiculous.
... and good.
So put no stock in my comment, it was purely a generational response.
@@logmeindangit Well, my geriatric friend, it's not critique.
Unless you believe rolling your eyes or shaking your head is critique?
To include ":::eye roll, SMH:::" in your comment is your own attempt to follow the current trends of pop-language.
Your observations are obvious and to understand them is basic.
You come off as a hypocritical old man who can't talk to the deer's in his yard so you instead sink the precious few minutes you have left on this planet rambling on in TH-cam comments to people who weren't even trying to engage with you in the first place.
Finally RC ekranoplans/WIG vehicles are getting some attention! I have been building these for years doing all sorts of experiments which has been so fun but there has been such a lack of interest every time I share. So it is really fun to finally get some cool content on these!
Pete sripol made one
th-cam.com/video/ifllgTA2pmY/w-d-xo.html!(!
I checked your channel, you have nothing.
@@ruzziasht349 I never said I made videos I said I've been make RC WIG vehicles for years.
@@willowehrich6207 It's much, much easier to make a video (to prove what you've been doing), than to make and an actual WIG vehicle.
Really great work! Protect yourself, as best you can, to make sure you don't get ripped off!
Gorgeous footage with that water mirror and mindblowing sunset!😍💜🥰
TOP QUALITY VIDEO!!!
Cool plane design: check. Fantastic camerawork: check. Great music selection: check.
It was so entertaining to watch this beauty dancing on the water.
A full size version would definitely get the attention of some speadboat and yacht owners, since this is just simply cooler than their super expensive toy.
I wish the Wright Bros could time travel and see what you guys have done.
Your channel is amazing! I can't believe you don't even have 100k subs. You deserve many times more than that!
Whopping well done. Superior level of craftmanship and engineering. Will you manage to bring the ekranoplanes back to life?
Supernice edited and music as well!
Let's hope modern Americans aren't too afraid of Russia to embrace the technology they pioneered decades ago ... 😂
I loved this video. The blunt commentary is awesome - full of excellently phrased gems of info. I actually Laughed Out Loud at "knocked it out in 30 seconds or so". :-) Great work on the plane and the video!
In case someone is wondering - the song is: When Is the Future by VNV Nation
The finest flight photography possible. Make me think that maybe we aren't through with surface-effect just yet
Really great result of the collaboration between you guys. I was particularly impressed with the rough weather testing, if scaling up proves accurate then the full size vehicle would be able to handle sizeable waves in ground effect 👍
so much science and so casually done. Love it!
To explain the concept in simpler terms, it is used by pelicans skimming over the waves near the beach... apparently they've known about the WIG effect for eons. :)
It is also how most big birds can slow down to a few km/h before landing
I mean - noticing the effect is basically guaranteed - any aircraft that has fixed wings will experience it during takeoff and landing.
th-cam.com/video/ifllgTA2pmY/w-d-xo.html#
@@Hurricane0499 Nobody wants that bullshit here.
@@ABaumstumpf Yes, but WIG craft are specifically designed to fly in the effect efficiently.
I have never wrote a comment on TH-cam before but this time I had to do it. I do a lot of browsing on TH-cam searching for cool projects but this is one craziest things I've ever seen. Congratulations 👏
I am honored Alexandre, gratitude.
Great stuff. Still very keen to see an some efficiency tests to show the energy savings by being in ground effect!
Yeah, and once you realize this would never work at full scale, you realize it is a huge fail.
@@VidarrKerr this does work at full scale. I don’t understand your comment.
@@toxaq Bro, it is a tiny little model plane. That is NOT full scale.
@@VidarrKerr I'm aware as I watched the video. I've asked for data to see how useful the effect is at this scale. You stated "this would never work at full scale". I don't understand how you could state this as there are plenty of ground effects vehicles at full scale. So I'm wondering what you meant by your comment.
@@VidarrKerr You do realize ekranoplans get better the bigger they are right? both in efficiency and in stability
Stunning. I was mesmerized. Just beautiful. Thanks for posting.
Of all the channels I subscribe to, this is the video I have been most anticipating since your first installment. Have any plans for your first craft? Put the same system in it? If you don’t have plans for it, let me know. I’m interested in getting it to the fully autonomous stage, flying waypoint missions including takeoff and landing. Great work. Great collab! Your fabrication skills are praiseworthy.
I don't have plans to share for the first one, this one is completely different in every way though. You should go for it, these things are a hoot.
@@thinkflight would you be willing to send me the airframe if I cover freight charges? Or let me know how much you would need to part ways with the airframe and onboard electronics (receiver, servos, anything that might difficult or help impossible to remove. ) you
I have a selection of autopilots, sensors, batteries, and transmitters. I’m an electronics engineer and embedded systems designer/programmer. I just don’t have mad fabrication skills you’ve demonstrated, though you have inspired me to develop those skills over time.
Best wishes and keep up the good work!
The elimination of porpoising is super impressive. So smooth!
this looks like a game changer, I would love to experience flying that...
Nothing like a little VNV instrumental support! Inspirational work guys.
WOW, that was amazing!
This Vehicle was built from: " 4:42 to 6:16 " ! I wish I could build an Aircraft that fast >>>
And such good work too ! Thank you , T.F. I needed that ! Seriously, time is limited !
Question: Was there any noticable amount of efficiency when is G effect vs flying around? if so,what kind of percentage?
Yes drag goes down so efficiency goes up. Can't give you numbers though
@@Nordic_Mechanic i am expected efficiency to go up. Id like to know by how much. Ground effect craft are kinda niche market and need to prove a lot if they are going to catch on.
Yeah I'd like them to run a few battery tests at least, one flying it as a plane, and another at ground effect and use flight times as a metric for efficiency.
@@bucklogos exactly!
Fantastic amount of brain power and skills clearly went into getting that all to work, fly and even film it. Impressive.
You get an extra thumbs up for using VNV Nation's song ;)
I'm curious about the logic of processing the LIDAR input. Is it an immediate reaction type of thing, or is there an integral component to it to eliminate "structural" variance in the surface (e.g. waves, pebbles etc.)?
Was averaging info from multiple LIDARs on different spots on the ekranoplan ever a consideration?
Fantastic job. This is impressive!
Your dead pan style in humor is gorgeous mate, Bob Newhartian. And dear gods the future has arrived. Howard just rang, really embarrassed about the Spruce Goose thing. I wonder, for the good of human wanders, do you cats time travel! o7 Fly safe!
*We need competitive professional Ekranoplan racing!*
And battles
th-cam.com/video/ifllgTA2pmY/w-d-xo.html^"^
Awesome!
Beautiful video creation. I’ll be thinking of this achievement when I’m next in Mexico watching the pelicans floating over the waves along the beach.
I hope they paid you a boatload (see what I did there) of money for your IP. Getting their machine working is probably worth at least a million dollars of VC funding to them! Wonderful work, you two are just amazeballs. #ArdupilotFTW !
yea pretty much. if your designing and making their test model
yea no kidding... highly doubt they paid them even close to enough, akin to "i can trade you for exposure"
th-cam.com/video/ifllgTA2pmY/w-d-xo.html!=!
@@Hurricane0499 Stop spamming
As a geezer, I’ve watched mechanical things go from analogue to hybrid analogue/digital. It’s been a cool trip.
How does power consumption compare in ground effect vs normal flight? Is there an advantage?
I would love to see this data. Once in ground effect mod the increase lift would require much less propeller push. I would guess is a trade of speed x efficiency in this condition.
Dude you gotta be nearly my age (50) and you're job is playing with RC toys. Damn, i thought I had it made making knives for a living.
Beautiful flying man. Amazing to see the Earth from the air
please make this a new flightmode and add to Arduplane! people would love this!
I hope it gets added too.
good idea. The first ekranoplane was built in USSR in 60 by R.Alekseev. He create first hydrofoils and ekranoplanes. I'm always love that concept. Looking forward for small, affordable ekranoplanes
This is definitely my favorite RC vid of the year. Also you have great taste in music =)
Ekranoplan and VNV Nation. My mind is blown for the day, thanks. :)
Kudos!
Handled those moderate chop and wind conditions much better that I expected. How far will you push the envelope on this, any plans for autonomous sea trials etc?
Yeah, and waves doesn't scale, those were som mountains if you take scale into it.
On a fullsize craft the waves are more like ripples in the ground
@@someoneelse7629 I would say that survivability gets worse with increased scale because the length, area, volume, strength, mass, velocity & Rn ratios involved in scaling, full size things tend to be more fragile for their size than models.
th-cam.com/video/ifllgTA2pmY/w-d-xo.html"!"
The water is beautiful, there's no waves, and the sunset makes for a serene landscape. Great aircraft, great flight footage.
Something I would suggest is an RC boat with cameras to get footage from a low angle.
Congrats to this awesome build! Like your collaboration with Daniel who is a great inventor too :o)
What a stunningly beautiful shape this ekranoplan has! A beautiful plane will definitely have a future))
I never thought I would be that guy but please don't run up your props while standing eye level in front of them without any safety glasses. I've had prop nuts let go before and I can tell you the propeller travels forward in a straight line really fast when it happens. Aside from that you and Daniel did a great a job. Keep up the good work.
its pretty rare to here vnv nation being played on youtube these days nice to see they are still active
What a damn beautiful craft!
Incredible construction and desigh! Result is a beautiful air/water craft. Thanks for sharing.
"It's a flying squirrel!"
*Every From the Depths player liked that.*
Moose & Squirrel. Boris & Natasha. Fearless Leader.
wow, this is also my research since 2015. That is really smart to combine lidar with thrust and control system
Spectacular footage!! Might have been cool to fly from the water surface over the flat beach and back
WoW! That's an incredible vehicle! Well done!
Love that song you put in the end while you were flying! It fits like a glove 😊😊
Ground-effect aircrafts are really interesting, sadly scaling them down does not work so well for flying over water as the effect only becomes really noticeable once you are very close to the surface so waves become a big problem.
The optimal height depends on the size of the airplane and I suppose some other factors but the Caspian Sea Monster hat an optimal ground effect at 20m height.
@@Garium87 "The optimal height depends on the size of the airplane"
Yes, hence why i said that downscaling has serious problems as you need to get closer and closer to the surface to get noticeable results, getting ever closer to the wave-tops.
Congratulations. The drone footage on this is fantastic too.
Excellent design & build. Spectacular images (that banked turn dipping the wing at 11:40 & the sunset @12:45 !). Collab with another legend (Daniel). VNV Nation in the soundtrack --> Subbed :-)
Nice work brothers , Respect ✊! Keep going to the edge and beyond !!!
A proven design, though it has been 50+ years since it was used. I was wondering if you put the weight of the full sized machine to scale also? The control system in and of itself is quite amazing.
With scaling down a model the behavior is much more sensitive compared to the full size one. In RC planes and helicopters, the larger the model, the more stable it is, so if anything, this video shows that the full scale one would probably be very easy to control (like you said, a proven design).
th-cam.com/video/ifllgTA2pmY/w-d-xo.html!'!
Great work in all aspects of design of the Advanced Technology Craft. And wonderful production value and edits overall!!!
Thanks for sharing your adventures in inventing technology!!!✅
Popular Mechanics Magazine had an article on this principle and they actually had a manned workable model flying feet over the water. This was 20-25 years ago. I was really intrigued by it because it had excellent business potential. I never heard or saw anything about it since.
Wow that’s something I’ve always want d to build. I love that propel share this stuff on TH-cam and I found it.
I've found this type of aircraft extremely interesting from the time I saw reports and videos of the big Soviet aircraft. The fact that they never built more of them, must have something to do with envisioned operations, cost. and political issues. As a layman, the first commercial application of this type of craft that I can see, is transcontinental, and Pacific Ocean area passenger services. If massed produced models can prove that they can be commercial successful, Eco friendly, and cost effective vis jet airliner competitors. The world could have a new way of travel in the future. Bottom line.. can a profitable business model be developed. I'm impressed with the construction of the model in this video. 👍👍😊
I have watched Daniel's video of his ship which was very interesting and this continues the intrigue. This is awesome.
I really really like that design, she's a beauty!
So sick at @11:50 how the wing tip just what seems mm's off the top of the glass-like water... now mentioning "glass-like" - are there any issues with the lidar & the water being so mirrorlike/ reflective?
what an incredible project.... i am surprised it got posted... Loved the music too... sent me to a place far away...
Great innovation, great job! Beautiful !! Beautiful !!! even the music fits so well
Wow! That last flight - at times it looked like the downward facing LIDAR was doing a low pass filter on the waves as they go by, making the while plane rise and fall gently, just a bit. Or maybe I was just hynotized!
Funker Vogt and VNV Nation have been in the favorites for decades.