You might want to look up the late Francis Reynolds' "Hydrocopter" concept. It's been many, many years ago, but he explored a fascinating hydrofoil concept that looks, from today's perspective, sort of like an inverted quadcopter with independently tiltable rotors that touch the water on each rotor circle's tangent. By controlling each rotor axis tilt in 2 dimensions he was able to place the water contact patch for each so that the thrust generated could point in any direction in the horizontal plane. My Reynolds died in 2019, but he was a retired Boeing engineer who lived on Lake Sammamish (as I recall) where he proved out various model craft experiments. One of his early prototypes for what would become the hydrocopter used very similar paddle wheels to what you are using. His direct inspiration came from the way water fowl use their webbed feet as dynamic hydrofoils to get off the water so their wings can take over. If I remember right (it was the mid '80s when he was presenting this to a group) he said the paddle wheel version was difficult to control around yaw; that is why he eventually went with the tilted thruster design. Mr Reynolds held a number of patents. His full name was Francis Drake Reynolds, and he was an avid RC air and water craft modeller.
@@DSIVXX Next he's gonna make a V shaped, high speed tank tread to increase the stroke against the water, say, the entire fuselage is a paddle belt/ treadmill, with the paddle wheels on the wing tips for stability... A winged snowmobile with a 3rd center wheel you adjust up and down to change the surface contact (edited at 8:10) (I'm honest)
Same; at first I thought well this is silly but should be fun; but on second thought I actually think this might one the most elegant method to stabilize a agressive ground effect in choppy waters. I mean sure you can try all kinds of fancy active control with big surfaces and super fast actuators... but 'paddle wheel goes brrrrrr' is just really hard to beat in terms of simplicity and reliability. I think if you really designed a craft to make the most of this method I think that might just win you a Nobel for having officially cracked small scale ground effect vehicles (thats a category right?)
Daniel was the guy getting silky smooth drone footage back in the day when the rest of us were getting footage the looked like it came out of a blender. So naturally he's upped his footage game again!
You could try triangular shaped paddles to get a smoother transition when the wheels plunge into water. It would reduce the bouncing over water. I love your experiments, science can be really fun!
How about angling them out a bit to the sides, and adding outriggers, to keep the spray away from the vehicle body?? This could turn into a super maneuverable vehicle and potentially pull actual high-G maneuvers on the water? 🤔
This is fantastic work. I feel like the high-speed paddle wheel is a real breakthrough -- they allow a much higher tolerance for error in the wing design and PID controls. I'd love to see you experiment with paddle geometries and see if produce more thrust or reduce spray. Also, the camera work was absolutely pristine. I'm so glad you're having fun with this.
The last bit about surfacing propellers is actually how the fastest V-Hull boats operate. They have air lifting strakes, and reverse chines in their hills, these let the entire hull "float" in essentially ground effect. All the while, the outboard or out drive is connected to the water via a surfacing propeller. These propellers are shaped uniquely vs a traditional prop and in some cases are designed to operate with the centerline well ABOVE the water's surface, and only thin section blades cutting into the water. It's a better version of your "high speed paddle wheel".
to prevent the water from kicking up, you could have the paddles be curved, which would help eject the water before it gets picked up. it would also push the water down, creating more lift to help it get off the water.
When they made the sidewinder missile , on each directional fin control surface they had tiny spinning wheels at 2000 rpm to keep the track from squirming
All the birds that I've seen coast using ground effect, have their wings bowed down. It must be more efficient. Your creation is so cool looking and futuristic. I wonder if this technique would make a good amphibious vehicle.
My dad builded real ground effect vehicles in the 90s as an engineer. They thought Im crazy in elementary school then I told them that my fathers job is to build "flying ships". Since a child I had this idea to build a rc ground effect vehicle one day and just discovered your channel. Very inspiring! Thanks alot!
With that camera you have your own stock footage maker and put up all of your stuff run forward, backward and mirrored, and I would buy it all. That is a helluva camera setup and you are makin fine use of it.
Beautiful west coast winter. Out here on the east the river has finally frozen solid over. Getting a lot of snowfall so no ice sailing. Going to have to experiment with skis instead
My intrest in ground effect vehicles is actually driven by the possible real world aplication in the Stockholm archipellago and Baltic sea travel. Ice in winter obviously impedes the usability of boats and ships. Things go slow or not at all in winter, which causes a lot of trouble. Beeing able to use existing infrastucture for boats and ships also makes this vehicle type an attractive idea. Main drawback seems to be they give a bumpy ride when the sea isn't frozen and not quite so calm.
WOW!!! how your channel has taken off!! almost 700K subscribers!!! well deserved, you make fun interesting content that you narrate exceptionally well. thank you.
Maybe rear mounted paddle wheels could work? It seems to work for rear wheel drive buggys that can pond skip. And the record for a motorbike driven on water is nearly 2km
the video is better made and more interesting than anything the BBC has made in years, the machine is great and the effort put into it and how it was filmed is very much appreciated by people who do not watch television any more, cheers,
may i suggest making "deflector" fenders, if you use conventional fenders, the high speed water that the wheels kick back will slow you down, where as if you have 45° "deflector fenders", the water will move sideways, conserving more of it's energy and not using that energy to slow your vehicle, this project is super interesting, cheers!!!
I think there's a startup opportunity for electric ground effect ferries. These ferries would not carry cars, but would carry TONS of people. What's more, at the ends of the trip, they'd become VTOL aircraft, so they could land on a large paved area next to the water and not require a dock.
Ground effect taxi. Pick up people and travel over water in ground effect. Actually capable of flight when unloaded? 🤔 this means it's faster when moving toward a pickup than otherwise.
@@dogefort8410 "Actually capable of flight when unloaded?" -- No actually capable of flight, period, but only does it out of ground effect for a short hop, so no ferry docks are needed. Just a patch of paved ground.
@@5peciesunkn0wn I'm talking about infrastructure costs and other barriers like that. It doesn't matter that they're so-so VTOL. They only have to do it for a short hop.
That’s is truly genius. With the personal interest and ground effect vehicles, I’ve been watching this channel for a long time. Regardless, that is a truly next level development!
great idea with the paddle wheels. I like the Sound when they hit the water. Little idea: What about Holes in the side of the Wheel to suck in air. Like breakrotors. They also suck in air and push it out though the middel to cool the Rotors. Maybe this could improve the liftforce.
Those high speed HD shots are really a step up! It made it so much more fun to watch! I liked the "low production" from the old but that's really coool videos
You and Sripol are amazing... Your both brains could change mobility on the planet forever!!! Please do it ;) really enjoying the unlimited yet highly technic creativity!!!
Your content is always entertaining and thought provoking.... Watching this I kept envisioning the wheels on a backwards motorcycle like swing arm allowing the wheels to hang down to the water while pulling forward and up sort of auto adjusting to maintain contact with the water....
As soon as I saw the first few seconds of this video I immediately stopped the other things I was doing. Brilliant idea. Scratched my brain engineering itch perfectly.
Really world application for the paddle wheels: A stabilizing trolling motor for small boats. Kayak would be the perfect application. Using GPS you could keep yourself stationary right over your desired set point.
Super cool. If you're really interested in crazy paddle wheel nonsense . . . years ago, I saw a prototype of a fast paddle wheel boat that was basically a little Boston Whaler that had four smallish wheels, two on each side, that didn't have paddles but had rubber tracks strung over them. Maybe 5' front to back, wheels maybe 15" diameter. Like a tank built for water. The tracks had paddles on them, and they steered by varying the speed from side to side. It planed easily at speed. Never saw or heard anything else about it, but it looked hilarious.
8:39 extend the wing over the top of the wheel, to limit spray and direct it rearward increasing the effectiveness. 8:58 The wheels are moving air when not in contact with the water. Air is a fluid too
Nice shots. It's amazing how the new tech, materials, software and everything else pales before the beauty of an efficient, light, impermeable, self-healing, bird wing.
This video has solved a problem in my mind with the hovercrafts. I always thought it is not feasible to change direction sharply with this kind of vehicles but now I see that there is a better way.
Would running the paddlewheels in reverse once in the air be possible - pushing air above the body but also pushing more air onto the water when it is near? Also, if that works - maybe possible to push water outwards to the side by using slightly diagonal oriented paddles? My first thought would be that it would crush into the surface if it hits, but on the other hand if it hits and runs in reverse it would also pitch the heavy nose up right before (due to the air blown on the water) and possibly create the necessary bump to develop ground-effect again.
I feel like regular RC car tires mounted 2x2 like a car would do wonders. The paddles may cause more drag than wheels, and the front-back orientation can help adjust for pitch and roll, while minimizing jerk in yaw on contact with the water.
Would the wheel on the plane have worked if it was off the back? An optimized version has the wheels off when above a certain height, and/or engaged in creating air-related lift force without being in contact. The energy cost to keep them rotating at all points only to give surface contact assistance seems counter-productive especially with the added weight. I don't think a larger plane would have an easier time getting switching power system to work due to elevation, since wind up speeds would be relatively the same, I'm guessing. Elevation sensors on each wing tip that can work in milliseconds and engines that can match full torque in the same?
I do think you’re onto something. Huge. I imagine the best layout might be to have dual air props up front and those high speed paddle wheels on the far back corners. That way it will keep the front up and the backside can push off the wave tops. It will be like the lizard that runs across the water, the wheels keeping those wingtips out the water keeping friction down
Might it be possible to automatically control some aerodynamic surfaces based on a high-frequency, real time measurement of the height above water? I'm thinking of something like a radio altimeter in airplanes or a laser distance sensor. The plane could control some relatively weak lift surfaces, or it could open/close vents to the ground effect air pressure below the plane. You would have to tune the whole feedback loop, which will be a pain, but it could help you actually create a feedback loop with the ground (water) that is not based on touch.
What about a catamaran where the front 3" of the hulls are separate and mounted on a motor? So when they're turned off you have a normal cat hull with low drag but you get the effect of bow thrusters when you need it.
i think you can just place those wheels in the inner side to prevent those water goes above the wing, though im not sure would it interrupt the ground effects.
The boat you mentioned making at the end is very similar to how a zap cat boat works. It’s a very light boat designed for racing and when on plane the only thing in the water is the outboard motor.
I'm wondering if down turned winglet be better in this case? Intuitively it feels like that way you'd capture more high pressure and also the blowback from the paddles.
That camera is so cool that I'm surprised it wasn't the focal point! You should totally try to find the rowing teams those people belonged to and the aircraft company and give them copies of these sick shots.
The one thing I see is that there needs to be some sort of adjustment. For example a scissor action that raises and lowers the paddle wheels as it comes up to speed. For example when you get going moving the servo will raise the body higher above in the water thus creating a slightly larger lift area. Not really sure how to explain it yet I do see there being an advantage to this. How its done, not a clue yet I am sure if you fiddled around a bit you could come up with something. If you had 4 paddle wheels you could connect 2 of them across one another via their motors then a mount plate to the bearing of the paddle wheel and using a set of gears to apply drive. I doubt that a belt would work in this application. A drop box of sorts would have to be used. The set of motors connected to a pivot point would allow the 2 paddle wheels to raise and lower. Much like a any level lift kit on a truck. This would allow you to adjust the angle of flight/paddle.
Why not make a hybrid? Increase the size of the wheels / drums to make use of the magnus effect! That way the drums will be providing lift even when not touching the water. 👍
Hey what would happen if you used that energy to make an air jet at the contact points - that could add to ground effect pressure, but also really come into effect when super close to the surface.
would it be possible to have the paddle wheels also make the thrust? like scooping a fraction of the air and or water into the middle of the paddle wheel and redirect it through the craft backwards.
Another awesome project! Always get excited when I see you posted a new vid. You need more Lake Roosevelt and Banks Lake trips. Would be happy to provide transport on the water while tracking your toys.
Have you seen the M hull design? The Navy had an interesting prototype they tested. The M80 Stiletto. It's a weird plaining/ground effect boat thingy. It captures air and it's own bow wave through "tunnels" letting it ride up with less drag and more speed.
Having configurable fairings on the wheels that direct the wash from them into nozzles might improve performance. They could have a low speed configuration that makes the wheels act as impellers and a high speed configuration that just deflects the wash from the wheels into the nozzle to more efficiently generate thrust without themselves contacting the water.
Peter Sripol's recent tank-tread propeller video made me immediately wonder if a high-speed tank tread would work better? Perhaps you could combine the pontoons with the tank tread, to save weight, while the increased surface area may reduce the minimum necessary speed of the tank tread advancement? Just an idea.
Would it be possible to have one wheel in the middle back a little bit behind the plane?? in stead of pulling the water it would push and the water won't be a problem.
Maybe open sides on the paddle wheels themselves, but mounting them in the pontoons, and let them suck air from the the top side, and have the air/water exhaust backwards/downwards, so they act as radial fans as well, that givs both some thrust and some lift.
Trying to make a hydroplane without building a hydroplane. We are restoring the Miss University at Kent Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum. For display use as engine to make it work is sorta a dream. Local hydro guy , John Adams , posted a short book on the math and basics in design. “Speed Rails” we’re in a 1990s Boating World magazine article where an Aussie made a go-fast Ocean hull the looked like Batman’s. It had plates on both sides of the center V bottom that had lots of lifting strakes ( guide your water spray horizontally Btw). At 45 or so , the plates began to lift entire hull began to rise. The rails also make a boat track like railroad tracks . Corrugated alum boats do same , you’ll see lines extending behind as they lay a trail. The 4 point Elam was tried on Lake Washington, lifted off for a 70’ flight that ended horribly. A flex drive high speed electric brushless Hydroplane Running gear with surface prop might get you to “ the Promised Land .”
Go to drinkag1.com/rctestflight for a 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 and 5 AG1 travel packs FREE with your first purchase!
Pilton wheel.
10 days before upload?
@@dontknow3886
Members only
Just bought some!
I understand that channels need video sponsors but AG1 is the worst. A terrible, expensive and just unnecessary product.
That footage is SIIIIIICCCCKkkkkkk
he just casually mentions his coolest new toy and moves on
This is true.
Hey, its Destin!
the dolly zoom on the bridge is my favorite shot
Nahh
The high speed stabilized camera with its own operator is so overkill and so awesome I love it😂😂
Looking up the camera it's a $70,000 rig. Definite overkill.
Then using the 900fps camera to shoot a hyperlaps. overkill overkill 😂
The shots are beautiful though
Yea that aint a camera that's a death star
You might want to look up the late Francis Reynolds' "Hydrocopter" concept. It's been many, many years ago, but he explored a fascinating hydrofoil concept that looks, from today's perspective, sort of like an inverted quadcopter with independently tiltable rotors that touch the water on each rotor circle's tangent. By controlling each rotor axis tilt in 2 dimensions he was able to place the water contact patch for each so that the thrust generated could point in any direction in the horizontal plane.
My Reynolds died in 2019, but he was a retired Boeing engineer who lived on Lake Sammamish (as I recall) where he proved out various model craft experiments. One of his early prototypes for what would become the hydrocopter used very similar paddle wheels to what you are using. His direct inspiration came from the way water fowl use their webbed feet as dynamic hydrofoils to get off the water so their wings can take over. If I remember right (it was the mid '80s when he was presenting this to a group) he said the paddle wheel version was difficult to control around yaw; that is why he eventually went with the tilted thruster design.
Mr Reynolds held a number of patents. His full name was Francis Drake Reynolds, and he was an avid RC air and water craft modeller.
That all sounds hecka interesting to explore further
Upvoted for visibility.
th-cam.com/video/66PmaluCvbU/w-d-xo.html
Very nice video! That dolly zoom at 12:29 is fantastic!
“GOING TO LIGHT SPEED!”
The Speed ramp at 11:36 is awesome. It looks like the water is freezing
that footage of the plane gliding is just so crisp
The reflections looks crazy good
That high speed shot where it was trowing up water and making a rainbow was so pretty!! 8:44
Your a bigot
The cinematography on this channel is unparallelled.
I’m so impressed with your frequent outside of the box ideas! 😎
This is a brilliant remix
@@PatrickKniesler It sure is...
And how fast he prototypes them
@@DSIVXX Next he's gonna make a V shaped, high speed tank tread to increase the stroke against the water, say, the entire fuselage is a paddle belt/ treadmill, with the paddle wheels on the wing tips for stability...
A winged snowmobile with a 3rd center wheel you adjust up and down to change the surface contact (edited at 8:10) (I'm honest)
Same; at first I thought well this is silly but should be fun; but on second thought I actually think this might one the most elegant method to stabilize a agressive ground effect in choppy waters. I mean sure you can try all kinds of fancy active control with big surfaces and super fast actuators... but 'paddle wheel goes brrrrrr' is just really hard to beat in terms of simplicity and reliability. I think if you really designed a craft to make the most of this method I think that might just win you a Nobel for having officially cracked small scale ground effect vehicles (thats a category right?)
I'm watching this on my lunch break in the boiler room of one of the paddlewheel boats from the beginning of the video haha.
Daniel was the guy getting silky smooth drone footage back in the day when the rest of us were getting footage the looked like it came out of a blender. So naturally he's upped his footage game again!
Airpane boat
Bairplane
Boatplane
Ekranoplan
Woterpane
❤
You could try triangular shaped paddles to get a smoother transition when the wheels plunge into water. It would reduce the bouncing over water.
I love your experiments, science can be really fun!
How about angling them out a bit to the sides, and adding outriggers, to keep the spray away from the vehicle body?? This could turn into a super maneuverable vehicle and potentially pull actual high-G maneuvers on the water? 🤔
As a boat and somewhat camera nerd the camera setup is SO cool to me and the footage is downright beautiful!
This is fantastic work. I feel like the high-speed paddle wheel is a real breakthrough -- they allow a much higher tolerance for error in the wing design and PID controls. I'd love to see you experiment with paddle geometries and see if produce more thrust or reduce spray.
Also, the camera work was absolutely pristine. I'm so glad you're having fun with this.
The last bit about surfacing propellers is actually how the fastest V-Hull boats operate. They have air lifting strakes, and reverse chines in their hills, these let the entire hull "float" in essentially ground effect. All the while, the outboard or out drive is connected to the water via a surfacing propeller. These propellers are shaped uniquely vs a traditional prop and in some cases are designed to operate with the centerline well ABOVE the water's surface, and only thin section blades cutting into the water. It's a better version of your "high speed paddle wheel".
to prevent the water from kicking up, you could have the paddles be curved, which would help eject the water before it gets picked up. it would also push the water down, creating more lift to help it get off the water.
Holy shit thats the most impressive camera I've seen in a long ass time.
Better be...it's 19 grand for the body only...lol
When they made the sidewinder missile , on each directional fin control surface they had tiny spinning wheels at 2000 rpm to keep the track from squirming
All the birds that I've seen coast using ground effect, have their wings bowed down. It must be more efficient.
Your creation is so cool looking and futuristic. I wonder if this technique would make a good amphibious vehicle.
My dad builded real ground effect vehicles in the 90s as an engineer. They thought Im crazy in elementary school then I told them that my fathers job is to build "flying ships". Since a child I had this idea to build a rc ground effect vehicle one day and just discovered your channel. Very inspiring! Thanks alot!
This is so freaking cool! Nowadays its rare to find truly new permutations of ideas, and this is a good one!
I love that you’re not afraid to answer questions nobody has, just in the name of science. 👍
With that camera you have your own stock footage maker and put up all of your stuff run forward, backward and mirrored, and I would buy it all. That is a helluva camera setup and you are makin fine use of it.
It would be cool to see how a discus shaped wheel would do- that is narrow and tall, sloping in towards a small diameter torus, without paddles
give roller ship a goog there's some really cool info from the late 1800s about that exact concept
Ah! I came here to say that, and did before I found your post. I think this is a great idea.
Or even pre formed cups from the bottom of soda cans glued together...
That camera & gimbal is insane 🔥
Those shots at the end looked amazing!
Sick footage at the end there
the shots have been getting better and better!
Beautiful west coast winter. Out here on the east the river has finally frozen solid over. Getting a lot of snowfall so no ice sailing. Going to have to experiment with skis instead
I've now seen your dad for a full 1.5 seconds and I love him already
i love how you use this track for the high speed footage. makes me smile every time.
My intrest in ground effect vehicles is actually driven by the possible real world aplication in the Stockholm archipellago and Baltic sea travel. Ice in winter obviously impedes the usability of boats and ships. Things go slow or not at all in winter, which causes a lot of trouble. Beeing able to use existing infrastucture for boats and ships also makes this vehicle type an attractive idea. Main drawback seems to be they give a bumpy ride when the sea isn't frozen and not quite so calm.
WOW!!! how your channel has taken off!! almost 700K subscribers!!! well deserved, you make fun interesting content that you narrate exceptionally well. thank you.
That camera setup is top notch
Thanks!
the camera footage in this video was really good
Maybe rear mounted paddle wheels could work? It seems to work for rear wheel drive buggys that can pond skip. And the record for a motorbike driven on water is nearly 2km
the video is better made and more interesting than anything the BBC has made in years, the machine is great and the effort put into it and how it was filmed is very much appreciated by people who do not watch television any more, cheers,
cute application - the paddles appear to aid positive stability - the differential action ? in the end was impressive...
I was anticipating the snow cat being integrated as I was watching....
may i suggest making "deflector" fenders, if you use conventional fenders, the high speed water that the wheels kick back will slow you down, where as if you have 45° "deflector fenders", the water will move sideways, conserving more of it's energy and not using that energy to slow your vehicle, this project is super interesting, cheers!!!
I think there's a startup opportunity for electric ground effect ferries. These ferries would not carry cars, but would carry TONS of people. What's more, at the ends of the trip, they'd become VTOL aircraft, so they could land on a large paved area next to the water and not require a dock.
They probably wouldn't do well as VTOL, but they *would* make excellent STOL (short take-off and landing) aircraft.
Ground effect taxi. Pick up people and travel over water in ground effect. Actually capable of flight when unloaded? 🤔 this means it's faster when moving toward a pickup than otherwise.
@@dogefort8410 "Actually capable of flight when unloaded?" -- No actually capable of flight, period, but only does it out of ground effect for a short hop, so no ferry docks are needed. Just a patch of paved ground.
@@5peciesunkn0wn I'm talking about infrastructure costs and other barriers like that. It doesn't matter that they're so-so VTOL. They only have to do it for a short hop.
That’s is truly genius.
With the personal interest and ground effect vehicles, I’ve been watching this channel for a long time.
Regardless, that is a truly next level development!
great idea with the paddle wheels. I like the Sound when they hit the water. Little idea: What about Holes in the side of the Wheel to suck in air. Like breakrotors. They also suck in air and push it out though the middel to cool the Rotors. Maybe this could improve the liftforce.
Those high speed HD shots are really a step up! It made it so much more fun to watch! I liked the "low production" from the old but that's really coool videos
This video equipment you were using for the lake shots is incredible. Thank you for sharing
You and Sripol are amazing... Your both brains could change mobility on the planet forever!!! Please do it ;) really enjoying the unlimited yet highly technic creativity!!!
The shots of the things just high speed skimming the surface of the water are amazing
A surface piercing propeller on a ground effect vehicle would be hella’ cool.
And crazy efficient. The coupling of a prop to water is way better than air or the paddles... Boats would flat *move* if they could fly 🤣
Great job, I'm still impressed by your creativity! The footage at the end is lovely! 😍
Your content is always entertaining and thought provoking....
Watching this I kept envisioning the wheels on a backwards motorcycle like swing arm allowing the wheels to hang down to the water while pulling forward and up sort of auto adjusting to maintain contact with the water....
this might be the key to small scale R/C ground effect vehicles
As soon as I saw the first few seconds of this video I immediately stopped the other things I was doing. Brilliant idea. Scratched my brain engineering itch perfectly.
omg that high speed camera footage is gorgeous!
Really world application for the paddle wheels: A stabilizing trolling motor for small boats. Kayak would be the perfect application. Using GPS you could keep yourself stationary right over your desired set point.
Super cool. If you're really interested in crazy paddle wheel nonsense . . . years ago, I saw a prototype of a fast paddle wheel boat that was basically a little Boston Whaler that had four smallish wheels, two on each side, that didn't have paddles but had rubber tracks strung over them. Maybe 5' front to back, wheels maybe 15" diameter. Like a tank built for water. The tracks had paddles on them, and they steered by varying the speed from side to side. It planed easily at speed. Never saw or heard anything else about it, but it looked hilarious.
8:39 extend the wing over the top of the wheel, to limit spray and direct it rearward increasing the effectiveness.
8:58 The wheels are moving air when not in contact with the water. Air is a fluid too
Why is his slow mo shots looking so good all of a sudden?
You missed the part where he talks about the new camera he got
Now I want to see you catch a trout and film it with that high speed camera!
Also, you can call the first puddle skimming machine "Puddle Jumper!"
That High-Speed camera setup is WILD. The footage looks awesome!
Nice shots. It's amazing how the new tech, materials, software and everything else pales before the beauty of an efficient, light, impermeable, self-healing, bird wing.
You are for sure in my top 3-4 channels that I look forward to every release! I love your projects!
This video has solved a problem in my mind with the hovercrafts. I always thought it is not feasible to change direction sharply with this kind of vehicles but now I see that there is a better way.
dude. the new camera footage is SICK... excellent upgrade - money well spent
Would running the paddlewheels in reverse once in the air be possible - pushing air above the body but also pushing more air onto the water when it is near? Also, if that works - maybe possible to push water outwards to the side by using slightly diagonal oriented paddles?
My first thought would be that it would crush into the surface if it hits, but on the other hand if it hits and runs in reverse it would also pitch the heavy nose up right before (due to the air blown on the water) and possibly create the necessary bump to develop ground-effect again.
I feel like regular RC car tires mounted 2x2 like a car would do wonders. The paddles may cause more drag than wheels, and the front-back orientation can help adjust for pitch and roll, while minimizing jerk in yaw on contact with the water.
Would the wheel on the plane have worked if it was off the back? An optimized version has the wheels off when above a certain height, and/or engaged in creating air-related lift force without being in contact. The energy cost to keep them rotating at all points only to give surface contact assistance seems counter-productive especially with the added weight. I don't think a larger plane would have an easier time getting switching power system to work due to elevation, since wind up speeds would be relatively the same, I'm guessing. Elevation sensors on each wing tip that can work in milliseconds and engines that can match full torque in the same?
"And now on to the science". That camera mount IS science! Great vid as always
I do think you’re onto something. Huge. I imagine the best layout might be to have dual air props up front and those high speed paddle wheels on the far back corners. That way it will keep the front up and the backside can push off the wave tops. It will be like the lizard that runs across the water, the wheels keeping those wingtips out the water keeping friction down
Might it be possible to automatically control some aerodynamic surfaces based on a high-frequency, real time measurement of the height above water? I'm thinking of something like a radio altimeter in airplanes or a laser distance sensor. The plane could control some relatively weak lift surfaces, or it could open/close vents to the ground effect air pressure below the plane. You would have to tune the whole feedback loop, which will be a pain, but it could help you actually create a feedback loop with the ground (water) that is not based on touch.
What about a catamaran where the front 3" of the hulls are separate and mounted on a motor? So when they're turned off you have a normal cat hull with low drag but you get the effect of bow thrusters when you need it.
i think you can just place those wheels in the inner side to prevent those water goes above the wing, though im not sure would it interrupt the ground effects.
The boat you mentioned making at the end is very similar to how a zap cat boat works. It’s a very light boat designed for racing and when on plane the only thing in the water is the outboard motor.
That footage is unreal! Can't wait to see more with that rig!
The camera and mount are incredibly impressive, it's amazing what's possible now.
that camera setup you have is amazing wowowow
bro your exploration of older engineering concepts is so fun and interesting, keep it up
I'm wondering if down turned winglet be better in this case? Intuitively it feels like that way you'd capture more high pressure and also the blowback from the paddles.
That camera is so cool that I'm surprised it wasn't the focal point! You should totally try to find the rowing teams those people belonged to and the aircraft company and give them copies of these sick shots.
Episode devoted to the Mobi camera please. What is it and the isolation base?
What about a thin rubber high speed paddle track? Sorta like your snowcat, just lighter flexible material?
That Dolly zoom at the end🔥🔥🔥
Cool idea. And the camera outro footage is amazing.
You mentioned the water on the wing being an issue. What about a hydrophobic coating on the wings?
The one thing I see is that there needs to be some sort of adjustment. For example a scissor action that raises and lowers the paddle wheels as it comes up to speed. For example when you get going moving the servo will raise the body higher above in the water thus creating a slightly larger lift area. Not really sure how to explain it yet I do see there being an advantage to this.
How its done, not a clue yet I am sure if you fiddled around a bit you could come up with something. If you had 4 paddle wheels you could connect 2 of them across one another via their motors then a mount plate to the bearing of the paddle wheel and using a set of gears to apply drive. I doubt that a belt would work in this application. A drop box of sorts would have to be used. The set of motors connected to a pivot point would allow the 2 paddle wheels to raise and lower. Much like a any level lift kit on a truck. This would allow you to adjust the angle of flight/paddle.
Why not make a hybrid? Increase the size of the wheels / drums to make use of the magnus effect! That way the drums will be providing lift even when not touching the water. 👍
Hey what would happen if you used that energy to make an air jet at the contact points - that could add to ground effect pressure, but also really come into effect when super close to the surface.
would it be possible to have the paddle wheels also make the thrust? like scooping a fraction of the air and or water into the middle of the paddle wheel and redirect it through the craft backwards.
A tiny stern mounted hydrofoil may help to keep the tail from dragging. Nice work.
Another awesome project! Always get excited when I see you posted a new vid. You need more Lake Roosevelt and Banks Lake trips. Would be happy to provide transport on the water while tracking your toys.
Could adding some longer tubes to the wheels to get some Magnus effect be good to make driving wheels in flight alway useful?
Have you seen the M hull design? The Navy had an interesting prototype they tested. The M80 Stiletto.
It's a weird plaining/ground effect boat thingy.
It captures air and it's own bow wave through "tunnels" letting it ride up with less drag and more speed.
As a rower, I would kill to have a camera like that on a coaches launch. The footage is so good.
can you mount two props - one on front (pull) and one on back (push) on your ground effect boat so it stabilises itself?
Having configurable fairings on the wheels that direct the wash from them into nozzles might improve performance. They could have a low speed configuration that makes the wheels act as impellers and a high speed configuration that just deflects the wash from the wheels into the nozzle to more efficiently generate thrust without themselves contacting the water.
Was the ram effect crucial or did you just lose to much wing area? I would've made more incremental cuts.
Peter Sripol's recent tank-tread propeller video made me immediately wonder if a high-speed tank tread would work better? Perhaps you could combine the pontoons with the tank tread, to save weight, while the increased surface area may reduce the minimum necessary speed of the tank tread advancement?
Just an idea.
Would it be possible to have one wheel in the middle back a little bit behind the plane?? in stead of pulling the water it would push and the water won't be a problem.
Maybe open sides on the paddle wheels themselves, but mounting them in the pontoons, and let them suck air from the the top side, and have the air/water exhaust backwards/downwards, so they act as radial fans as well, that givs both some thrust and some lift.
Trying to make a hydroplane without building a hydroplane.
We are restoring the Miss University at Kent Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum.
For display use as engine to make it work is sorta a dream.
Local hydro guy , John Adams , posted a short book on the math and basics in design.
“Speed Rails” we’re in a 1990s Boating World magazine article where an Aussie made a go-fast Ocean hull the looked like Batman’s.
It had plates on both sides of the center V bottom that had lots of lifting strakes ( guide your water spray horizontally Btw).
At 45 or so , the plates began to lift entire hull began to rise.
The rails also make a boat track like railroad tracks . Corrugated alum boats do same , you’ll see lines extending behind as they lay a trail.
The 4 point Elam was tried on Lake Washington, lifted off for a 70’ flight that ended horribly.
A flex drive high speed electric brushless
Hydroplane Running gear with surface prop might get you to
“ the Promised Land .”