Originally Posted by Worcester (Post 25954490)

I am guessing that this may have (briefly) be posted in the BA forum and been moved.

Originally Posted by BOH (Post 25955135)

This is a very well known aerodynamic effect and one that Concorde wing designers perfected and harnessed to be able to land so smoothly at high speeds. All achieved long before complex computer modelling allowed wing shapes to be perfected like today.

Originally Posted by tanglin (Post 25951119)

When a fixed wing aircraft gets close to the ground (less than a winglength - maybe about a quarter winglength for a noticible effect) then additional lift is generated from the uplift of air passing under the wing.

Originally Posted by Sheikh Yerbooty (Post 25952897)

Then you should have looked at bit closer, and you might have discovered the 'Ekranoplanes'. They were essentially Soviet Navy missile destroyers, but moving a lot faster burning a lot more fuel.

http://i65.tinypic.com/sfbadl.jpg

The trick about WIG aircraft is, that you need less wing to generate the necessary lift as you're flying in the ground effect, and that wing is able to carry an obscene amount of weight. On the other hand, your fuel burn is astronomical as you're ploughing your way through the thick air near the surface.