Ground Effect Vehicles: Mass Transport Solution for Indian Coastal Logistics and Coastal Defense

Presented by SAPTARSHI BASU OERC

INTRODUCTION AND PRESENT SENARIO THE VARIOUS HIGH SPEED CRAFT SOLUTIONS THE WIG-GEV DEFINATION AND EXPLANATION. SPAN DOMINATED GROUND EFFECT VEHICLES. CHORD DOMINATED GROUND EFFECT VEHICLES. L/D RATIO AND VARIOUS TYPES OF CURVES. EFFICIENCY COMPARISION WITH DIFFERENT MODES. WING STRUCTURE DRAG HUMP DIAGRAM

TAKE OFF TAKE OFF SPEED. & TAKE OFF DRAG MINIMISING TAKE OFF POWER. POWER AUGMENTATION. STATIC AIR CUSHION SAFETY , LONGITUDINAL STABILITY STATIC PITCH STABILITY/ STATIC HEIGHT STABILITY. CLASSIFICATION OF GEV-WIG. COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF WIG CRAFTS. APPLICATION.

HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT . Pelican Container Cargo Aircraft BOEING PHANTOM WORKS. Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeyev Alexander Martin Lippisch Ekranoplans and the transport industry EFFECT OF ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY MILITARY APPLICATION TECHNO-ECONOMIC FESIBILITY. CONCLUSION

THE COUNTRY SOURROUNDED BY ENIMIES. COASTAL TRADE IS AT THE BRINK OF COLAPSE. RISK OF TERRORIST ATTACK. INFILTRATION VS INVASION THREAT. ILLIGAL ACTIVITIES ON THE COASTLINE. STRING OF PEARL STRATEGY OF CHINA. THE REACH OF THE PIRACY DEEPENING INTO THE INDIAN OCEAN. ENERGY SECURITY OF THE NATION AND THE PROTECTION OF THE OFFSHORE ASSETS. CONTINGENCY RESPONSE AND THE MEDIVAC.

For many centuries man has been travelling over the worlds seas at ever increasing speeds. New generations of ships are often faster than the ones they replace. It is very unlikely that any "conventional" marine craft will be able to operate at much higher speeds with acceptable fuel efficiency. The excessive power requirement of high speed marine craft is mainly caused by viscous drag, well over 50% of the drag is caused by water friction. A WIG boat is a boat with wings that cruises just above the water surface, it is floating on a cushion of relatively high-pressure air between its wing and the water surface. This cushion is created by the aerodynamic interaction between the wing and the surface, called ground effect

A Wing-in-Ground effect craft (WIG) is a vessel with wings that cruises just above the water surface, it is floating on a cushion of relatively high-pressure air between its wing and the water surface. Is also known as a WIGE (Wing-in-Ground Effect), or a Wingship. It is the ultimate low-drag marine craft. It is a very high-speed, sea-based platform. Some WIG vehicles have the ability to fly without ground effect as well, but inefficiently as compared to aircraft.

WIG is an abbreviation of Wing In Ground-effect. A WIG boat can be seen as a crossover between a hovercraft and an aircraft. It flies just above the surface, usually the water surface, therefore others use the term WISE or WISES (Wing In Surface Effect Ship). The Russians use the word Ekranoplan (Ekran = screen, plan = plane), which is also commonly used in other languages nowadays. Ever since the beginning of manned flight pilots have experienced something strange when landing an aircraft. Just before touchdown it suddenly feels like the aircraft just does not want to go lower. It just wants to go on and on due to the air that is trapped between the wing and the runway, forming an air cushion. The air cushion is best felt in low wing aircraft with large wing areas. This phenomenon is called (aerodynamic) ground effect.

Lift induced drag is due to the generation of lift. The average pressure difference times the surface area of the wing is equal to the lift force. The wingtip vortex causes The energy that is stored in those vortices to be lost and is experienced by the aircraft as drag. The amount of induced drag is dependent on the spanwise lift distribution and the aspect ratio of the wing A high aspect ratio wing has lower induced drag than a low aspect ratio wing since its wingtip vortices are weaker. Span dominated ground effect, in free air the vortices around the wing tips have more space to develop than when they are bounded by the ground

The air cushion is created by high pressure that builds up under the wing when the ground is approached. This is sometimes reffered to as ram effect or ram pressure. When the ground distance becomes very small the air can even stagnate under the wing, giving the highest possible pressure, pressure coefficient unity. The nose suction peek is also somewhat more pronounced in ground effect, which indicates that separation is likely to occur at the nose. This has been confirmed by wind tunnel tests. Ground effect not always increases lift. It is possible under certain conditions that lift reduces when an airfoil approaches the ground. This is the case when the bottom of the foil is convex and the angle of incidence is low, in that case a venturi is created between the foil and the ground where high-speed low-pressure air sucks the airfoil down

L/D RATIO AND VARIOUS TYPES OF CURVES

The lift increases when the ground is approached and because of the increasing lift the induced drag may not even decrease in absolute numbers, but even a slight increase still leads to an increased L/D ratio. The L/D ration is commonly used to express the efficiency of a vehicle. The higher this ratio, the higher its efficiency and the lower its fuel consumption (for a given weight). As the L/D of a wing increases with decreasing ground clearance the craft becomes more efficient in ground effect Different transport vehicles can be compared with the Von Karman-Gabrielli diagram. In this diagram the L/D is given as a function of the speed. Different vehicles have been indicated in the diagram ranging from a bicycle to the The Von Karman - Gabrielli diagram concorde

 Fuel efficiency, the amount of fuel used per passenger per km, is proportional to the inverse of the transport efficiency, which is a measure for the efficiency that is especially suitable for comparing different types of transport vehicles operating at different speeds. The cruise power per unit weight, expressed as the P/W ratio is very low for WIG boats as compared to other forms of transport as explained in the graph below. Full advantage of this very low power requirement in cruise flight can only be obtained when the installed power comes down towards the cruise power so that the engines run at their optimum rating at cruise setting.

EFFICIENCY COMPARISION WITH DIFFERENT MODES

WING STRUCTURE
The commonly known wing sections for aircraft the NACA sections. A very popular wing section used to be the Clark Y section, because of its flat bottom, which was assumed to be good in ground effect. More recent and advanced WIG designs always have wing sections that have been optimized for that specific craft. Section is defined in terms of a camber line and a thickness distribution In ground effect the shape of the lower side of the wing is very important. In many cases designers opt for a flat lower side because a convex lower side may in certain situations lead to suction at the lower side, either hydrodynamic or aerodynamic. A concave bottomed wing section leads to very poor longitudinal stability: it further exaggerates the abovementioned pitch up tendency

DRAG HUMP DIAGRAM

For WIG boats the drag in the take-off run is much higher than the drag at cruise speed. This means that the engines must be sized for take-off and only run on very low power in cruise, sometimes as low as 30-40%. Although this is an illustration of the efficiency of flying in ground effect, it is not very desirable because of the weight and cost penalty. The extra power cannot be used for increasing the cruise speed, since WIG boats, by their nature, have a very limited speed range. For most WIG boats there is a maximum safe speed above which they become unstable.

It may be clear that the power mismatch can be solved by minimizing take-off drag. The drag during take-off consists of several contributions, the most significant of which are the hydrodynamic contributions due to viscous and wave pattern drag. This wave becomes higher as the speed increases and lower as the displacement decreases. As a result the wave drag has a maximum somewhere before take-off. This maximum is sometimes referred to as the hump drag and the associated speed as the hump speed

TAKE OFF
Takeoff is a very critical regime for the WIG craft. It causes the transition from the hydrodynamic to the aerodynamic regime. The hydrodynamic regime has four different phases.
Displacement regime Transition regime Pure planing And planing by dynamic support of the power augmentation or air cushion.

To overcome the hump-drag even the best surfaces require approximately 2.3 times more power than necessary for ground effect cruise, thus requirement power for a short time only, which raises the weight and the operating expenses. The Russian ekranoplans have been successfully using the power augmentation as a take off aid, jet blowing under the bow engines is deflected under the wing, recreates a lift that decreases the displacement of the craft. Flugmechanik designers who deflected a small portion of the propeller stream is deflected and guided between the catamaran hull where a static air cushion is built up. This air cushion supports 80% of the weight even when stationary.

TAKE OFF SPEED. & TAKE OFF DRAG

Many regular seaplanes have a sophisticated wing and flap design for creating as much lift as possible at take-off in order to reduce the take-off speed and thus the hydrodynamic loads and drag. A seaplane can rotate so that the angle of attack at take-off is much higher than that in cruise flight. This way the lift coefficient at take-off may be 10 times higher than in cruise flight. The easiest way to minimize the take-off speed is to design for a low wing loading, but this severely limits the maximum speed. The maximum contribution is from pressure under the wing rather than suction over the wings.

MINIMISING TAKE OFF POWER.

The take-off power is determined by the take-off drag, so the drag must be minimized. Since drag increases with the speed squared the take-off speed should be minimized. The drag can only be decreased by optimizing the way the hull generates its lift or introducing other lift sources. The two main ways, other than aerodynamics, to carry loads are hydrodynamic lift and aerostatic lift. Hydrodynamic lift can be generated by the hull, a hydroski or a hydrofoil and aerostatic lift by air injection (PAR) or a static air cushion. Some of the more recent Russian craft like the Volga-2 and the Amphistar have inflatable cushions under the hull and endplates. These cushions are powered by a separate fan and not only alleviate loads but also ensure good sealing of the endplates in wavy conditions.

POWER AUGMENTATION
Power Augmentation (PAR) or air injection is the principle of a jet or propeller in front of the wing that blows under the wing at takeoff. The cavity under the wing is bounded by endplates and flaps, so that the air is trapped under the wing. This way the full weight of the WIG boat can even be lifted at zero forward speed. Hydrodynamic friction drag is therefore theoretically eliminated and consequently the hump drag is reduced.

 Almost all Russian WIG boats employ this principle and it is very effective, although not very efficient. Russian ekranoplans, such as the Volga-2 and the Amphistar show that using propellers a more efficient PAR system may be possible. The efficiency of the power augmentation is different for the wings with different aspect ratio. The smaller the aspect ratio more effective the power augmentation. In spite of many disadvantages, the power augmentation is possibility the only way to secure the take off of the WIG craft (weight > 100 tonne) in rough sea conditions.

POWER AUGMENTATION

 A very recent development is the use of a static air cushion for take-off, similar to SES and hovercraft. A hovercraft or SES-like static air cushion is sealed all around and air is injected somewhere in the cavity under the wing. The Hoverwing uses air from the propeller that is captured by a door in the engine pylon to power up the cushion. In hover mode the green skirts go down and the blue door behind the propeller opens up, so that air is pushed through the blue channels into the cavity under the body.

STATIC AIR CUSHION

SAFETY , LONGITUDINAL STABILITY

Although it may be argued that the safety of a WIG is excellent since it is always above the runway, this very same "runway" also presents some potential problems. A WIG needs a certain minimum flying height to be fuel efficient so it will always fly at the lowest possible height, dependent on the actual wave height. A WIG must either be allowed to strike a wave every now and then (rigid construction) or fly at a height where it will never meet one and thus be less efficient than it could be. Longitudinal stability of vehicles operating in ground effect is very critical. When not designed properly WIG boats show a potentially dangerous pitch up tendency when leaving (strong) ground effect.

 The working line of the lift vector of a wing is located relatively far aft at very small ground clearances and moves forward when climbing out of ground effect. The stability problem can be overcome by installing a relatively large horizontal tail. A WIG boat cannot be stabilized by c.g. movement alone, the location of the c.g. is very important for achieving acceptable longitudinal stability. Some wing planforms are more stable than others, the reversed delta from Lippisch proved to be very good, therefore it has been very popular lately. Recent research showed that wing sections with an S-shaped camber line are more stable than conventional wing sections. Many new designs have such an S-foil.

SAFETY , LONGITUDINAL STABILITY

STATIC PITCH STABILITY/ STATIC HEIGHT STABILITY

For a WIG craft in stationary cruise condition there must be equilibrium of forces and moments. In practice this means that the CG must lie on the working line of the resulting vector of the aerodynamic forces. In order to remain in this stationary condition any disturbance must be counteracted with a force or moment in the opposite direction, so that the craft returns to its original condition. This principle is called (static) stability. A craft can still be unstable in the case that the forces are not sufficient or too big. In this case the craft is statically stable, but dynamically unstable

STATIC PITCH STABILITY/ STATIC HEIGHT STABILITY

Two different movements in the longitudinal direction can be recognized: pitch and height. For an aircraft height stability is irrelevant. A WIG craft must be stable in both height and pitch. So after a disturbance not only the pitch angle of the WIG craft, but also the height above the surface must be restored to their initial values. An increased pitch angle should be counteracted with a negative pitching moment. Note that a nose-up pitching moment is positive. Increased height would indeed lead to a decreased lift and apparently a stable condition, but the fact that the moment coefficient also changes due to the height change is not taken into account. The choice of airfoil and wing planform have a tremendous effect on the stability margin. The so-called Lippisch planform has proven to be more stable than a square wing. The Lippisch planform is a forward swept wing with strong taper and negative dihedral, sometimes also called a reversed delta.

CLASSIFICATION OF GEV-WIG
The ICAO/IMO classifies the vessel as per the height of detachment from the surface(water):
HSC TYPE A TYPE B TYPE C

The classification of the vessel as per Design feature: 1st generation Ekanoplan. 2nd generation Ekanoplan. Lippish Tandem Special designs.

COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF WIG CRAFTS.

The potential benefits of WIG boats are:
WIG boats can fulfill the need for increased speed of marine transport and may thus fill the gap between shipping and aviation. WIG boats achieve high speeds while still maintaining high efficiency, especially when compared to other high speed marine craft. Due to the marine nature of WIG boats their operating cost are low as compared to aircraft. The infrastructural requirements for WIG boats are very low, any existing port is sufficient. Especially in a wavy sea the comfort level in cruise is very high as compared to other high speed marine craft. High load . relative to aircraft (both weight and volume) Low complexity. Low operational/maintenance cost. Low capital cost relative to aircraft. Low power requirement and Low fuel consumption relative to aircraft. No wake . Immune to sea currents. No sea sickness

On the other hand WIG boats do have their limitations:

WIG boats are sensitive to weather conditions such as wave height and wind speed. WIG technology is not mature yet, so initial WIG boats will not be able to fulfill all the promises. Small WIG boats are less efficient than big ones and are even more sensitive to weather conditions

COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF WIG CRAFTS.

For certain applications the benefits far outweigh the limitations so that WIG boats are a viable alternative to competing means of transport. An operator will only seriously consider to operate WIG boats when some conditions and requirements are met : The characteristics of the WIG boat must match the requirements for that specific application and route, so the WIG boat must have (big) advantages over alternatives. Operation of the WIG boat must be profitable. The WIG boat must be absolutely safe. Legislation must be clear. Obvious, but inevitable: WIG boats must be available. Low sea states <1.5m wave height for civilian versions. Low wind. Operations profitable only in Coastal/inland/estuary/delta. Low traffic density areas/controlled traffic lanes due to high speed (perhaps) Seasonal use (probably)

APPLICATION.could prove useful as In the near future relatively small WIG boats

water taxis in sheltered waters. These 2 to 10 ton craft will accomodate approximately 6 to 30 people (or an equivalent amount of freight) and they can operate in waves from 0.25 to 2 metre in height. Possible areas where these craft could be operated are:
Sheltered seas like the Baltic and the Medditeranean. Large lakes like the great lakes in the USA. Large river deltas like in Brazil and the USA. Sheltered coastal areas like the Great Barrier reef in Australia. Some archipelagos like in South East Asia and the Caribbean.

Another interesting application for these craft may be the transportation of perishable goods. Somewhat larger WIGs could be developed to provide scheduled passenger and freight services. Areas where these medium size WIGs can be operated are the same as the above but their better seaworthiness allows them to operate almost all year around (up to 2-3 m waves). These craft could accommodate 20 to 300 passengers and they may weigh up to 100 tons.

HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT

Just before the second world war some experimental WIG craft were built in Scandinavia. It was not until the nineteen-sixties however, that the first serious WIG boats were developed. The contributions of two individuals were very significant: the Russian Rostislav Alexeiev and the German Alexander Lippisch. They independently worked on WIG technology with entirely different backgrounds, encountered the same problems and came to very different solutions. In the USSR the WIG developments took place at the Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau (CHDB), lead by Alexeiev.

HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT

Alexeiev received personal support from Kruchev including virtually unlimited financial resources. This very important development in WIG history lead to the Caspian Sea Monster, a 550 ton military Ekranoplan, only a few years after this top secret project was initiated. The 550 ton KM (Russian abbreviation for prototype ship) was baptised in 1966. The KM was built in the (at that time) closed city Gorky, now called Nizhny Novgorod. No foreigners were allowed there.

HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT

After the experimental craft the Russian ekranoplan program continued and lead to the most successfull ekranoplan so far, the 125 ton A.90.125 Orlyonok. The Orlyonok incorporated many features that had been tested separately in earlier designs: it was amphibious, it had a huge turboprop engine for cruise thrust at the top of the fin and two turbofans in the nose for air injection. The most recent large ekranoplan from the former Soviet Union is the 400 ton Lun which was built in 1987 as a missile launcher. It carried six missiles on top of the hull. The second Lun was eventually renamed to Spasatel, the military systems were removed and work started to finish the craft as a rescue vessel. Unfortunately there were financial problems and the work had stopped completely by the mid-nineties

HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, developing or maintaining big ekranoplans became impossible for the Russians and the design bureaus started focusing on smaller ekranoplans for non-military use. The CHDB had already developed the 8 seat Volga-2 in 1985. The story of Alexeievs western counterpart, Lippisch, also started around 1960. At that time he was asked to build a very fast boat for Mr. Collins from Collins Radio Company in the USA. The boat for Collins, the X-112, was at least as revolutionary a design with its reversed delta wing and T-tail. This design proved to be stable and efficient in ground effect and although it was succesfully tested and followed up by the X-113, Collins decided to stop the project and sold the patents to a German company called Rhein Flugzeugbau (RFB) which further developed the reversed delta WIG boat.

 In Germany the military potential for WIG boats was recognised and RFB was contracted by the German military to develop the X-114, requiring it to fly without ground effect as well as in ground effect. It became apparent that the conflicting requirements of a WIG boat and an aircraft lead to a compromise with little advantages and that the true power of WIG technology lies in staying close to the surface. Hanno Fischer had taken over the project from RFB and he pursued Lippisch' work at his own company called Fischer Flugmechanik. Their two seat Airfisch 3 was a very successful design, which has recently been scaled up to seat 6 passengers. This craft, the FS-8 will soon be series produced by a SingaporeAustralian joint venture called Flightship.

HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT

HISTORY OF WIG BOAT DEVELOPMENT

While the Airfisch technology was being made ready for the market, Fischer was already working on the next generation of WIG boat with hovercraft technology to assist at take-off. The 2 seat hoverwing prototype HW-2VT has been successfully demonstrated many times and now development continues with a 20 seat version. Although Alexeiev discarded the tandem wing principle after having tested the SM-1, the concept was later rediscovered by the German Gnter Jrg. After many radio controlled models he succeeded in developing a stable WIG boat with two wings in a tandem arrangement, the first manned craft was the Jrg-II. The tandem WIG boat excels in simplicity and low cost and is the most boat-like of all WIG concepts.

Pelican Container Cargo Aircraft

BOEING PHANTOM WORKS.

A concept aircraft currently under development at Boeings Phantom Works Research and Development unit might be the largest airplane to ever fly, but it wont set any altitude records. Its called the Pelican and it would have a normal cruising altitude of only twenty feet because it uses the concept of ground effect to achieve lift. Performance specifications say this ground effect vehicle (GEV) will have a wingspan of 150 meters and be able to carry up to 1,400 tons of cargo.

Pelican Container Cargo Aircraft

It has a range of 10,000 nautical miles in trans-oceanic flight. Operating from paved runways, the plane has thirtyeight fuselage-mounted landing gears with seventy-six tires to distribute the weight. The Pelican is designed to be a hybrid GEV, allowing it to also fly at higher altitudes up to 20,000 feet. But the range would be greatly reduced to 6,500 nautical miles when not using the ground effect. Pelican currently stands as the only identified means by which the U.S. Army can achieve its deployment transformation goals of deploying one division in five days, or five divisions in 30 days, anywhere in the world. If necessary, the Pelican could carry 17 M-1 main battle tanks on a single sortie. Commercially, the aircraft's size and efficiency would allow it to carry types of cargo equivalent to those carried by container ships, at more than 10 times the speed. It would be the biggest bird in the history of aviation.

Comparison of Relative $/lb and Speed to Move Cargo

6
Aircraft

4 3 2 1 0

Relative $/lb of Payload

WIG Ship

100

200

300

400

500

600

Speed, kts

Ekranoplans and the transport industry

We have seen that Ekranoplans offer similar utility to that of an aircraft, without the large capital and maintenance costs associated with aircraft. Aviation carries with it very high unseen fixed costs, e.g. airports and services, air traffic control, support staff, which is not required by the Ekranoplans. Ekranoplans, on the other hand, offer a comparable speed of service off the quayside. The concept decouples fast transport from high infrastructure spend. East Asia is attractive from the point of view of growth over the long term, but marketing will require country specific local knowledge.

EFFECT OF ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY

1. 2. That the market leaders in Ekranoplan transport may not be from the existing pool of fast ferry players Once established, Ekranoplans could take market from the existing players. Develop away from the initial niche markets into more mainstream markets, taking market share from existing players. Provide the builder and user a new level of technology (e.g. lightweight structures, aerodynamic lift, high speed operations etc.) that could be transferable to high-end conventional fast craft. This could be considered as a strategic advantage over nonEkranoplan players, insofar as it is a resource denied to the competition. and so may lock out existing players from the highend sector in the future. Existing players will be unable to catch up. Hoverwing concept brings with it a massive increase in payload volume, giving greater passenger comfort and enabling such craft to carry loads that would not fit in an aircraft.

3.

4. 5.

MILITARY APPLICATION
In the military environment WIGs attributes are:
Ability to cover a wide area within a short time Rapid response capability rapid closure. Genuine capability to intercept almost all other marine vessels. Zero wake stealth

Potential paramilitary applications might include:

Over-horizon and littoral operations Drug-running interdiction Anti-piracy Border patrol Fleet patrol/asymmetric threat protection Search and rescue Medevac Pollution / environmental monitoring. Ship to shore transport. Covert and special operations

MILITARY APPLICATION
The high interception speed combined with stealth means that persons undertaking illegal activities can be caught red-handed, leading to more effective enforcement, especially beneficial in areas with high incidences of piracy, terrorism or smuggling. Such WIG vehicles could have a great deal of presence. In addition these craft may be difficult to detect by mines or sonar, making them suitable for crossing minefields, mine clearance or ASW work. Opportunities certainly exist to substitute WIG vehicles for horrendously expensive and maintenance intensive helicopters Forces getting smaller Logistics decreasing

Sea Sniper:An Example for ASW

Uses a 30mm Bushmaster II chain gun for shallow water mines Stationary Target/Stationary Shooter Based on RAMICS technology could put this on a WIG Moving Target/Moving Shooter

ASCMs: An Example for Large Ship ASUW

Utka: Armed with six SS-N-22 SUNBURN missiles. Length 242 ft. NOTE: Due to ship construction techniques used, ONI has concluded that Utka would be difficult to destroy.

Clear a Path Through a Minefield?

Hop over the minefield?

A WIG will travel over the top of a minefield at very high speed, without damage, and perform its mission on the other side. Have a WIG drop and control a number of UUVs designed to hunt/kill mines on its way over the minefield, and have them clear the path in a parallel effort, as opposed to starting at one edge of the minefield and working through it in a serial manner.

Small Boat ASUW

Lethal
30 mm chain gun
Same one for Sea Sniper Look down/Shoot down Stay out of lethal range of small boat weapons

Other guns and/or missile systems

Non-lethal
Active Denial Technology
HPM system causing intense skin pain for exposed personnel

Running Gear Entangling System

Specially designed boat-stopping rope

The Airbone Gun ship. The Air borne Laser.

Use as heavy military transport

The possible benefits from the use of these craft with a potential increase in performance and efficiency over existing transport mediums has been the momentum for their development as heavy lift and cargo platforms. The primary mode of operation for current and envisaged WIG craft is over and in water. Allowable sea states for efficient cruise, landing and take off form the bounds of the performance envelope. Operational considerations such as speed, range and payload abilities are similar to aircraft. Amphibious potential for operation from beachheads, waterways or runways and autonomous operation at sea are also possibilities for WIG craft. WIG craft also have the potential for high stealth and weapons delivery.

Active Denial Technology

The Air Force is investigating an airborne version of this current ACTD. Whatever they develop could be adapted to WIGs.

Additional military uses

AC-130 Gunship w/ 105mm gun

Airborne Laser

While not WIGs, these examples indicate that other, large weapon systems have, and are, being integrated into airborne platforms. This could be done for WIGs.

TECHNO-ECONOMIC FESIBILITY.
The WIG is not a flight of fancy by a commercially viable option to todays aircraft and ship technology. The key to WIG success must surely be its simplicity. The agricultural Citroen 2CV car is a highly complex vehicle by comparison!. WIG competes with all other forms of transport; with speeds in excess of 80 knots the obvious comparison is with aircraft. Constraining component design to ship/surface vehicle technology rather than aerospace technology brings further reduction in maintenance. costs and so strengthens WIG.s position vis--vis aircraft. Opportunity also exists in those counties with under-developed air transport while the other countries can be excluded from the list of locations for startup. The flexibility offered by WIG is that most of its asset value is in the revenue earning craft; this enables it to be re-deployed as necessary, thus giving it a strategic advantage in an uncertain world.

CONCLUSION
At present four major classification bodies, the Russian Register, Germanischer LLyods , China classification society, the LLyods London registers, and Australian transport bureau have developed the construction codes and structural rules for the craft and equipment. When these leaders have taken the initiative that must not be for no reason. And not surprisingly the market analysis projects the maximum benefits near the south Asian country. We have also seen what defense and policing roles these craft can be deployed into. We have also seen that this craft has the capability to give medivac and search and rescue facilities much better that other crafts.

CONCLUSION
However, Research in India at least in the public domain has not started in nay big way. This transportation solution holds several opportunities for our country in specific. The various advantages are:1. India being a cash strapped country can greatly benefit from the reduced expenses on the development of the aerodromes and the airports which is offered by this craft when majority of the air freight and small critical portion of the sea freight will be offloaded on to this solution. Lot of the minor ports are not having enough sustainable traffic these can be converted into berth and loading points for WIG crafts at negligible expense 2. Huge saving on the aviation fuel bill and decongestion of the air traffic routes. The coastal flights such as from Bombay to ports like GOA, CHOCHIN, MADRAS, etc can be completely off loaded to this sector of the WIG crafts.

CONCLUSION
3. A credible back up of search and rescue support to our fishermen, who risk their lives. Saving the seafarers in near coastal distressed vessel. 4. The factory ships of mass fishing can deployed causing huge augmentation in the available food for the population and the same can be effective transported to the beach head at no extra refrigeration costs by the ekranoplans the logistic chains can take over to put the catch to the cold storage warehouse, from there to retail chains can take over by logistic support over ground. This eliminates the needs for fishermen going out in small wooden boats out at sea and co-operatives made on the model of Amul can be realized for fishermen who operate much larger, safer, cleaner, hygienic vessels like the factory ships which will reduce their risk to lives and environment ( by stopping the use of wood for the boats).

5. India geo-political reality is severe and we are surrounded by enemies. Chinas string of pearl strategy is a direct threat to our maritime security and their transgressions are becoming intolerable by the Day. If we plan to avoid the Himalayan disaster at sea we must act fast and now. 6. The development of the military ships is a time consuming process and the very expensive and the fighter aircrafts are also procured from outside at a tremendous expense. The WIG crafts have an advantage of being mass produced at a very short notice and they are as seen in paper half as expensive as the airplanes.

CONCLUSION

7. The interconnectivity of the Andaman and the Nicobar Island is critical to support the population and the retention of the islands. Where most of the food and the consumables are imported from the main land including the medicines. This can be done extremely effectively by the WIG especially with respect to the transportation of perishables like milk, juice, vegetables, medicines, agro products 8. The Lun and other military crafts like pelican has vast potential and can petrol a long coastline, outrun any pirate skiffs, detect intruders and intercept invaders and give a fast and decisive punch to coastline security. We can have a fortress India program where heavy artillery support in bunker forms the fixed defense line while fleet of ekranoplans can have the rapidly deployable forward mobile defense platforms. They can also detect and low lying craft avoiding Radio detection by Radar.

CONCLUSION

9. We have more Oil and Gas Fields coming up deeper into our contiguous zone, we need credible defense to assert our presence and deterrence to dissuade diabolical regimes against misadventures. The fire power that can be packed in the Ekranoplan and the transportation capability to move heavy assets like tanks and infantry and personal carriers at much higher speed than the traditional landing crafts gives a decisive striking edge. 10. We have the second largest pool of scientist in the world by a synergistic approach of the intelligence agencies, foreign affairs ministry, DRDO, our research institute we can cut short the development cycle and deploy maximum number of this crafts for a coastal defense. And commercial applicant is also set to have a growth multiplier effect which is economically and environmentally friendly.

CONCLUSION