Flying carrier in Earth Atmosphere and Gravity

[NARSES2]

It could even be designed to allow short hops in conventional flight - such as when you come across incovenient land masses.

Possibly an obvious question, but can an ekranoplan do that ? They've always fascinated me since they were first revealed, something so deliciously Russian about them

[wuzak]

It could even be designed to allow short hops in conventional flight - such as when you come across incovenient land masses.

Possibly an obvious question, but can an ekranoplan do that ? They've always fascinated me since they were first revealed, something so deliciously Russian about them

Some can, but not all.

Some are even designed to be able to fly conventionally for sustained periods - such as the Beriev VVA-14



This was also designed to do vertical take-offs, and had a bank of lift jets in the centre section.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartini_Beriev_VVA-14

[scooter]

Then, of course, there's the SHIELD Helicarrier, that some enterprising Russian RC enthusiast built a functional RC scale model


Of course, you'd probably need an ARC reactor or two to power it...

[NARSES2]

Thanks for the answer Wuzak..appreciated 

That VVA14 is really like something out of Thunderbirds - amazing

[wuzak]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtAKmF3KNK0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAk3kwXfEWk

Some info on the KM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlEt0bCeTy8

FWIW there is some suspicion that the Hughes HK-1 flew only in ground effect. And it may have also been the case for the Wright Brothers' first flight.

[PR19_Kit]

FWIW there is some suspicion that the Hughes HK-1 flew only in ground effect. And it may have also been the case for the Wright Brothers' first flight.

As the HK-1 only reached an altitude of 6 ft or so it would have been in ground effect with a wing as huge as it had, but that doesn't mean it COULDN'T have gone any higher, Hughes just didn't try for it.

[McColm]

Wow!
I should have built the Welsh Harp Sea Monster with a twin hull ,never mind 

[Joe C-P]

How could you forget HMS Valiant from Doctor Who? Though that's really just a giant hovering platform.

I'm not certain a plane, even a giant one, could carry enough smaller aircraft plus fuel, ammo and supplies for the pilots to be an effective fighting platform.
That being said, there is, as already mentioned, the RB-36, and also the Soviets with their various Tupolevs.

[andyreb3]

You are forgetting Spectrum Cloudbase from Captain Scarlet by Gerry Anderson.

[zenrat]

Forget giant planes, airships, helicarriers, vacuum dirigibles (although I do like the concept) and Ekranoplans, the answer is Cat/Toast Arrays (CTAs).

We have all experienced that buttered toast, when dropped, lands butter side down.
And we also know (and some of us may have proved through experiment, ahem) a cat when dropped will always land on it's feet.
Now, what if you strapped a piece of buttered toast (butter side up) to the back of a cat and dropped it?
Surely the toasted cat would not reach the floor but would hover, rotating about the long axis.
Obviously one cat would not produce much lift so you would need to mount many cats into an array.
In order to allow for the rotation you would need to install a spindle down the length of each cat which would mount into bearings on the array's framework.
Feeding and waste extraction would be through the hollow centres of the spindles.
10 arrays of 100 x 100 cats combined with 5,000 thin sliced loaves and 23 tons of butter should provide suitable lift to carry a squadron of F 18s and associated personel.

See here for more details including a proposed (and ridculous if you ask me)  "sticky tape on the tail" propulsion system.
http://www.flycatfly.com/flying-cats

[PR19_Kit]

You could 'directionise' the toast lift by adding marmalade to the equation.

In my experience when the toast is buttered with marmalade on top it hits the ground with considerably more force, accelerations of maybe more than 1G, so much so that the marmalade/butter is always squished out around the periphery of the toast. From observation this does not occur with just butttered toast and may need further experiment.

[wuzak]

Finally, a use for cats.

Would any lift effect be lost when the toast goes stale?

[Rheged]

The other  propulsion  system   that could be used is the shirt/ketchup method.   A white shirt  is hung on the outside of your craft and tomato ketchup (or a curry sauce involving lots of turmeric) squirted  in the preferred direction of travel.  As white shirts are fatally attracted to such material, the vessel proceeds forward towards the ketchup.  Speed is varied by the type of shirt used. Naturally, a dress shirt will cause much faster progress than a cheap T shirt.

[deathjester]