Inspiration

[NARSES2]

Seeing that LVT with Chaffee turret has certainly got the brain in overtime 

[ericr]

Anyone else see a 190 and Catalina getting it on in the side view?

Definitely, that's just what I thought. 

or a BV138 flying clog ? 

[Caveman]

Whatever floats your boa... er, plane.

Hat, coat, taxi...

[jcf]

Apart from the Blackburn B20 (see post #2 of this thread) did anyone actually build and fly a flying boat with a retractable hull/central float?

The WWI German Ursinis fighter prototype had twin retractable floats.

[jcf]

Seawolf Express supposedly coming soon as fast transport from Helsinki to Tallin.

https://majandus24.postimees.ee/4285555/holjukireiside-korraldaja-laheb-arimeest-30-minutiga-ule-lahe-viima

[Snowtrooper]

As awesome as a passenger ekranoplan sounds, the Seawolf Express has made rounds in the Finnish press since the company was established in 2015 (ie. the company puts out a new press release every now and then to keep up interest) and nothing concrete has actualized so far - mainly because the intended vehicle (RDC Aqualines EP-15) hasn't even flown yet.

Of course, in the whiffworld everything is possible

[Dizzyfugu]

Found this one here, accidently, a submersible ekranoplan:

[PR19_Kit]

That's pretty interesting, I'm surprised the Russians haven't tried it already. 

[scooter]

Looks like something from Kerbal

[jcf]

More on Seawolf Express, from the machune designer/builder RDC-Aqualines.

So far it looks like they've only built and run models and a scaled down test article.

The GIF looks particularly suspicious. 








https://www.rdc-aqualines.ru/en/

Brochures:
https://www.rdc-aqualines.ru/images/EP-15_brochure_ENG.pdf

https://www.rdc-aqualines.ru/images/ES-108_ENG.pdf

https://www.rdc-aqualines.ru/images/booklet_eng.pdf

[Old Wombat]

The GIF looks like a snippet of footage of a towed model.

There looks to be a small attachment point for a line at the front of the model, just below the point of the nose, & I'd hazard a guess that it's being filmed from the tow-boat, with the tow line attached to a pole near the bow of the tow-boat & long enough to keep the model away from the boat's bow-wave.

[jcf]

Supposedly a free-flight model, and the animated gif looks like it's made from 4-5 images repeating endlessly,
rather than a snippet of footage.

[Old Wombat]

A snippet can be a very small amount. In this case about 1/4 second of film (so about 4-6 frames) repeated. Which indicates to me it probably went t!ts-up very shortly after they started filming.

I'd be much more suspicious of the "free-flight" claim because there's no sign of any form of propulsion, the model stays pretty-much perfectly centred, & there's no change of angle between the camera & the model.

Of course, if they're lying about one inconsequential thing, they're probably lying about a whole heap of more critical stuff.

[ChernayaAkula]

Regarding the lack of propulsion, I guess there's a possible explanation for that. I recall having seen a documentary on the"Caspian Sea Monster". They also showed some footage of test vehicles - some unmanned gliders, some with pilots - that were launched from the shore by a catapult-like device. They looked a bit like the V1 launch ramps. The gliders would leave the catapult, drop a bit, bht then settle on the "air cushion" provided by the WIG effect and glide much farther before eventually settling in the lake.

[jcf]

The full-size vehicle is to have a water propeller for hull-borne propulsion, so the model could have a propulsion
pod mounted below the centre and thus out of view. The wake beneath, and the visible spray humps,
suggest, to me, that this may be the case. A pod would enable something as relatively light as the model
to become wing-borne and would give some stability.