Critical Data and Thinking in Ground Effect Vehicle Design

A new ground effect transit vehicle (GEFT) evolved in design over an eight-month period and has digital prototype lift-drag ratio (L/D) efficiencies double those of past ground effect vehicles (GEV). The evolution of the GEFT design is attributed to an improved simple explanation of how air flow is converted to aerodynamic lift. The design may be especially high-impact because critical aspects of the design have synergies with low-aspect ratio vehicles, making the resulting vehicles compatible with transit on railway, highway, and waterway corridors as well as free flight. This compatibility transitions aircraft, railway, watercraft, and automobile sectors including solar-powered vehicles and a new version of a flying taxi. Seminal works document both the designs and thought processes behind traditional designs with changes in designs directly linked changes in explanations of how air flow generates aerodynamic lift. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the molecular theory of gases provide insight into the science including causality and extrapolation of designs.