Howard Wilkinson wrote:

I'm a real admirer of the Coot.... one of the best amphibian designs out
there, but subject to the same bugaboos that plague all amphibians.  High
power required to get on step, draggy, high thrust line, etc.....  Molt's
float wing design makes this one of the most stable versatile amphibians in
existance.

    The matter of getting on step is a problem with all amphibians... lots
of power required.  I've often wondered why nobody has developed an air
cushion system (hovercraft) hybrid for an amphibian.  This would totally
eliminate the problem.   Sometimes it is desirable to look beyond our own
limited sphere of technology.   Molt was famous for this.
    In the case of the amphibian, a small lightweight two cycle engine
driving a fan to generate an air cushion would add little to the weight and
the benefit would be great.... it takes very little horsepower to do this.
One could even accomplish a takeoff or landing on solid ground I suspect
using air cushion.
    20 years ago I designed a flying wing ground effect aircraft not
intended for free flight out of ground effect..... at the time I was unaware
of other's efforts in this direction..... The craft was never built.   A
couple of years back I ran across a bunch of sites for this type of craft
which are called "WIG" or "WISE"  (wing in groundeffect) or (wing in surface
effect).   Of these the most interesting by far is one (experimental) built
by the Webbers who are in the hovercraft business.  Their design operates as
a hover craft at low speed using a lift engine, and at higher speeds the
flying wing design allows it to operate in ground effect...... this is a
water craft.  This is exactly what the amphibian needs to operate
efficiently on reasonable power.
Check it out:    http://www.mhtc.net/~vweber/WeberWig.html

H.W.

 
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