Large-scale wing-in-ground effect vehicles that carry priority freight internationally will require arrival terminals and special water runways along which to accelerate in order to transfer into ground effect mode. The coastal world offers numerous suitable locations.
Introduction
There are possible market applications for large-scale ground effect transportation technology capable of carrying containers internationally on both overnight transportation service as well as extended-distance trans-oceanic service. A market niche is emerging for overnight freight transportation service between many pairs of coastal cities domestically and internationally where air freight involves extremely high cost and where conventional ship transportation is too slow. A complimentary market niche is evolving between very distant pairs of coastal cities for trans-oceanic freight transportation service that is faster than ship and less costly than air freight.
While Russia built the largest wing-in-ground effect vehicle of 500 tons that traveled above the surface of the Caspian Sea, several builders located internationally have developed smaller versions of the technology. Wing Ship of South Korea has built and tested a 50-passenger vehicle while Tandem Wing of Germany has plans to build versions of 100-seat capacity and 400-seats capacity. In recent discussions about mega-scale ground effect technology of perhaps 2,000-tons, Tandem Wing advises that they could upscale their technology, while a Russian developer suggests that they could offer a modified version of the Ekranoplan to carry containers.
Source: www.maritime-executive.com