Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

[First time Juke]

Here look at the size of it !

http://www.boosman.com/blog/archives/2003/02/boeings_pelican.html

[AAFO_WSagar]

Everything Old is New Again

Interesting, the Spruce Goose design was based on this type of flight. In order to achieve the range and payload that Hughes had in mind, it would have been a ground effect airplane. From what I was told by the former Director at the Spruce Goose Museum, this was the design plan from the beginning. No question that Howard Hughes was a man ahead of his time! A shame that he had to pass in such an undignified mannner. He will always be one of my childhood heros/myths.

I also believe that the Soviets did a great deal of research on this type of transport and their "Caspian Sea Monstor," ground effect freighter was the largest plane ever built, at least of this type anyway.

[First time Juke]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

here is one those:

http://www.gizmohighway.com/transport/ekranoplan.htm

some interesting european features:

[First time Juke]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

More about the Pelican:

http://www.amherst.edu/magazine/issues/04spring/flight_unseen/

and an other european entry:

[Apteryx]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

Transport for air racers?
Not much water around Reno, and I think the respective Highway Patrols would be a little touchy about seeing that coming up Highway 80...

[First time Juke]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

Yeah, but in case ya wanna enter all into Europe for a show ?
Pelican is not a float plane..takes off from solid ground.

[blacksheep]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

heres a link to the Russian Casipian Sea Monster

http://www.se-technology.com/wig/index.php

[matt]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

what kind of engines will it have? honestly i think if they're gonna do this it would be a good idea to make it a seaplane in case of an emergency, interesting design though

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

I was reading an article once about the 36 cylinder Lycoming XR-7755 that mentioned that this was the engine originally intended for the Spruce Goose, and that Howard was forced to use 4360's when the Lyc was cancelled after a few prototypes.

It makes me believe that he only flew it once and then parked it indefinitely because he knew it would never handle any reasonable payloads with the smaller P&W's installed. Considering the size and drag of the beast, I'd say that story makes sense. I always found it strange that he never flew at least ONE circuit, and that his one and only straight-line hop barely left the ground effect region....

------

I saw the Pelican a couple of years ago in a few mags, including Popular Science, but I haven't heard anything about it since then...At that time, they were speaking of slightly higher altitudes than 20 feet, to make sure it cleared small craft in the water, like fishing vessels (the props alone are 50 feet in dia.)....Larger boats/ships would be avoided by radar and other methods. it also stated that the plane would fly to higher altitudes when it reached land (it would HAVE to).

It was proposed to be a land plane only, since seaplanes have to have stronger (and heavier) fuselages to handle the pounding of water landings, and a sea-landing beast this size built strong enough would be too heavy to be very efficent vs other cargo aircraft.

I tried searching the pop-sci site for the article, but it appears to be no longer available.

I did run across a few more articles about it when I searched for the pop-sci text, including one that says it would climb to 20,000 feet over land. That would give it a big advantage over the soviet ground-effects-only birds :

http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2002/september/i_pw.html

I don't think this one will ever be built, since there are little or no airfields that could handle a 500 foot wingspan...You'd have to build dedicated airports for it. And at 20-40 feet altitude, imagine all the bird strikes!

[Apteryx]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

Interesting, but I'll take a C-5, instead....

[First time Juke]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

Help me dudes my math fails me. I figured that even in 1/100 scale it ( Pelican ) would be 1,5 meters ( 5 feet ) long. Am I correct ? Quite a ship !

Here is another link for enthusiasts:

http://www.home-taylor.freeserve.co.uk/index%20ekranoplan%20man.html

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

That would be the wingspan of a 1/100 scale model (500 feet devided by 100)

I think the length was quoted as 400 feet or so, and so the length of the model would be 4 feet.

Pretty interesting to think that a 1/4 scale RC model of the Pelican would be larger than a Boeing 727, with 12-1/2 foot props!

[First time Juke]

Re: Smooth transport for airracers; Pelican project !

How big was Spruce Goose in comparison to this Pelican thing ?

http://www.sprucegoose.org/aircraft_artifacts/exhibits.html

Ok it was 319 feet spanning and still is the Goose.