Worlds First Autonomous Ground Effect Vehicle/Ekranoplan? RCTestFlight Collaboration 

I’ve always wanted to get into R&D and engineering but was always told I’m not good enough or too old. However watching you guys developing these working models fires my interest, so thank you for doing what you do for us normal folk, that are stuck and pigeon holed in standard 9-5pm routine. Great content please keep experimenting! Hopefully one day some kid will be inspired enough and eventually get the break they deserve...

Awesome work! Can't wait to try it out!

"Gryphon" Ground effect on. Plus the cool-sounding name of a mythological creature that could fly.

Love the fish jumping at 8:14 😃

As a flight control laws engineer, I am truly amazed. Such a clean work and result. The design process, the methodology... Achieving such a good behavior of the natural aircraft. Then the implementation... Amazing!

5:21 even 20 years later I'm still going back to that book, I can't believe how much information they were able to pack in such a small volume. As a kid that was possibly the most influential book in my RC career.

Dude, you absolutely NAILED IT!!!! First time I've ever seen someone nail one of these from a scratch build (or other wise). Congrats Comrade !!

this is awesome on so many levels, from aviation to kind strangers, to phenomenal design and building to caspian nod! congratulations

Those shots of it cruising above the water with the behind it looked beautiful! It has that sort of feeling like when characters in movie are discovering something.

Spectacular job explaining ground effect vehicles for any novice to understand, and sharing the effort it took to get one to work autonomously. I love the vivid colors of the ekranoplan.

Great project! Great script, great camerawork, etc. I wish more RU-vid videos were this good. I also like the concept of steering by speed differences between motors.

Yeah dude awesome work subbed and a big thumbs up. Look forward to seeing future projects.

I'm impressed by the paint job. It almost looks like a professional design.

Thank you for such a clear explanation of "ground effect"!

this is one of the coolest things i've seen in a while.. good job man!

Great video! Not just the build itself and the science behind it all, but also its filming and aesthetics.

These haven't been in the news for a while now. It's nice to see one flying again.

Your work paid off. This is excellent

Awesome Work, and the amount of detail you put in your design is inspiring to see!

Was lots of fun for me to watch this video and took me back to the days of testing ‘trim in ground effect’ on MD-11’s and 90’s at Edwards AFB.

Pelikrano! Awesome, can't wait to see where this is going? Beauty TF, unreal stuff.

Best implemetation so far. Very well done! Subbed and thumbed up :)

AWESOME BUILD!!!!! I can't believe a prototype worked this well. Unbelievable. I've only ever seen one or two of these ground effect planes and both were in videos on RU-vid. Very rare and very cool.

That critter is quick! The view back at the boat up on plane brought it home. Thanks

Great work! You definitely earned a sub and thumbs up from me.

The name should be "The Pelican" of course. I live in Florida and it is fascinating to watch the Pelicans using ground effect, so perfectly. Endlessly just gliding inches above the surface of the water.

Truly totally awesome! Great engineering, creativity, and even the paint rocks!

Brilliant - love the design. Good luck with future development!

Was waiting for the boat to hit a wake, and radio hopping off the boat.

Wow! Amazing work designing something so beautiful and functional WHILE filming and documenting it all!

What a beatiful project! I just sit and enjoy in awe of what you have done!😊

Excellent job! I'm amazed about how well and stable it flew. :)

Fascinating. You nailed it! I wonder if fully realized, this combination of a small surface-effect platform, combined with autonomy has a practical application in the real world. Really a niche within a niche, for people with very specific taste, on a certain day. Love it.

would love to see some efficiency tests (battery duration) for identical missions at differing altitudes! Great build.

Those shots at the end are absolutely incredible. I hope this can become a full scale plane one day!

Great job, kudos. Love it, totally stable in flight, and scoots well. Looks like a joy to fly.

This is so cool! I’d love to buy a good ground effect seaplane! It makes for awesome footage.

Hey nice video. In the pic of the 3 pelicans, they are actually flying like most soaring birds and open ocean long distance sea birds, with the most lift happening the closer in you get to their shoulders, where they have fore and aft concave, lateral concave, as well as top view template concave. Just a massive inner section of lift, joining in with the body at the shoulders, with a massive refined fillet blending it all together. That way the lift is were it takes the leverage of the birds muscles, way less energy and effort to keep its self in flight for long periods of time and flight. Next the pelicans in the photo aren't that different in height. The one on the right is just much closer to the camera. But all three of them are actually surfing that ocean wave. So let's say, in dead wind, surfzone waves like this one, are traveling somewhere around 5mph and push an air wave above them, which give the sea birds a form of means of travel. They combine that with the added help of ground effect the closer they get to the ocean surface. They also alternate the concave in their wing span from that pocket near their shoulders, all the way out to their wing tips depending on the needed articulation to stay in trim to the air wave. Those tips are actually accelerating the air flow as those last few feathers flex. Like when you kick with swim fins. The tips of the fins are bending into the water flow and allowing you to thrust water backward and yourself forward. Albatross use their wing tips to actually barely touch the wave going extremely fast in air surfing the open ocean swells. And the prandtl theory says that tip vortex can either be drag or acceleration on a manmade plane, depending on the design of the wing tip. Next. On your model, the twin vertical stabilizers can have an extremely positive added behavioral characteristic if you give each one about 2 to 3 degrees of toe-in towards the nose. It creates an auto correct feature to the performance characteristics. I'm at 5:20 now I'm going to watch the rest of the vid. Also on those hydrofoil speed boats. Their engines need to be mounted in the front of the boat, like a common prop plane. The props can be in the back, but all that weight in the motor needs to be in front. Wow, great work. Excellent flight

you're amazing! I love what you did and how you documented it.

Rarely seen such a humble guy with such an extraordinary craftsmanship and perception of the complexity of this

"Sliver" - because that's about how much space there is between the craft and the ground in flight...

12:03 Look mom! No hands! Jokes aside, this is pretty awesome stuff! I love human ingenuity!

Wow, this is awesome and I look forward to seeing more.. BTW that lake looks fantastic.

Awesome engineering from end to end. Wow!

GE is perhaps in a revival, I think it is fascinating. I came across your early attempts and then this. What impresses me is your structured, methodic work applying your findings with theory to reach your goal. This is science at work.

I realllly enjoyed this video! Excellent work! How about E-krane ?

It's the most beautiful modeling job I've seen in recent years -- really good work -- really good.

I love your design process! I loved entire video. Grat job!

Nice work on the project and video. I'm wondering what the actual efficiency gain is in ground effect? Would it double your range? More? Less?

epic can i use small part in new comp

Excellent content! Loved seeing test flights at AMAAC Field and the beautiful morning glass off of Bernasconi Beach.

Congratulations!!! Very well!

Would be interesting to graph the speed vs the amount of current draw on the battery, as it goes in and out of ground effect. Well done presentation. Subscribed.

You created an amazing float plane buddy :D

Really amazing, I can forsee a lot of applications. Tremendous potential . Congratulations.

This is really awesome. Great work, great documentation.

This is very interesting. How does one know if the vehicle is flying or under ground effect?

SWEET! Now I can start ordering my coke fresh directly from Columbia!

This is amazing,it looks like the plane can do both,really fly and Ekrano!!!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Awesome. Your WIG Craft looks a bit like a mix of the Beriev-Bartini VVA-14 (the aerofoil looking fuselage, and two pontoons) and the KM (the tall horizontal stabilizer). Absolutely amazing.

Would have been good to do a comparison between the same waypoint mission performed in ground effect and out of it to see how much efficiency is gained.

"Loosed Goose" as homage to Spruce Goose and the birds in the research. "Loosed" as in set free from the human control.

This was absolutely a great video! Ground effect is rad!

That is impressive, I enjoyed looking at it hovering over the water and flying way above the water. Good stuff....

Drug runners around the world "Like" this.

Vehicle name: Polywiggle - Polystyrene, W.I.G, Gets Lofted Easily

I don't think anyone could really improve on the design and enginuity that went into this project. Great job sir!

Your test vehichle is already amazing.. Never thought it could surf on concrete so well

It looks like you made a wide wing floatplane. A true ground effects vehicle would not be able to take off and rise above a few feet from the surface. Maybe try adding weight?

How is this a "ground effect vehicle" and not just an airplane, flying in ground effect?

This was beautiful, thank you for sharing.

Beautiful work and design!

I love seeing these but it wasn't as cool as Peter's one. His was cool AF and I think flew lower and actually in the ground effect. U kinda had a low flying plane. Still cool though. Just fly lower imo.

Perfect outcome, good luck with your future missions with RC test flight;-))

Excellent design prototyping and test work. That is a very cool new tech aircraft. Keep us updated.

This is mesmerizing. Thank you for sharing!

This is awesome! Definitely subscribed, this is really inspirational, thank you!

Interesting stuff. Lovely filming. Thanks

Your efforts cannot be underestimated... Great work.. Amazing..

Great stuff, can’t wait to see more. I’m already subscribed bro. Fascinating! Love the POV stuff, I guess you’re using one of the 360 cams..?

Really impressed with this build. The delivery and your explanation was excellent too. Subbed and Notification bell ticked.

that is jus so brilliant amazing you might just have something there keep up the great work wonderful vid for those who can really appreciate it of the work you did

Awesome design fabrication and production of the video with the miami vice style effects

That was one of the best RC planes I have ever seen. What a great job you did. I recommend Sea Spray as the name for that plane.

Enjoyed the whole process and testing...Great!

Magnificent engineering. Kudos! Bravo Zulu!

I don't know nothing about planes or the phisics behind them but this documentary was so well done it really gave me so much inspiration.

am super impressed with your project and video - well done - thanks for sharing.

way to go, I am very happy for you and the success of this test.

fantastic job, well done!!

Fantastic buddy, really impressed.

this guy knows his stuff and always has good things to watch

Absolutely top marks for this project working. I am planning to do similar in the very near future as I have a massive waterway right next to my home, thanks for sharing

Found your channel through RC testflight. Subscribed

Nice designing testing and building! Awesome project!

Fantastic job and awesome video!

Excellent work and superb content Sir! 👍😁

Awesome just awesome! Thanks for this!

Nice work! That is very smart and impressive! :)

Very cool. Thank you for the video and Best Wishes/Regards!