Inspired by a cold-war ultra secret Russian invention, the Ekranoplan, Jaron Dickson, an Australian designer has designed a hydrogen-powered boat that can hover above the water at astonishing speeds by using the so-called “wing-in-ground-effect.”
An air cushion between the wings and the water is created when Dickson’s flying boat hovers above the sea. He called his baby “EkranoYacht.”
Despite its similarities with the Russian invention, the EkranoYacht is fueled with the cleanest energy carrier in the universe: hydrogen. The onboard fuel cells will only emit water as output, and will propel the thing to a top speed on 250 miles per hour, being able to carry six. Because the drag is greatly reduced when the boat floats above the water, the fuel consumption will be even smaller than that of a normal boat (that would have never been able to reach this speed, anyway).
At first, the EkranoYacht will be a luxury, of course. After a while, if very successful, it might just be the next way of sea transportation. That will be the moment when humanity will have gotten over the classic boats used for thousands of years.
By the way, the Russian Ekranoplan used to travel 66 feet above the water, weighed 550 tons and had a speed of up to 460 mph, so you can imagine how much fuel it actually spent. At that speed, though, a vehicle acts more like a plane than as a boat, but without flying very high.
[via gas2]
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