Slightly off topic I know, but I figure as it's aero, and especially a ground effect question, it's in roughly the right place. Please feel free to move if you want mods, I won't be offended.
So 1st year flight project (doing aero eng at uni) we have just received- building a small aircraft that will fly round a pole using as little power as possible. Power is supplied down the wire, the idea being that it's dialled down as low as possible without the aircraft crashing, and has to do 10 rounds on that power. Motor is supplied, along with prop. Construction can be of balsa wood and glue (supplied) and anything you can get for free. Exotic designs are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED.
Hope that gives a vague idea of the challenge, now here's the interesting bit.
I'd like to look at building some kind of Wing-in-ground effect craft- sometimes known as ekranoplans or ground-effect-vehicles. I'm sure everybody is at least vaguely familiar with ground effect aerodynamics, (although I do want to be generating lift rather than downforce), perhaps take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle if it's not completely clear in your mind.
Supposedly there are mahoosive efficiency gains for using it on a large craft, although they reduce as craft get smaller. The question is- can I get that extra couple of percent over other possible designs. The simplest solution seems to be building a scaled down glider- I've also heard talk of other exotic designs, such as smaller versions of the NASA Helios concept http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Prototype.
I've had a little trouble finding precedents for my idea- it seems WIG craft have always been used as heavy lift or high speed vehicles, with minimal fuel burn being low on the list of requirement- so has anyone seen/heard/dreamt of anything pertinent to the general idea? What sort of problems would I expect to encounter with this? Where can I eek out maximum efficency, can I beat a basic glider design, and most importantly- is it remotely feasible?
Any help, thoughts, comments, outrage and controversy very welcome.
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