Publication: Preliminary design of a wing in ground effect (wig) aircraft model powered with a single propeller engine
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Date
2009-04-01
Authors
Chiok, Ann Nee
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Abstract
A Wing-in-ground effect (WIG) aircraft takes advantage of the ground effect phenomenon when the aircraft is flying close to the ground or sea level, it experiences an increase in lift on the wings, while drag decreases. This results in an enhanced lift-to-drag ratio and hence greater cruise efficiency.
Many of the existing results published in journals are based on experiments done on large scale WIG aircraft, while ground effect phenomenon on small-scale aircraft is virtually unexplored. So the main objective of this project is to study and design a small scale unmanned WIG craft that is capable of traveling over land and water surface using ground effect. The design and analysis of WIG craft was done by using DATCOM software in terms of aerodynamics and stability characteristics for in and out of ground effect and performance for the aircraft was calculated analytically then. Small scale WIG crafts with rectangular and inverse delta wing planform were designed. Only the aircraft with rectangular wing configuration is chosen for the complete analysis of aerodynamics, stability and performance when it operates in ground effect due to time constraint. The rectangular wing configuration was selected due to the ease of manufacturing for this aircraft configuration. The aircraft that operates in ground effect gives better performance compare to the one that operates out of ground effect. The performance of the aircraft is matched with the technical requirement which was set initially.
To conclude, a stable WIG craft with rectangular wing configuration is designed successfully but with a limitation for its optimum range and endurance which are occurred only at certain angle of attack.