This paper will demonstrate that since the last RINA conference in 1997, the field of WING-IN-GROUND Effect, or what is now termed SURFACE EFFECT. The emphasis has changed Russian examples, to the rise of Chinese models, and the change in priority from a military requirement to a civilian purpose. The growth in the transport and movement of goods and people is what now pushes the technology forward. The research into the type of flight problems encountered and how to overcome them is now being explored. So rather than the field being dormant, it is the developing and refining of the models that have gone before that is now taking place.
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