Wingship's Potential for Strategic Lift

摘要

A Wing-In-Ground-effect (or WIG) aircraft is a vehicle designed to fly just abovethe surface of the earth in an aerodynamic regime called ground effect. Flying in ground effect allows greater fuel efficiency than realized by conventional aircraft. One large WIG design that combines the cargo capacity of a small ship with the speed of a large aircraft is currently being considered as a strategic lift vehicle. This half-airplane/half-ship is aptly called a wingship. The main proponent of the wingship design is a company called Aerocon in Arlington, Virginia. In 1993, Aerocon successfully lobbied Congress to provide funding for a study to be completed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) on the potential of wingships as strategic mobility vehicles. This report looks at the preliminary findings of ARPA and the claims of Aerocon regarding the wingship's strategic mobility potential. These two different viewpoints provide most of the pros and cons of wingship development for the strategic mobility mission. Additionally, the report examines some other military, economic, diplomatic, and political factors that should be considered in a decision to pursue this new technology.