j murray said...


It was never designed to fly as such, but it did reach a happy attitude a few feet above the water and was quite effective.

Around the net you may find some info regarding 'wing in ground effect' which Im guessing was the priciple the idea was working from. I made some RC models years ago trying to get a practical demonstration of the idea but they always proved too unstable and hard to get going off the water, was easier just to skid/slide over it (and grass, dirt, mud, etc).
That said there were a few different craft configurations and I tried the most unstable Not sure how ground effect could be utilised with the large sideways force component of a landyacht.

Does it really matter if one goes sideways. Just getting in the air is the first step.
one small step etc.

I have to agree with Arjay. Been in the air a few times myself (not landyachting related tho) in an uncontroled manner and have to admit its not as fun as I imagined

In Greenbird's case the horizontal wing was used to provide downforce (righting moment??).

An idea that just popped into my head (off topic though) would be to attach a big 'skimmer' plate to a kite buggy and see if one could skim across areas of shallow water for fun. The cartoon in my head is along the lines of racing up a beach and not stopping at the creek/river at the end Best have the video camera handy for Australias Funniest Home Video.

Arjay said...

j murray said...

Just getting in the air is the first step.

Mmmmmmm, yeah! But this bear has been airborne once too often in his landyachting pursuits!! More another time.

tell me more, tell me more, like ,was it on Ivanpah
( sung to the tune of, "summer nights")

Maybe this is the future,



rushin landyacht
Pullin big crowds [}:)]