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Old 16th Jan 2013, 16:03
  #22 (permalink)  
angelorange
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
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T Tail on Ground Effect Craft / ekranoplan

Alexander Lippisch (designer of Me163 rocket fighter and many sailplanes) used T Tails so that pitch control could be applied to prevent nose up pitch as the mainplane left ground effect. Note in GE the trailing vortices are cancelled out by the ground and therefore cause a low mounted tail to be even less effective.

Rostislav Alexeev helped develop the ekranoplan from hydrofoil boats and used T and high set V tails on the huge Caspian Sea machines:

Ekranoplan - MoscowTopNews.com

The advantages of GE are more to do with Drag reduction than any gains in lift.

The recent Gulfstream flight test crash report noted a reduction in stalling AoA for the main wing due to a reduction in the maximum Lift Coefficent in GE.

www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2012/AAR1202.pdf
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