Not wishing to hijack - but someone mentioned the Russian ground effect planes. (These things first appeared on the satellites during the Cold war and frightened the s**t out of the USA miltary - 250mph flying battlecruisers could move entire divisions.)
Anyway, a tale. Three years ago I got to fly on a Russian-built ground-effect plane. A Malaysian investor had procured a Russian design and engineering team and set them up in the Bahamas to develop civilian versions of the ground effect plane.
The one I went on was about the same size and shape as a six-seater twin - but with very short stubby wings. It behaved like a boat up to 50 knots - going through an "up on the plane" stage at about 25 knots. Then the magic happened - the buffeting stopped, the speed climbed to 100 knots and we were flying about 20cms above the water on ground effect. Gobsmacking. I will try to post some links if I can find the stuff.
The lead engineer was ex-military - looked like your standard movie Russian hardman soldier. Extremely fit, double sixpack etc. I asked him what he did before he got involved in this programme : "KGB". And - er - where were you based? "Oh I was at university in Israel."
OK - these things are called WIG vehicles (Wing In Ground effect) and here's a good link
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question...cs/q0130.shtml