Seamless Multimodal Passenger-Oriented Service for River and Bay Communities
Adam Bradford Suppes, Galen J. Suppes · 2025
Digital prototypes of a ground-effect aircraft use an upper-surface trailing-section ducted fan to reduce both drag and rolling losses of trucks and railcars with exceptionally good lift-drag ratio (L/D) efficiencies for multimodal rail-highway clearances of 1-5 cm. Extending the multimodality to include flight over water would provide unprecedented seamless connectivity and passenger-oriented end-to-end transit with nonstop routing extending from inland to off-shore. The electric vehicles have a design constraint of a core ground-effect flight transit (GEFT) vehicle having a width of 2.5 meters to allow operation on railways and highways. The problem is the rapid decrease of L/D efficiency as clearances approach and exceed ~0.2 meters. This paper evaluates the impact of fences “skiing” on the water and wing extensions to increase L/D efficiency over water. The data identifies a water-corridor market entry position of extending rail-highway multimodality to rivers, river crossings, and calmer coast waters. The high L/D efficiency teaches toward electric vehicles. Solar panels would be particularly effective at locations with high solar irradiance.