Well it's not exactly a flying car, but...

[Logan Darklighter]

This is REALLY cool!
It's essentially a WIG (wing in ground effect) craft, but crossed with a classic hovercraft design. Sweet!

[Wiregeek]

do want so bad oh my gob
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, very nice. Takes off at 70 ... what happens when it hits 88?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Wiregeek]

As you know, Bob, you'll see some serious shit.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Logan Darklighter]

The thing that's really neat is that this comes the closest - in a PRACTICAL sense - to the notion of a "flying car" that I've ever seen. I don't mean that it would work like the Jetsons or Back to the Future. I mean that as a practical means of moving about using both air, water and ground effect modes. No - you're not going to use this on the road or above the streets of a city. What you -could- use it for is for interface travel. Particularly in cities with waterways. (And that's most large cities. We humans tend to build close to the water.) Take Hong Kong for an example. Their new airport is on an artificial island several miles to the west of the city proper. With this wing/hovercraft, you could use the hovercraft as an airport to city shuttle. Take a load of passengers from the terminal and use the harbor to get to the city proper. If you have a hotel close to the water, you might be able to use the ground effect to pull right up a ramp to a back entrance to the hotel garage. Just a short walk from there to the concierge.
Some of these advantages were already proven by hovercraft and hydrofoil shuttles. But this just takes it up a notch, I think.

[ordnance11]

I can also see military applications..especially for the Marines. Try imagining a scaled-up version, mount a turbofan engine, armor it, mount hardpoints on the wings. Use an amphibious assault ship as a motherbase and I can see it leading the first assault wave..or even as support. Even as anti piracy patrols.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Valles]

...Am I the only person who thought, 'Oh, shit, someone taught a Savannah Master to fly!'?
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Bob Schroeck]

Try imagining a scaled-up version, mount a turbofan engine, armor it, mount hardpoints on the wings.

Can you armor it and still have it work right? You might get hovermode, but I doubt you'd get flight.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Valles]

Well, we armor airplanes, sometimes, and WIGE has a much higher lift - so yeah, I'd say you could. Not like a tank, but like an APC at least.
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[ordnance11]

Try imagining a scaled-up version, mount a turbofan engine, armor it, mount hardpoints on the wings.

Can you armor it and still have it work right? You might get hovermode, but I doubt you'd get flight.

          It pretty much depends on the design specs. If you use similar design specs like the A-10 on this thing...come to think of it..use the A-10 as the template for design. If you can't use the 30mm DPU Gatling as the nose armament, how about a 7.62 mini gun either as an internal fit, a nose pod or hard point pod. You'll need something else to deal with buildings or armor, but it's a good design start.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[VladimirTherin]

The problem with that is you end up with something large enough that its no longer just a flying hovercraft, and is now simply a flying boat.

WIG craft cant fly very high at all, so the added maneuverability over a regular hovercraft (of which the marines DO have militarized versions) with a large enough cushion simply isnt much.

What WIG is best used for is heavier lift than from an aircraft, while not being as slow as a boat. The problem is that aircraft aren't very good at the stopping-in-short distances part that military landing craft are good at.

[ordnance11]

Actually, it'll be a military advantage. NOE flying. Whether it's an advantage over say a helicopter is the question.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[SkyeFire]

Nah, not really.  The WIG effect only works as long as, IIRC you stay less than one-half your wingspan from the ground (or water).  This poses obvious issues for the kind of terrain we often use helicopters in, not to mention trying to do tight banking turns.
The Russians were onto something, I thought, with the Utka and Orlan -- Anti-ship missile platform and assault amphib transport, respectively (google "Caspain Sea Monster").  Arguably, the WIG craft (especially the PAR-WIG variant) could have brought sealift cargo capacity to airlift speed.  And an "airliner" packed full of Marines that could take off from Pearl and stage a direct amphibious assault onto any decent beach on the Pacific Rim had some definite potential.  Of course, there's still weather vulnerabilities to consider, and strategic range would be compromised by the issues of flying tankers that low.  Still, I'm surprised the idea never caught on, at least for some speciality applications.

[Black Aeronaut]

SkyeFire wrote:

---

...and strategic range would be compromised by the issues of flying tankers that low.  Still, I'm surprised the idea never caught on, at least for some speciality applications.

UNREP that sucker.  They can float, after all, right?
Oh, and you've never heard of HIFR on a DDG?  We do some pretty ballsey stuff. 

[ordnance11]

Why take off from Pearl? Why not from a cargo container ship fitted with bow door? If the Somalis can use mother ships for piracy, why not us for anti-piracy? Ideal for Spec Ops also. Need to insert a few things (or bodies) covertly into a hostile shore? No need to use subs.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[VladimirTherin]

An aircraft at ground level is NOT sneaky at all.  Even for WIG you still need a fairly big motor. If youve been near open water much at all, you know the way it transmits sound very  far too.
Operating at night doesn't help much when they can literally hear you miles away.
SpecOps use inflatable zodiacs and dont even motor in for the final stretch, they are paddled carefully.
When they dont scuba all the way in after leaving  from a submarine's torpedo tube, that is.

[Black Aeronaut]

I don't see it as a spec-ops tool anyways... Though it'd make a mighty nice way to drop off some RHIBs like Chinooks do.

Other than that... lightning-fast marine landings, like LCACs, only faster and with greater range.

[Rod.H]

Why take off from Pearl? Why not from a cargo container ship fitted with bow door?

Now that's a plot out of a Bond-movie, Clancy-novel, and the actual for 'World In Conflict'

If the Somalis can use mother ships for piracy, why not us for anti-piracy?

I do believe that's being considered

Ideal for Spec Ops also. Need to insert a few things (or bodies) covertly into a hostile shore? No need to use subs.

It's also something that could only work once, especially if it's from a vessel that's out of place for the location & time.

[Black Aeronaut]

It's also something that could only work once, especially if it's from a vessel that's out of place for the location & time.

And after what happened to the USS Indiana during WWII, we generally try to make sure that nothing is 'out of place.'  (It wouldn't have been so bad if the Indiana's mission and whereabouts had been known, then most of her crew would have survived.)  Bad way to get good men killed.
  

[Kurisu]

I'm sorry, I look at that wonderful piece of engineering... and I see the next air-support craft for G.I Joe.
_____
DEATH is Certain. The hour, Uncertain...