Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV), is a type of flight vehicle intermediate between a warship and an aircraft that has been gradually revealed to the public recently. Navy military expert Li Jie said in an interview with People's Daily Online that thanks to its large capacity and high speed, GEV can be used for an increasingly wide range of purposes in today's increasingly complex marine military actions.
A GEV looks like an aircraft able to make long flight by using its ground or sea effect. It is a vehicle between a ship and an aircraft that has characteristics of both. On the one hand, the GEV has the advantages of the ship in that its capacity is much larger than the aircraft; on the other hand, its maximum flying speed can reach up to 500 kilometers per hour, eight to nine times faster than an ordinary ship.
Li Jie said that several countries started to develop GEVs from the mid-1930s. The United States, Russia and other countries have all been researching and developing a variety of GEVs in the past 80 years.
Russia had invested large quantity of money, manpower and material resources since the 1960s and established a central hydrofoil design bureau that specializes in related researches and design. It developed several types of GEVs for a variety of purposes, including "Foal Eagle", "Caspian Sea Monster" and "Life-savor".
GEVs can be used for military as well as civilian purposes and has a wide range of applications in today's increasingly complex marine military actions.
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