Modern Sea Monsters

Published on May 8, 2024

Though small, the ten-seat Wigetworks Airfish 8 wing-in-ground-effect aircraft demonstrates the commercial viability of the technology. The craft’s “reverse-delta” wingform creates a body of “stagnation air” underneath that helps it fly efficiently when close to the surface.

Revisiting wing-in-ground-effect aircraft for the next fight.

When CIA analysts first saw it in satellite photographs, they didn’t know what it was. It was the size of a boat and operated from the water, but it seemed to have wings. Was it a plane? If so, it was larger than any plane they knew of. Was it nuclear powered? They did not know—and would not for several more years. Though there were more questions than answers surrounding this mysterious craft, they gave it a name: the Caspian Sea Monster.1 In fact, it was a massive waterborne wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) vehicle.2

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