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Where the Spruce Goose failed, the Pelican tries again
Here's a crazy idea: Build the world's largest airplane - with a wingspan of nearly two football fields - and then fly it over the ocean at a cruising altitude of oh, say, 20 feet.
It's just crazy enough, in fact, to get the Pentagon interested. Boeing's latest concept plane, the Pelican Ultra Large Transport Aircraft, exploits an aerodynamic phenomenon called the ground effect, which has long enticed engineers as a way to reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency.
The ground effect occurs when an aircraft flies super low - in the Pelican's case, low enough to clip a sailboat mast. A plane skims along on a cushion of high-pressure air created by its own forward movement. The closer its wings are to the water, the greater the lift and the less drag induced. By harnessing the ground effect, the Pelican would get 75 percent more lift than a conventional plane - and way better gas mileage. With a payload of 1.5 million pounds, the Pelican could fly 11,500 miles over water and 7,500 miles over land (where it would have to fly at 20,000 feet or higher).
Boeing says the Pelican has commercial potential, since it could deliver cargo 10 times faster than a container ship. But its colossal size is a design only the Pentagon could love. It could carry 17 M-1 main battle tanks in a single load, and it's the only plane on the drawing board that lets the US Army achieve its stated goal of deploying an entire division - up to 14,000 soldiers - in five days, anywhere in the world.
A favorable report from the Army's Advanced Mobility Concepts Study, due in April, may give the Pelican a green light. Then it's heads-up for low-flying birds.
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