Ground Effect Vehicle Using Tinkered and Gemini

The ground effect vehicle or Ekranoplan is an aircraft is designed to float on a cushion of air above a surface using a phenomenon called the ground effect. They can do this because their wings are slanted redirecting air towards the ground making them float. When I first learned about this type of aircraft from the video above made by Project Air, I was fascinated by how they can just float above a surface like water or the ground. My interest for this unique type of aircraft is what made me want to do this project.

For this project you will need Tinkered or a similar 3d modeling tool, you will also need an ai text to image generator. You can also use an app like fusion 360 or blender for rendering if you prefer that.

The first thing you have to do when designing your aircraft is to choose the wing type. I chose the reverse delta wing type because It was my favorite looking one and also it would be easier for me to design.

In Tinkercad's shape library there is an airfoil shape called "swept naca" use that for your wings and adjust them to fit the design of your wing choice with the sliders on the shape's page.

For designing the body use the new revolve tool in tinkercad then make a small cutout in the front add similar sized shape(like the cutout) into the cutout make it blue for the windows.

Now add pictures of your 3d model into the image generation ai of your choice. It is a little tedious because there is a lot of trial and error into getting a good image. I tried Chatgpt and Gemini and in the end Gemini did a little better because chatgpt's images looked more like toy airplanes, while Gemini's ended up looking a lot more realistic. Also make sure that you prompt is very detailed or your image might not look as good.

Congratulations you have designed your own Ekranoplan!