Quote:
Originally Posted by MobilOne
What is the ground effect referred to above?
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I think that the context of the remark is about the phenomena an airfoil experiences near the ground,where the wing appears to float on a cushion of air captured between the wing's bottom and the ground.
Landing a Piper Cherokee which has the 'Hershey Bar' wing exhibits this effect.It's hard to get the plane to settle onto the runway.
Wing In Ground Effect (WIG) aircraft take advantage of it,developing remarkable lift.A neighbor's friend ran an airline into South America and flew in ground effect a few feet above the Amazon River to save fuel.