Ground Effect Vehicle

Ground Effect Vehicles (GEVs) are some of the coolest and most niche modes of transport out there. I doubt that more than 1 in 100 people know what one is. It is also much easier to make and more forgiving than an airplane due to it never being more than 10cm off the ground. Another perk is that it won't easily be lost up a tree or in a big bush. GEVs are also not a new concept with some of them being used in WWI and possibly before. Here is a vey simple tutorial that makes a great GEV.

Tools

1. scissors
2. metal ruler
3. knife
4. pen
5. hot glue gun

Materials

1. cardboard
2. hot glue sticks

For the body you will need 9 different pieces

1. 2x long polygons (starting as 2x rectangles (25cm x 4cm) from which you cut a triangle (10cm x 2cm) out of two of the diagonal corners)
2. 2x rectangles (2cm x 4cm)
3. 2x squares (4cm x 4cm)
4. 1x rectangle (5cm x 4cm)
5. 1x rectangle (9,6cm x 4cm)
6. 1x rectangle (9,7cm x 4cm)

Round the front of the first two polygons.

Glue the two 4cm x 4cm squares where the start of the diagonal cut is onto one of the large polygons (10cm away from the end).

Glue the two 2cm x 4cm rectangles at the ends of one of the larger polygons.

Glue the supporting struts (the 5cm x 4cm; the 9,6cm x 4cm and the 9,7cm x 4cm rectangles) between the previous vertical rectangles.

Glue the one large polygon parallel to the first one on the other side of all the smaller rectangles.

When you are flying your GEV (ground effect vehicle) the front will most likely bump a lot against random things so it needs to be strong and reinforced.

What I did was cut lots of little squares out and stick them against the nose. I then cut and sanded it to smooth it out. After I did that the nose was very strong.

For the tail you need three pieces:

1. 2x (polygons with 2x right angle corners, and 8cm between the two right angles. The other two sides of the right angles are 5cm and 3cm respectively).
2. 1x polygon (starting with a rectangle of 16,5cm x 4,5cm - cut two triangles out of the front two corners 1cm x 6cm, and cut a rectangle 1cm x 4,5cm out of the middle of the back).

Glue the two pieces vertically on to the back two sides of the main body.

Glue the top piece horizontally on top of the two vertical pieces.

You can also score and bend the back two rectangles as flaps.

The wings are very important to get right - so if you haven't been focusing yet, now is a good time to start.

Check the pictures to get the dimensions for one of the wings and mirror it to make the other.

You want to get quite a large aero foil shape.

It is not totally necessary but I would highly suggest that you glue two kebab sticks onto the front edge of each wing. It will most definitely save your wing from being broken.

*Please note that the photo of the bottom of the wing (showing the scoring and wing width), is 15cm and not 51cm.

It is quite important to balance the GEV so that it doesn't stall or scrape against the ground. Look at where I drew the two dots on the bottom of the wings. The GEV needs to balance roughly balance on those points. If it is tilting backwards then add more coins/other weight to the front. To get the coins into the GEV just cut a small flap into the front and glue the coins into that cavity.

The small triangles on the ends of the wings and the cockpit are not necessary but they make the GEV look much better. For the two triangles just cut out two pieces of cardboard and for the cockpit cut out four or five teardrop shaped pieces of thick cardboard. Then you need to need to glue them on top of each other and carve them with a knife to get the desired shape.

It depends - You could spray paint it once you've tweaked it and it's flying well, but often the cardboard looks great as is, and shows what you've made it from. If you do want to paint it, I'd suggest not painting it with a brush as you may distort the cardboard and add unwanted weight.

GEVs like to fly on a large smooth surface like a basketball court or gymnasium floor. A GEV needs to be thrown hard, just above the ground. Once you start throwing the GEV, you can make any tweaks that may be necessary to make if fly straight (adjusting the tail fins) or adding weight to the front or back to get it to fly flat, and maintain a glide just above the ground.

I hope you enjoy making this project!