Regent Craft Wing in Ground Effect Could Revive Giant Cargo Plane Dreams

Ground effect craft are an interesting proposition.  So far so good.  To be a practical solution , we must become as large as practical and move air freight containers over rough seas.  They must still be low and slow but lifting over the waves appears reasonable.

Yet slow does mean under 200mph and really much s  lower .  Thus autobaun sppeeds for a large craft moving port to port.

Again short haul looks good here becausse of refueling.  Yet established large planes are doing this already and the fuel saving if any is lilely minimal.

There is a compelling business model for large airships when drone operated over tge oceans, but i see nothing here as yet.  Again we have an expensive fast boat burning fuel ,but at least not pushing water.  So many have failed here.

Regent Craft Wing in Ground Effect Could Revive Giant Cargo Plane Dreams

August 11, 2025 by Brian Wang

DARPA and the Navy had envisioned hyper-efficient cargo planes able to move thousands of tons by leveraging extra lift by flying close to the ground.

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Regent craft has a working 12 passenger version and has sales for a 100 passenger seaplane that would be about three times more fuel efficient than other planes. They do not need as much weight as prior wing in ground effect designs by using computers for stabilization.

Larger Regent WIG versions are hypothetical, as current Regent models top out at ~12.5 tons (Monarch passenger equivalent), with no announced plans for 200+ ton cargo variants. However, based on historical Ekranoplans (e.g., Lun-class at ~150 tons payload potential), modern concepts like DARPA’s Liberty Lifter (aiming for 100+ ton heavy-lift at sea-skimming heights) and the Boeing Pelican (8000 tons), such scaling is technically feasible for hybrid/electric WIG vehicles. They could be optimized for coastal cargo (100-2,000 mile routes) by leveraging ground effect for 30-50% better efficiency than aircraft, achieving 2-3x the carrying capacity of comparable seaplanes while traveling at 180-300 mph—far faster than ships (20-30 knots) but with costs and efficiencies bridging the two.