302 H. R. Chaplin 
ask if Mr. Chaplin would like to discuss these points in the light of the title of his paper 
“Research and Development of Ground Effect Machines in the United States.” 
J. L. Wosser (ONR, Washington) 
After listening to all the papers on hydrofoils and associated subjects that have been 
delivered to date at this meeting, let me state that I am very impressed with the level of the 
work that has been done. There has been just this one paper presented in the area of ground 
effect machines (GEMs). Most of this was Mr. Chaplin’s original work. It included a brief 
summary of some of the other things that have been done, but very brief. I would like to 
point out that as far as we in the United States are concerned, we consider the GEM state of 
the art stands about where that of the airplane did in 1904, or where you gentlemen with the 
hydrofoil boat were in 1930. We are just getting started in this field, research wise. How- 
ever, there is a considerable research effort underway. 
Within the Office of Naval Research we are supporting some 16 research tasks, all 
coordinated into an overall GEM research program. Our objectives in this area are not the 
far-out aims that Mr. Chaplin mentioned at the conclusion of his paper: the 600-foot trans- 
oceanic GEM. In order to get this type of research effort underway, we have more immediate 
aims. We are looking for the areas where the GEM’s unique capabilities to travel over all 
types of surfaces (water, land, ice, snow, and mud) with equal facility can be utilized for 
military purposes. Now, this military approach is not the direction of the effort that is going 
on in England, and I am sure that Mr. Shaw will tell you about their commercial interests in 
a moment. 
In addition to the work of the Office of Naval Research, extensive programs are being 
sponsored by Bureau of Naval Weapons, Bureau of Ships, and the Army Transportation 
Corps —all looking at their own areas of interest where the GEM has unique capabilities. 
The Army is particularly interested in overland vehicles that can travel over ice fields, mud 
flats, river deltas, etc., to open up these areas for future exploration or military operations. 
To give you a complete outline of the work that is being done would take too long. A thumb- 
nail sketch would show that we have programs underway that will utilize more sophisticated 
approaches to some of the simplified theories you have heard presented today: viscous 
analyses of flow inside and external.to the machines, propulsion and structural loads 
analyses, stability and control criteria, and ditching and flotation tests at the Seakeeping 
Basin here at Wageningen. 
In conclusion, let me tell you a few of the things that have been achieved in the GEM 
area to date. During his talk Mr. Chaplin showed you some of the machines now in existence. 
Remember that we consider this thing to be in the period 1904 aircraft wise, or just starting 
out hydrofoil wise. In England, they have flown a GEM at 60 mph over the water on the 
Solent and successfully operated in eight-foot waves. In Switzerland, we watched a demon- 
stration of a 30 x 30 foot-machine move over the water at 51 knots. The Curtiss-Wright Air- 
car has been officially clocked at 65 mph. At the present time, Mr. Carl Weiland, now 
working for the Reynold’s Metals Company, is building a 90-mph machine at Louisville, 
Kentucky. This is supposed to be flying by Christmas (1960). 
Yesterday I received a letter which I have already shown to Mr. Chaplin, so this will 
not come as any surprise. About two years ago at an Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences 
meeting in New York I met a Dr. Bertelsen. We discussed theoretical aerodynamics and 
GEMs for an hour and a half before I found out that he was an M.D., an obstetrician from 
