Hydrofolis, hovercrafts, ekranoplans - feasible & worthwhile for ww2?

[tomo pauk]

Wonder if those were feasible & worthwhile for the ww2; I'd say 'yes', but let not that stop you from posting

[johnbr]

I agree with you it would be very good on a beach landing.

[Shortround6]

I believe the Germans had a few experimental Hydrofoils.

Hovercraft are a bit harder, to be effective they need a good flexible skirt. This may not have been practical without synthetic materials. You have a weight vs wear problem with natural materials.

ekranoplans may not have been new either, see Dornier X

I will see myself out.

[davebender]

Germany has a head start as Austria experimented with hovercraft during WWI.
Information on KuK Marine Hovercraft.
Technic - Austro-Hungarian Hovercraft - The Development
pMC_gleitbt4.jpg

I suspect the USMC would benefit from hovercraft more then anyone else. They may be capable of riding over offshore reefs in places like Tarawa.

[tyrodtom]

Even though they call it a hovercraft, it's not a hovercraft in the same way as modern hovercraft. It only lifted some of the hull out of the water, incresed speed by decreasing water displacement. There'd be no riding this across reefs.

[davebender]

I expect not as the WWI era KuK Marine hovercraft was designed as a torpedo boat. What matters is the principle of riding on an air cushion was known early on.

If the 1930s Heer wanted hovercraft the WWI era Austrian program would serve as a starting point for their own research & development. However I don't think the Heer would get a lot of benefit from hovercraft so they are unlikely to fund such a program.

The Heer were more interested in Landwasserschleper for use by bridge engineer units. Here's a nice picture of Landwasserschleper towing a float bridge raft.
Temp.jpg