Ha Ha!!! They r copying the Russian Ekranoplane which American intelligence never knew existed. In fact I wonder the Russians have not promoted this machine for short medium haul work. Great machine for sheltered waters. I would not like to cross the Atlantic in one.
Kiwi

Looks like the Spurce Goose is Back.

Well An-225 is Ukrainian aircraft, was built in Soviet Ukraine and now I see it here in Kiev quite often. Its assigned airfield is Gostomel- few miles from Kiev.

Post lying. The Russians can not claim to be making the biggest lvtaka. AN - 225 manufactured in Ukraine.

Ha Ha!!! We know all about the ekranoplane, including the fact that they only worked in calm seas, like the Caspian, and crashed when then ran into rough water.
This will never fly, no pun intended

Great concept for extremely limited purposes, as noted by other comments. No doubt the most money to be made from this is from Government Defense budgets. There doesn't seem to be any limit to the number of rat-holes we can pour Government money (read tax dollars) down. I don't think there are many conflicts which will necessitate us transporting large numbers of heavy vehicles or the equivalent in other military stores across large, relatively CALM bodies of water such as the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, the US Great Lakes, etc. that can't be accommodated by other existing, conventional means. Even the Mediterranean is too rough for these vehicles (they hardly qualify as aircraft if their top altitude is only 20 feet!). The "Spruce Goose" was only built and flown (once!) because it was paid for out of an enormous World War II budget. It went over budget by something like 300% and was shown to be useless in a combat role. Do we REALLY need to make this mistake again? I certainly hope not!

Ground effect greatly decreases range. To fly for range and speed, fly high in thin air.

Fair-weather flyer, at best. One 25ft wave & it's all over.

OK, ground effect plane is suitable for calm waters only. But what about ability to fly higher for short distances? This ability could make these monsters more useful, although it would decrease the range due to poor fuel economy. And with no doubt this kind of aircraft must be far more complex and expensive

to williaminoz In fact, ground effect greatly encreases range.