History

Historical Background

The design principle of the »Tandem« wing was developed as the result of a systematic series of models, moving away from the single-wing ground-effect vehicle and using different wing shapes. The two-wing tandem airfoil flairboat achieves excellent flight behaviour with simultaneous stability of the system in ground effect. As a result of the self-regulating flight characteristics, it is not possible for the vehicle to leave the ground effect. This engineering achievement reduced the practical issues of ground effect systems to zero.

The first manned tandem airfoil boats were built as early as 1973 and received official approval as boats or ships from the German Federal Ministry of Transport in 1974. They were classified as type A ground-effect vehicles, which is only awarded to the vehicles of the highest possible safety level and quality class. In 1984, Günther W. Jörg was awarded the most prestigious German science prize, also the Philip Morris Research Prize, in the categories »Transport and Traffic« and »New Transport System of the 21st Century« for his research and innovative technical developments. For further reading on his achievements and recognition, consult his wikipedia entry: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodeneffektfahrzeug  –  https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Günther_W._Jörg)

From 1973 onwards, 14 vehicles from the »Tandem Airfoil Flairboat« (TAF) series were built using various materials, ranging from 2 to 10-seaters, and successfully tested over 100,000 kilometres, of which 6 ground effect vehicles were sold for permanent use, amongst others to Japan, South Africa and Greece. Reiner Jörg, himself a successful graduate engineer and son of the inventor Günther W. Jörg, co-designed and built the first ground-effect vehicles together with his father at a young age.

He studied mechanical engineering at the innovative TU Darmstadt and started developing and testing new materials as well as calculating designs for the first vehicles in the TAF series. As COT at german slider GmbH, Reiner Jörg is responsible for the construction of the various Slider models and is in charge of technical design, calculation, production control and scientific development. He will also lead the company's technical development team, which in future will include other employees from the fields of engineering, aerodynamics and mathematics.