We've talked about the Ekranoplan in the past, a ground effect over-water design that provides jet aircraft speeds. Here's an interesting web page and video (last minute or so is an ad for a video service) on the subject:
Back in the 1960s, Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev claimed there was a secret project going on deep in the country. It had a ship—this half-plane, half-boat contraption—that was capable of breaking the land speed records of the era while carrying an unprecedented amount of cargo. These projects were called Ekranoplans, and here’s why this technology just never caught on.
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