Douglas Ground Effect Machines ?

There is an extensive article on the flying maquette on the concept in the Spring 2007 number of the AAHS Journal. Somewhere I have an art of a much scaled up version (one thousand passengers) version form 1964. The patents was based on the ideas of Weiland, who was a Swiss engineer. If you search Google, you'll find a couple of other patents from him and from him and Douglas.
 
From Progress in Aerospace Sciences #42 by K. V. Rozhdestvensky:

Quite a unique craft was developed in the 60s by the Swiss engineer Weiland within his contract with the US company "West Coast". Weiland vehicles comprise a twin-hull structure with two large wings of aspect ratio 5 configured in a tandem. The "Small Weilandcraft" of 4.3 tons was to be followed by a 1000-ton "Large Weilandcraft" with length in excess of 200m and width of more than 150m. Sufficient attention was attached to providing efficient takeoff.

As an alternative to hydroskis, Weiland proposed power augmentation. He also introduced special inflatable shells on the bottoms of the hulls to reduce the impact of waves during takeoff. The "Small Weilandcraft" crashed during the tests supposedly due to lack of static stability.
Click to expand...

Attached are a photograph of the small Douglas-Weiland demonstrator and an artist's rendering of Weiland's projected "Large Weilandcraft" development.
 

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Also has more than a familial resemblance to this:

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,10946.0.html

Enjoy the Day! Mark
 
This is what Aerofiles has to say about this contraption:

Weilandcraft 1964 = 2pOFb; two 275hp unspecified tractors on pylons; span
(beam): 32'0" length: 52'0". Carl Weiland. Primarily wooden construction, the
catamaran hydrofoil design was proposed by Swiss inventor Weiland to Douglas
Co as a large-load transport that would "fly" in ground-affect more economically
and at greater speeds (v est: 115) than surface vessels. After many water tests
(photo background suggests Long Beach harbor), on 3/4/64 at about 75 mph, the
nose lifted the front skis, then the rear skis broke free, so it apparently flew to
some extent. Its flight, however, ended abruptly after the nose continued to rise
despite reduction on power—performing like some flat-bottom speedboats do
before they flip? It reads like a stall occurred instead and the craft hit the water
nose-high hard enough to pretty much disassemble it. Further development was
dropped. A comprehensive, illustrated article by Bruce Cunningham about this
rarity was in the Spring 2007 issue (52/1) of AAHS Journal.
 
From Russian book; экранопланы,

again the Weinland craft.
 

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Stargazer2006 said:
From Progress in Aerospace Sciences #42 by K. V. Rozhdestvensky:

Quite a unique craft was developed in the 60s by the Swiss engineer Weiland within his contract with the US company "West Coast". Weiland vehicles comprise a twin-hull structure with two large wings of aspect ratio 5 configured in a tandem. The "Small Weilandcraft" of 4.3 tons was to be followed by a 1000-ton "Large Weilandcraft" with length in excess of 200m and width of more than 150m. Sufficient attention was attached to providing efficient takeoff.

As an alternative to hydroskis, Weiland proposed power augmentation. He also introduced special inflatable shells on the bottoms of the hulls to reduce the impact of waves during takeoff. The "Small Weilandcraft" crashed during the tests supposedly due to lack of static stability.
Click to expand...

Attached are a photograph of the small Douglas-Weiland demonstrator and an artist's rendering of Weiland's projected "Large Weilandcraft" development.
Click to expand...
My father, Felix E. "Phil" Blum was a test pilot for 42 years at Douglas Aircraft, McDonnell Douglas, & Boeing retiring in 1999. He did all the test flights on the Weiland Craft which were conducted at the Douglas test facility at the Salton Sea, CA.

The pilot sat in the front of the left pontoon. Co-pilot position at front of right pontoon was abandoned due to engines being underpowered and inability to get craft off the water. Dad also demanded that engines have cables to secure engines in case the engine support broke with propeller decapitating the pilot. It saved his life on the crash flight.

From the film taken from the chase helicopter, the Weiland Craft was flying over the sea in ground effect when it pitched-up suddenly. May father stated he pulled the power hoping the nose would drop vs. stall at which time he'd go back to full power and hope for a smoother impact. It did work out as he had hoped. The crash was violent and abrupt. The left engine broke free and departed to the left of the pontoon. The pontoon also broke behind the cockpit. Dad was able to climb out onto the bow and was quickly retrieved by the rescue boat. He was rushed to hospital with a broken back. As the Weiland was made of plywood, the wreckage did not sink and was towed back to the Douglas dock and eventually scrapped. Douglas did no further research in wing in ground effect vehicles and Dad went on to test DC-8, 9, 10, MD-80 and his favorite program, MD-80 UHB. He was, The Man!

James Blum
Los Angeles
 

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