I think they're awesome machines! Back in the Cold War days, the NATO folks named one of them the Caspian Sea Monster, because nobody in the west had ever seen one, but the satellite analysts would spot a big ship at one of the ports, then on the next satellite pass an hour later, it would be on the other side of the Sea, so they did the calcs and figured it had to have travel at 300 knots or so to do that. It took a while for them to get any detailed photos of the craft.
They are known as WIGs now, for wing-in-ground effect. There are a number of manufacturers selling civilian sized versions you can fly without an FAA pilot's license.