You know, there are (were) planes designed to fly very very low to obtain more lift by ground effect. They are called ekranoplanes, and some are better known as Caspian Sea Monsters. The Soviet Union did a lot of research on them, but they have obvious shortcomings - i.e. they can only fly above reasonably calm water. Take a look at http://www.mindspring.com/~cazmodel/ekranoplanearticle.htm for more info.
Interesting page, but the black-on-dark red coulour scheme is hard to read; especially in the morning and before coffee.
I think The Discovery Channel has an episode on those aircraft.
I agree. A useful trick in a case like this is to highlight the entire page - on Windows, you just hit Ctrl-A. Highlighted text is usually shown with more contrast.