Well the first functional full scale ground effect vehicle was developed by the soviet union during the cold war. They had full scale ground effect vehicles such as the Ekranoplan also nicknamed the Caspian Sea monster. Ground effect is defined as a phenomenon of aerodynamics where the flow of air around part of an aircraft or a racing car is interrupted by the ground. Basically its like landing in an aircraft where the air beneath your craft is compressed between the aircraft and the ground producing a lift that is far more efficient than regular lift without the compressed air. Since you need a mostly flat area for this phenomenon to occur, this vehicles mostly operate over an ocean. Ground effect vehicles also called WIG or WIGE (Wing in Ground Effect), fly very close to the ground to maximize the lift from the ground and this enables them to virtually hover above the surface and achieve great speeds. This is because it is basically an aircraft with short wings and the aircraft is equipped to land and most can take off out of the water. However taking off takes a tremendous amount of energy. But it is said that once a vehicle is in ground effect the energy needed to power it is greatly reduced. This principle also applys to cars, mostly race cars. To read more about the ground effect phenomenon you can go here.