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Belly of the beast...

NutmegCT

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Mark - thanks for this. We've been following the Ekranoplan for many years.

Have to admire the courage of that photographer!

Tom M.
 
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Tom:
I'd never heard of it, but it is very Soviet, and one wonders if it ever really "flew" (though perhaps ground-effect flight was all it was ever meant to do).
Strange moth-ball status... almost as if they might still want to use it.
 

JPSmit

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Amazing indeed - also youtube videos

 
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Aha! So it IS designed as a ground-effect craft. Amazing.
Thanks.
 
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More (as history of it):
 

pdplot

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What a horrible looking craft.
Ground effect. Pelicans use it all the time to skim just over the water. Also causes planes to float down the runway.
 
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Kinda clever in some ways... as a fast transporter.
Some say that the Spruce Goose never really flew, and that its test-flight was only by ground-effect.
 

DrEntropy

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With enough thrust, a house-brick will fly. Add some control surfaces and, voila!

I offer the F-4 Phantom as evidence. :smirk:
 

waltesefalcon

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Except that the F4 was a beautiful and brilliant war bird. Not an ugly soviet curiosity.
 

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Neat! Call it what you want, it is an interesting idea. I'm curious about (1) turbulence - at 20 feet above the water, could a feasible wind shift/shear move the craft enough to have something hit the water? And (2) what happens when you hit a wave at 300 mph (see (1))?

Not much time to react... (three things that do a pilot no good: runway behind, fuel in the truck, and altitude above)

Shame it crashed and lies beneath the Caspian Sea. Wonder if the crew survived?
 
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The one in the first video (link) is sitting on a beach with a generator keeping things on... and a sleeping guard that allowed photographers to sneak by.
 

NutmegCT

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Way cool!

Been having an ongoing discussion about Ekranoplans with a friend for a few months now. He'll get a big kick out of seeing the inside.
 

DrEntropy

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The one in the first video (link) is sitting on a beach with a generator keeping things on... and a sleeping guard that allowed photographers to sneak by.

"We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us."
 
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