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Belly of the beast...

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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.
 
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.
 
Amazing indeed - also youtube videos

 
Aha! So it IS designed as a ground-effect craft. Amazing.
Thanks.
 
More (as history of it):
 
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.
 
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.
 
With enough thrust, a house-brick will fly. Add some control surfaces and, voila!

I offer the F-4 Phantom as evidence. :smirk:
 
Except that the F4 was a beautiful and brilliant war bird. Not an ugly soviet curiosity.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
Boink said:
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.
Click to expand...

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