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Russian Sea Plane or Future Space craft?

Very cool concept; at one point they were contemplated as an anti-ship missile platform because they could approach at high speed under surface radar coverage until they reached launch range and kablooey! Another use would be as a ferry or landing ship for heavy tanks, much like the hovercraft used by the U.S.

This one is a pretty unique design; very cool look. I like it as some sort of scout vessel, on a predominately water world, far beyond any chance for a speedy rescue should the need arise ;)

And if you're a fan of starship water landings, maybe this is a design plan that might become the norm IYTU.
 
BytePro said:
Yeah, the Ekranoplans are pretty interesting... this one (first link) looks trashed, but I like the front shot. Ran across a blog with pics of a nearly complete one siting on a dock (sans weapons and interior) last year, but not finding the link.

Did find this, though: http://www.sergib.agava.ru/russia/bartini/vva/vva.htm
Click to expand...

The Ekranoplan you're referring to was the last of the Lun type, which was intended for anti-shipping missions, and carried about 6 ASMs on its back. Its probably the coolest of the large ones, IMO.

Full pics here: http://englishrussia.com/2010/03/12/ekranoplan/

and you can see it on google earth here:

http://googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=1029&c=&f=q&hl=en&ll=42.881935,47.657184&spn=0.00184,0.005348
 
GRNDL said:
The Ekranoplan you're referring to was the last of the Lun type, which was intended for anti-shipping missions, and carried about 6 ASMs on its back. Its probably the coolest of the large ones, IMO.
Click to expand...
Aha - that's it exactly - Thanks for the links!
 
They're a really neat idea but several crashed in rough weather, into things they didn't see coming moving as fast as they are, etc. The idea just kind of died off.
 
Here's the pic from the linked website.

1.jpg
 
Sure, but I think they had a whole range of ekraboplans over many decades, so I suspect the end of the Cold War had a lot more to do with the grounded remains seen today.

Also, the reports of their death may be exaggerated - I believe you can still buy this type of 'ground effect' plane (well, probably not a working monster like the LUN).

This site looks rather suspicious (and the $25,000 initial consultation fee sweetens that impression!) ... http://www.yachtboutique.com/Designers/Ekranoplan/Ekranoplan.htm

But, this one looks legit - http://www.attk-invest.com/

Enjoy!
 
I do think the graveyard pic is cooler than the whole plane. Looks like the cockpit of an Empresses Marava trade starship. In the youtube pic you can see this plane wouldn't have managed rough seas well. I thought it was interesting that the narrator mentioned that addition engines hadn't been installed that would have given the plane vtol capabilities.
 
Would have made a better-looking Prometheus, if scaled up by several times. Shame she's rusting away. I would have loved something like that to climb around in at a playground as a child.
 
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