1987 was the year when the first 350 tons ground effect “ship” from the series of Soviet battle missile carriers was produced. It was called Lun after the Russian name for a bird of prey – hen harrier. Another name for this vehicle was Project 903. It carried 6 Moskit cruise missiles (SS-N-22 Sunburn in NATO classification). Hitting four of them causes inevitable sinking of a vessel of any know type and size. The second Lun-class battle aircraft was supposed to be produced in several years but due to the end of cold war and partial disarmament the project was changed to a rescue aircraft and it was never finished.
This type of vehicle called in Russian ekranoplan uses so called ground effect – extra lift of large wings when in proximity to the surface. For this reason they have been designed to travel at a maximum of three meters above the sea but at the same time could provide take off, stable “flight” and safe “landing” in conditions of up to 5-meter waves. These crafts were originally developed by the Soviet Union as high-speed military transports, and were based mostly on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. In 2005 crafts of this type have been classified by the International Marine Organization so they probably should be considered flying ships rather than swimming planes. It is also interesting to note that this aircraft is one of the largest ever built, with a length of 73,8 meters (comparing with 73 of Airbus A380).
Looks kie somthing i would use to fly to Mars. needs reinforcments though.
Think they would learn to stop building those shitty planes, no wonder polands prime minister died in one of those big-ass russian airplanes
Greenhouse effect, here I come!! =)
Boeing are working on their own version of this shitty aircraft as we speak… guess not so shitty as innovative and interesting.
And that crash of the Polish plane had nothing to do with the plane and everything to do with what an asshole that president was forcing the pilot to land a plane so he wouldn’t be late… what a prick… shame everyone on board had to pay for the fact that he was a cunt.
These craft actually worked quite well but were heavy on fuel and offered no strategic advantage, being that they were large and could easily be plotted by targeting radar.
It is a pity that the concept was not further developed as it offers certain unique advantages for civilian usage and I can think of several applications where the technology is or would be the only option. There have been a few other surface effect craft built by others, using a very thick wing section; many of them had cruise heights in the tens of meters. This particular craft should be restored and would be a neat attraction, as it is a historic aircraft of some significance.
Nice Photo i Surf whole site it was cool and amazing
The whole point of wing in ground effect aircraft is in a normal rear swept wing as the air comes off at the wing tip the air on top is high pressure and the air below is low pressure so a huge vortex is generated that the aircraft has to drag along behind itself. As seen with large gliding birds flying very low over water means that vortex is broken up and doesn’t form so it reduces drag considerably.
This actually reduces fuel burn by an enormous amount, but of course that reduction can’t really be fully taken advantage of because to fly close to the water or other flat surface means to fly low in the dense relatively warm air at sea level rather than the thin cold air at altitude where engines are more efficient and flight speeds are higher.
The real power of this aircraft was the ability to move rapidly to a launch position at an altitude where radar is less effective to mount a high volume missile attack on a carrier group. The missile it carried should have been able to penetrate the defences of AEGIS class cruisers of the time so this was a real threat to any US carrier group that got near the Soviet Union to launch carrier based nuclear strikes.
The problem was a lack of funding… and Oscar class subs could carry four times more missiles of a more capable type.
you can read a series of four articles about this monsters here
http://www.valka.cz/clanek_12210.html
http://www.valka.cz/clanek_12596.html
http://www.valka.cz/clanek_12597.html
http://www.valka.cz/clanek_12598.html
the articles are in czech language, but you can use the flags on top of the article to have it translated to various languages, its quite easy to understand
wow wat a huge bug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVTbi8kWovI
Просто чумовые фотки. Мне очень понравились и я закинул их к себе на портал прикольных картинок и фоток.
Ekranoplan rules….