The Ekranoplan (Soviet-Era Ground Effect Vehicle)

[McAvennie]

Just seen a thing on the BBC website about ekranoplans. Wow! :shock:

You think you have seen everything, although, granted, I haven't seen a man eat his own head.

 

[Dingo667]

Thanks, that is one good find.

 

[Cochise]

I'm seriously impressed by the Russian ekranoplans, which would seem ideal load carriers for short-haul like across the Channel or on the Great Lakes, but there seems no interest in them in the west, and development has ceased in Russia too. If I was a multi-millionaire I'd be tempted to start an ekranoplan shipping line.

 

[Cochise]

I still think these are brilliant. Wouldn't these bee a more economical and environmentally friendly substitute to cargo planes?

 

[INT21]

No use at all in rough sea.

INT21

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I'm seriously impressed by the Russian ekranoplans, which would seem ideal load carriers for short-haul like across the Channel or on the Great Lakes, but there seems no interest in them in the west, and development has ceased in Russia too. If I was a multi-millionaire I'd be tempted to start an ekranoplan shipping line.

The Ekranoplan cropped up on Quora today.
Whilst it was an undeniably awesome vehicle (in the Thunderbirds sense), it was ruinously expensive, horrendously unreliable and was mothballed by the Russians sometime in the late 90s



But... rumours abound that Putin could bring the monster back:

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/giant-russian-sea-skimmer-could-make-comeback-138102

 

[Cochise]

The Ekranoplan cropped up on Quora today.
Whilst it was an undeniably awesome vehicle (in the Thunderbirds sense), it was ruinously expensive, horrendously unreliable and was mothballed by the Russians sometime in the late 90s

View attachment 26656

But... rumours abound that Putin could bring the monster back:

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/giant-russian-sea-skimmer-could-make-comeback-138102

But it's brilliant, like Concorde. Sometimes the human race should do exciting things just because we can

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

But it's brilliant, like Concorde. Sometimes the human race should do exciting things just because we can

It's the perfect "Anything can happen in the next half hour" mode of transport to complement North Korean architecture:

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Long but extremely interesting study, complete with lots of great photos, exploring the feasibility of ground-effect vehicles (aka Wing in Ground) as high-speed passenger ferries. The Ekranoplan gets lots of mentions. Some fascinating comparisons between WIG and hovercraft and hydrofoils. Plus points for the technology are high speed and carrying capability. The negatives are fairly extensive though, including huge power consumption - especially to get the vehicle up to optimum speed and airborne, poor seaworthiness - waves cannot be too high, poor manoeuvrability, excessive noise and vibration and the need to build new infrastructure - bespoke port facilities.
One can only imagine how uncomfortable the noise, motion sickness and unwholesome vibration was for the crew of the Soviet-era monster.
Looks like smaller, but more technically accomplished WIG vehicles could have a bright future though.

https://repository.tudelft.nl/islan...49a-a400-6f2f1567a9e4/datastream/OBJ/download

 

[Kondoru]

I have difficulty in believing practical folk could create white elephants...

...yet the Soviets could and did.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I have difficulty in believing practical folk could create white elephants...

...yet the Soviets could and did.

I can see their thinking behind it. A huge missile platform, with an impressive top speed and which flies below conventional radar.
An ambitious, but ultimately impractical chunk of military hardware. Up there with the German Panzer VIII "Maus" or Saddam's "super-gun".

 

[Cochise]

I have difficulty in believing practical folk could create white elephants...

...yet the Soviets could and did.

Because in the Soviet era sticking your hand up and saying 'Excuse me, minister, but..." could land you in Siberia, if not worse.

Similar, of course, in Nazi Germany, hence the huge resources wasted (fortunately for us) on the Maus and other similar projects. Even the more-or-less sensible tanks Germany did get in to production were over engineered and costly to produce, while the Yanks were banging out Shermans like cans of Spam.

 

[Kondoru]

But I imagine the creators of white elephants ended up in serious trouble anyway...

So, its a very ok vehicle but in actuality situational?

That makes a lot of sense

 

[Cochise]

Not ekranoplan but a similar extravagance:

http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/russ/russrefr.htm

 

[EnolaGaia]

The only surviving Soviet ekranoplan has finally moved again - to a location where it will become a tourist attraction.

The 'Caspian Sea Monster' rises from the grave

After lying dormant for more than three decades, the Caspian Sea Monster has been on the move again. One of the most eye-catching flying machines ever built, it's completing what could be its final journey.

In July of this year after 14 hours at sea, a flotilla of three tugs and two escort vessels maneuvered slowly along the shores of the Caspian Sea to deliver their bulky special cargo to its destination, a stretch of coast near Russia's southernmost point.

It's here, next to the ancient city of Derbent, in Russia's republic of Dagestan, that the 380-ton "Lun-class Ekranoplan" has found its new, and most likely definitive, home.

The last of its breed to sail the waters of the Caspian, "Lun" was abandoned after the 1990s collapse of the Soviet Union, condemned to rust away at Kaspiysk naval base, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) up the coast from Derbent.

But before it could fade into oblivion, it's been rescued thanks to plans to make it a tourist attraction right at a time when this unusual travel concept could be poised to make a comeback. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/caspian-sea-monster-ekranoplan/index.html

 

[Analogue Boy]

 

[maximus otter]

A good idea won’t go away:

DARPA’s Liberty Lifter concept is a modern spin on a Soviet seaplane​

To land on beaches in the future, DARPA is pursuing a type of very large seaplane popularized by the Soviet Union. In a video shared May 18, the Pentagon’s blue sky projects wing envisions an ultra low-flying “Liberty Lifter” as a capable transport and cargo plane for getting goods to shore efficiently in places without a ship-friendly port.

There’s a host of reasons why it’s generally a bad idea for planes to fly close to the surface, starting with the fact that there’s more exposure to the weather and likely a higher risk of crashing. But ground-effect aircraft, like ekranoplans and DARPA’s planned Liberty Lifter, take advantage of the benefits of being low.

In normal flight, wrote Bill Sweetman for Popular Science in 2003, “at the lateral tip of the wing, the high pressure air underneath flows around to the upper surface. This creates a vortex, a rotating airflow that robs the wing of lift. But if the aircraft is flying very close to the surface, there is no room for the vortex to develop properly and it becomes weaker.” (Avoiding those tip vortices on wings is another reason why winglets exist, and why aerospace engineers prefer long, slender wings for better efficiency.)

DARPA’s new Liberty Lifter draws its name from the “Liberty Ships” of World War II, the cargo transports mass produced for use in the war and as merchant vessels afterwards.

In military use, Liberty Lifters are envisioned as delivering troops, vehicles, and cargo to coasts without the infrastructure to dock and unload goods normally. This could be to support relief missions after a disaster, or facilitate an invasion with light armored vehicles full of marines rolling through tidal flats to objectives further inland.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/darpa-releases-liberty-lifter-plan/

maximus otter

 

[Sillyhuron]

It looks (& flies, in the pictures) like a jet version of the Spruce Goose. And look how that turned out.