The Soviet Ekranoplan

[Ascender]

This picture appeared on my timeline yesterday and it lead me down a rabbit hole about the thing because frankly it looks astonishing.



I then found a blog about it where someone managed to sneak inside the only one (past a snoozing security guard) to get pictures and now can't get enough of Soviet craft. Those pictures of it barreling along look imposing and terrifying in equal measure.

[mik]

RIP.

Never seen interior shots before

ekranoplan (not just the Caspian Sea Monster) are awesome vehiclea - great for huge inland water bodies like Baikal in Russia, but rather compromised when it is choppy….

[Jobbo]

A lot better than a hovercraft though, even when it's choppy.

[DaveE]

My nephew is a little bit obsessed with these

When he was little, he made himself one out of cardboard boxes that he could sit in and pretend to fly.

My sister didn't quite catch the name properly and referred to it as the "eclatertron"

[V8Granite]

They are amazing machines. Everything from Russia looks like Gerry Anderson drew it and someone handed it to the “make the physics of that thing work” department.

Dave!

[jamcg]

They’re amazing- and the lun class is HUGE

[Zonda_]

It must have had quite a short range despite its size as it must have weighed a fair bit and I bet those engines could drink!

[dan]

[mr_jon]

Cheers, quite enjoyed that, bit of an oddball!

[RobYob]

My first first exposure to ekranoplane was strangely enough through the Aussie WW2 aviator and later writer Ivan Southall who wrote teen adventure stories one of which featured a ground effects "flying ship"

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/992 ... ack-at-sea

I remember is was a good yarn although very much of its time.

Southall flew Sunderlands during the war and wrote a fantastic history of the battle against the U-boats (and Luftwaffe) called "They shall not pass unseen" very highly recommended as is his stories of mine disposal "Softly tread the brave"

[duncs500]

I remember watching a documentary on them years ago and being captivated, they were one of the subject proposals for my dissertation at uni actually but my supervising professor knocked it back.

[NGRhodes]

It must have had quite a short range despite its size as it must have weighed a fair bit and I bet those engines could drink!

Actually better than aeroplanes in the general.

The ground effect reinforces the high pressure below the wing, causing a higher pressure differences to above the wing which leads to greater equivalent lift than high up in the air. This allows designers to trade off the excess lift for increased aerodynamics (basically narrower) wings.

[robin_cox]

I actually saw the smaller one of these being tested on the Caspian Sea in the summer of 1991 - the A-90 powered by the tail-mounted propellors similar to those used on the Tupolev 95. Most mornings around 6am as the sun was rising there was a loud booming noise (a bit like a Spitfire, one of those sounds that just seems to linger over a huge range and went on for minutes at a time) that attracted my curiosity, so eventually I went out on the corridor-end balcony facing the sea, to see what I thought was a military sea-plane landing as it cruised past the beach with a big plume of spray being thrown up - can't imagine what the bigger one would have been like even though apparently it was being tested out of the same place. Saw it a few times while we were there. Should have taken a photo.. was with a school team attending a Biology competition in Makhachkala. Never knew what it was until I saw the Caspian Sea Monster youtube videos around 10 years ago and realised that it was based in Kaspiisk which was a wee bit south of the Soviet resort hotel where we stayed. Around 3 weeks later the USSR collapsed.

[duncs500]

A "biology competition" is either a euphemism or the kind of thing that got us into this covid mess.

Edit - Cool story though.

[mik]

[integrale_evo]

There are some pretty good documentaries on YouTube about them, I think curious droid did on

[robin_cox]

Amazingly, Google Maps now has the place where we stayed visible on Streetview .

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9600199 ... 312!8i6656

although they have put a pitched roof on it, new cladding and aircon. The canteen is left of reception where we enjoyed our daily meals before sessions in the competition at the main University building in town. Skewers of apparently air-dried cubed liver with quartered onion slices are a very fond (!) memory.

And the rows of slab multis north of there have mostly been replaced by more modern structures. Huge numbers of modern multicoloured oligarch mansion places with swimming pools all around there now, very different to what was there back in the day.

Sadly this whole area is now no-go because of kidnappings etc., but whatever. It was a great place to go, and the people we spent time with (our interpreters from the Uni) were lovely.