The Soviets Had Big Plans For This Enormous Nuclear Equipped Ekranoplane

Business Insider ^ | February 4, 2012 | Robert Johnson

[lbryce]

In the thick of the Cold War, the Soviet Union built an immense vessel to carry their troops across the seas and into Western Europe.

Equipped with nuclear warheads and able to blast across the sea at 340 mph, the Lun-class Ekranoplane; part plane, part boat, and part hovercraft — is a Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV).

A GEV takes advantage of an aeronautical effect that allows it to lift off with an immense amount of weight, but limits its flight to 16 feet above the waves. Its altitude can never be greater than the length of the wings.

Think of a large seabird, like a pelican, cruising inches from the water and not needing to flap its wings.

The only complete Ekranoplane now sits on the shores of the Caspian Sea. More pics at Business Insider

[lbryce]

The Soviets, as characterized in many of their cold-war weaponry, inherent in design was one in which they projected size to gargantuan effect as seen in their ill-fated N-1 Moon rocket as well as the ana-225, the world's largest jet with six engines, seen here.

[vladimir998]

They would have built the Death Star if they could have.

Stupid waste of money.

[blam]

You'll not want to miss this video of the Ekranoplane in flight/operation. It's a real sea-monster.

[blam]

[lbryce]

Wow. Thanks for the link. The images seem prehistoric in stature.

[Pontiac]

Stupid waste of money.

Actually in theory a ground effect vehicle can carry huge loads at fantastic speeds very efficiently. The only problem is you need good weather. The ground effect vehicle has similar limitations to that of a blimp as far as weather is concerned.

[blam]

Yes, amazing.

More detail and longer video here.

[SES1066]

These Soviet semi-airplanes, designated 'ekranoplan', were a mystery to American Intelligence in the early 1960s when aerial photographs showed a large aircraft on a ramp near the Caspian Sea but with obviously truncated wings. Also seen were large wakes from small objects in that land-locked sea (between the Soviet Union and Iran). Jokingly referred to as the "Caspian Sea Monster" it took a while to realize that these were the GEV 'ekranoplan' types that we see here.

[NTHockey]

NASA had plans on the drawing board and a company (Rohr Industries in San Diego, CA) ready to build nuclear-powered GEV freighters capable of ocean travel in the late ‘60s. They would be able to go from New York to London in one day! Freight capacity was small (<200 tons), but low cost and high speed made a fleet of them cost effective.

Plans were dropped in favor of continued space travel.

[Celtic Conservative]

I see one of them is carrying the "buran" space shuttle, a blatant ripoff of American technology(which never flew).Cool stuff, Thanks.

CC

[Oztrich Boy]