MAKS: Can Russia’s ‘Caspian Sea Monster’ rise again?

Flightglobal.com ^ | August 28, 2015

[lapsus calami]

 

What this thread is lacking is a video - imagine the sound that thing made with 10 screaming jet engines.

 

In the middle of the vid at about the 1:20 mark you can see they even get a bit of lift-off going, something like maybe 20-30 feet up from the water.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3mvLR9qb20

 

Extreme water skiing anyone?

 

 

[Rockingham]

Soviet jet engines, turbines, and turbofans were notorious fuel guzzlers. The best case for the aircraft was as a fast troop transport and as a way to launch salvoes of guided missiles at US and NATO naval vessels when they were clustered in a carrier task force. I think that what eventually killed the project was that in addition to cost and limited value, the Soviets no doubt realized that the look down, shoot down radars being deployed by the US in the late 1980s would deprive the LUN of the element of surprise and make it exceptionally vulnerable.

[RayChuang88]

Actually, if they can design it around a ducted fan engine using a turboprop, you could make it work without the ridiculous fuel consumption and noise (which was the downside of the Soviet ekranoplan designs). Such a vehicle--"flying" maybe 150-175 passengers--would be perfect for trips between Busan in South Korea and Fukuoka in Japan (imagine travel in around one hour, compared to the circa 3.5 to 4 hour trip by hydrofoil now).

[Rockingham]

It is easy enough to identify a few such routes in the world, but would they provide enough of a market to justify the design and production of a new kind of aircraft? Perhaps, but as the immense loss that Airbus must absorb on the development of the A-380 shows, an aircraft that is a technological marvel and finds a commercial market may still be a financial disaster that burdens its maker.

[zot]

I guess they could have classified it as a seaplane. USCG jurisdiction when on the water, and FAA jurisdiction when flying.