Caspian Sea Monster

[Salebanon75]

This SeaPlane "Ekranolan" Scared the hell out of the americans when they saw it by satellites they thought the USSR have not finished it... Later to find out it was not meant to take off rather cruise the ocean...

[Zartan1357]

Very, very cool and innovative. But seems impractical.

[irskkurdur]

awkward sorry

[irskkurdur]

Pretty awesome machine but ackward looking.

[Juinor]

look like it fail to fly.

[LittleBigWig]

@Juinor wrong, its made to only hover over the water, its for transporting tanks etc. made by russia back during the cold world. ITS REALLY FAST! much faster/efficient than tankers

[Juinor]

@LittleBigWig even though it look kinda of fast, it kinda of vulnerable at some angle. If one wing break off, would the plane be spinning?

[Ahamster1]

it has one hell of a psychological effect on enemy soldiers

this roaring monster coming towards your shores.... :SS

[DSpirith]

Awesome plane.

Too bad it was discontinued.

[jordc44]

because that flies under the radar

[TheTomyossarian]

@jordc44 AWACS could still find it...

[gloomyoutlook]

Lol, a plane that doesn't fly. Why not just build a seaplane of the same size, it'll be even faster >_>

[b0gAtYr]

This is much more fuel efficient, and you don't have to make it as big as a plane, wingspan wise.

[KDALove]

Actually it does fly, its actually off a few feet off the water...

:|

[MrPennyworth007]

@KDALove 20 feet to the exact

[ohmss069]

@KDALove Yup but it can't go any higher. It's called ground effect, when a cushion of air in between the water and the Monster keep it just above the sea, and under radar. It's the same thing ducks and geese use when they glide over a lake effortlessly.

Kudos to the Soviets. This thing really is genius.

[PaleHearse]

Due to the increased lift, it can carry 1000kg... or about one million pounds.. and because of the decreased resistance due to no wing vortex, it can do so for over 1000 kilometers range on rather little fuel.

Because it's not in the water, it can't be destroyed by torpedoes or mines and due to the way the engines are in front of the wings, ducting their exhaust under them, it needs no wheels to beach it's self or rise up off sand or snow. It can be operated and landed over ice as easy.

[mikeplay007]

@PaleHearse It can carry 544 000kg of cargo at over 300mph. Absolute record of all flying mashines. And that record not gonna be biten any time soon.

[PaleHearse]

@mikeplay007

No argument there. The thing was just amazing.

[SovietBear91]

@gloomyoutlook flies under the radar has a much bigger payload and can be used as an ICBM carrier to bring icbm`s as much as they can to the american coast and nuke america so your rocket shield would be useless because the rockets would be fired only a few km from the east or west coast

[lostaznking]

@SovietBear91 .... i had no idea the Caspian sea reached the american cost. i always thought the longest stretch of that lake was no more the 640 miles. which makes me wonder the true range of the ekranoplan if it was put in open waters.

[SovietBear91]

@lostaznking the KM and Lun had both a max. range of 3000 km (1900 miles). the Lun was build for anti-ship warfare, but there where also plans to use them with tactical A-bombs against land targets

[dejawolf]

not to mention transport.

instead of 30kph, you get 300kph.

[Lagomort]

Did you mean a "plane?"

[LOTIL62]

This has applications outside of war too, like search and rescue. I've heard that these things are pretty efficient too.