Alexeyev KM Ekranoplan "Caspian Sea Monster"

The Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau (CHDB), led by Alexeev, was the center of ground-effect craft development in Russia. The military potential for such a craft was soon recognised and Alexeyev received support and financial resources from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. This led to the development of the Caspian Sea Monster, a 550 ton military ekranoplan. Before it, some manned and unmanned prototypes were built, ranging up to eight tons in displacement.

The ekranoplan has a lifting power of 1,000 tonnes (984 long tons), among the largest ever achieved. The KM, as the Caspian Sea Monster was known in the top secret Soviet military development program, was over 100 metres (328 ft) long, weighed 540 t (531 long tons) fully loaded, and could travel over 400 kilometres per hour (249 mph), mere meters above the surface of the water.[6][7] Another model was the Lun-class, entering service with the Black Sea Fleet in 1987; the Lun-class vehicles had a top speed of 297 knots (550 km/h).

The important design principle is that wing lift is reduced as operating altitude of the ekranoplan is increased (see ground effect). Thus it is dynamically stable in the vertical dimension. Once moving at speed, the ekranoplan was no longer in contact with the water, and could move over ice, snow, or level land with equal ease, though flight over land would have involved extreme risks unless the surface were dependably flat.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• KM
• Ekranoplan
• Soviet
• Caspian
• Sea
• Monster
• aviation
• space
• secret
• military
• WIG
• craft
• wing-in-ground-effect
• Rostislav
• Alexeyev

[deathdontwait]

pretty nice but will it blend?

[david181993]

@asapvc yea but you also have to think what if there was a storm, I doubt this would perform well when there are waves that are even slightly large. Planes however can fly in just about any weather.

[Spartan117FS]

Get a gust of wind and you smack down into the sea...

[Syan48306]

While true, planes can fly in any weather, I'd like to see a plane take off with 380,000 kgs or 840,000 lbs

[ajvhan]

batteries not included

[david181993]

@Elzon1 Sorry but I disagree with you there I don't think it ever will be the norm. I mean it may be used it a little bit but I doubt we'll ever get to a time where we see lots of these crossing the sea.

[Elzon1]

@david181993 They can take waves a little bigger than their wing span when properly maneuvered. These types of craft can also fly over mostly flat ground. If a landing dock was made with a boxed in pool of seawater this craft could also land in any weather. But, as with all craft its easier to avoid bad weather before approaching the landing location. This type of craft will become the norm in the future it just takes a lot of time for the existing dogma to change a little.

[pe6obutilkata]

this thing can carry 1000 tons of payload. respect for russian designers and engeneers

[david181993]

@csours Yea, I didn't say they can land in any weather. They can still land in most weather.

[csours]

@david181993 Microburst thunderstorm. You don't hear of planes being lost to them anymore because planes don't fly through them to land, but there were several (at least 6) planes lost to them in the 70's and 80's before planes started avoiding thunderstorms in their landing pattern.