Ekranoplan

aslco

aslco

aslco

Soldato
Joined
10 Feb 2008
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So just been watching Dave TV and i saw a James May Program about this russian scheme. After reading into it they seem pretty darn awesome to me :p

How many of you have heard about them?

Ekranoplan is a Russian word it means 'screen craft' or 'skimmer'. It is not a plane nor is it a ship, moreover its a mixture of both. The craft moves along on a dynamic cushion of air that is generated by its forward movement. It has similar characteristics of the common hovercraft in that it flies just above the surface as it moves. It will not however, hover while stationary but sit in the water.

These craft are big and fast and were kept secret from the west until the fall of communism in the early 1990's. It can quite easily be envisaged a hundred of such craft zooming across the ocean relatively undetected underneath radar to invade a country. And by the time that country reaslised what was going on it would have been too late.

Never underestimate the Russians, they are practical, innovative, resourceful and militaristically astute.
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http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html
 
Heard about this thew few times, it was dubbed the Caspian Sea Monster. Very very cool, I think they were designed mainly to be heavy transports that could move over water under radar cover for amphibious assaults carrying armour and vehicles.
 
Antar Bolaeisk said:
Wow, that's pretty impressive. Wonder would they be any good in turbulent seas though?
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Not really, that's why they haven't taken off(epic pun). They are used in some northern areas though where there are large expanses of flat ice. If I remember correctly, that was in the program wasn't it?
 
Yeah i guess that the land locked russian seas were great for testing but then if they were actually used for an invasian turbulent seas would soon put a poop on that
 
Apparently they can get high enough to go over waves and hills?

Then why not just fly, in the middle of the ocean waves must be huge, going over those at speed cant be much easier than full on flight?
 
starfighter said:
Apparently they can get high enough to go over waves and hills?

Then why not just fly, in the middle of the ocean waves must be huge, going over those at speed cant be much easier than full on flight?
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Under the radar.
 
starfighter said:
Apparently they can get high enough to go over waves and hills?

Then why not just fly, in the middle of the ocean waves must be huge, going over those at speed cant be much easier than full on flight?
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Full on flight requires somewhere to land, like an airstrip. The beauty of an ekranoplan is that it can rock right up to a beachhead and unload tons of military equipment very quickly, without having to find somewhere to land safely.
 
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