Seen This?
Soviet Ekranoplan Aircraft Carrier
We all know of the unbelievably massive Lun class ekranoplan?
This type of vehicle called in Russian ekranoplan uses so called ground effect – extra lift of large wings when in proximity to the surface. For this reason they have been designed to travel at a maximum of three meters above the sea but at the same time could provide take off, stable “flight” and safe “landing” in conditions of up to 5-meter waves.
These crafts were originally developed by the Soviet Union as high-speed military transports, and were based mostly on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. In 2005 crafts of this type have been classified by the International Marine Organization so they probably should be considered flying ships rather than swimming planes. It is also interesting to note that this aircraft is one of the largest ever built, with a length of 73,8 meters (comparing with 73 of Airbus A380
The guys over at English Russia reckon this is a new project to investigate if the Ekranoplan design could be built into a aircraft carrier. Seeing as the “Big Luns” concept never really did take off (no pun intended) then it looks like this one is staying on the drawing board.
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