5 ms·
Ekranoplan
- ErrantX 14y agoOne of these featured in the recent James Bond book, Devil May Care (decent book, not a patch on the originals). Ground effect [1] is a really interesting phenomena. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(aircraft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(aircraft)
- arethuza 14y agoThey also feature in Missile Gap by Charlie Stross (HN cstross): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_Gap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_Gap
- packetslave 14y agoAlso featured briefly in the epilogue of Zero History by William Gibson (Bigend buys one)
- manaskarekar 14y agoSaw a documentary on it a while back. Wings of Russia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr8N0Z4Cl0U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr8N0Z4Cl0U In flight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Nu94khHoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Nu94khHoo
- robotmay 14y agoAnd here's a pretty good clip with James May (of Top Gear) talking about them, and taking a ride in a modern one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch2zs-7je_s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch2zs-7je_s
- 3327 14y agoAlways fascinated by these. Are the large tubes torpedo tubes on top?
- 3327 14y agoi wonder how performance is on waves and choppy water.
- rdtsc 14y agoSo so. Remember reading an article in a Russian technical journal about it a while back. Apparently that is why one of the prototypes crashed, choppy sea. The pilots pulled up (as that is the typical instinct of a pilot) and that disrupted the ground effect and it crashed.
- 3327 14y agocatastrophic stall !! nose plant into water at 300 km/h!
- jcurbo 14y agoNo, those are jet engines.
- dabeeeenster 14y agoNo they are they engines!
- masklinn 14y agoThe angled ones on the body top yes, but they're not torpedoes they're ramjet anti-ship missiles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-270_Moskit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-270_Moskit 320kg warhead flying at mach 3. They're comparable to the Harpoon except carry 50% more payload and fly 3 times as fast. On the sides of the cabin are the engines.
- 3327 14y agowow 320kg warhead. thats lots of explosive power, and speed... that is a heavy duty missile. Good luck to Phalanx and sea sparrow stopping a a half dozen of these (apparently china bought them)...
- 3327 14y agoi wonder how efficient it is
- 3327 14y ago50% more weight and 50% less fuel than cargo plane
- jordanb 14y agoSo, dramatically less efficient than modern sea freight, while lacking the flexibility to deliver to inland airports that you get from air freight. PS: Why did you answer your own question?
- vineel 14y agoBecause he found out the answer only after asking the original question, and answered it for anyone else who would have been curious.
- 3327 14y agoexactly !
- unimpressive 14y agoI would presume he went and looked up the answer, and then decided to share for anyone else asking the same thing.
- hazov 14y agoI saw a documentary about this machine when I was younger, the plan was to use the "Caspian Sea Monster” only to military purposes, as probably anything designed in the URSS back then, mainly for movement of soldiers and tanks across the waters. EDIT: The documentary provided above by manaskarekar says the same: http://youtu.be/xr8N0Z4Cl0U?t=23m11s http://youtu.be/xr8N0Z4Cl0U?t=23m11s
- Avshalom 14y ago
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- terhechte 14y agoSimilar Machines: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/05/ekranoplans-showcase.html http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/05/ekranoplans-showcase...
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jessriedel 14y agoDoes any who's not just speculating know why these aren't used today for fast overseas transport between cities which aren't too far inland? The relevant wikipedia section is pretty lacking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle#Advantages_and_disadvantages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle#Advantage...
- anigbrowl 14y agoIn a strange way, I miss the Cold War.