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I think this was the biggest of the ekranoplans (I seem to remember there were smaller versions) - the MD-160 - and I don't know how far its development got beyond test flights and missile firings from its 13ft cruising height, but it certainly looked impressive thundering along in action. I also don't know how effective the 'Moskit' missiles it was fitted with were ('carrier killing supersonic missiles'), but the big drawback seems to be it could not be hidden from well equipped enemy forces, especially in the age of good satellite imagery, so any element of surprise would be lost as enemy ships would be well aware of its presence.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... melessDM_0

Forever in ground effect... a good potted history of the Ekranoplan concept, the ensuing Orlyonok and the missile carrier Lun.

I wonder how it manoeuvred. Turning the beast at speed would seem to be tricky.

I see in wiki they say it was most efficient at 66 feet so I suppose it could pull up and roll. At 300-400 kts it would have been an interesting target. Like a Buccaneer, follow the wake.

Pontius Navigator wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:59 am

I wonder how it manoeuvred. Turning the beast at speed would seem to be tricky.

I see in wiki they say it was most efficient at 66 feet so I suppose it could pull up and roll. At 300-400 kts it would have been an interesting target. Like a Buccaneer, follow the wake.

That video above notes two major crashes and the fatigue induced in pilots in having to keep a close look out for other marine traffic.

Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeyev died as a result of a crash...

"On January 14, 1980, Alexeyev was injured in an air crash that occurred while testing a new ekranoplan to be presented at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The vehicle lost lift and lowered into the water at high speed, and immediately after the accident Alexeyev was removed as chief designer at the Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau and was hospitalized three days later. Alexeyev died on February 9, 1980, following two operations."

I wonder how it manoeuvred.

Like hedgehogs mating - very carefully!

Having been there a bit, yaw is the only answer. One does NOT lower a wing

So do you just have to skid it around and counter the further effect of yaw Boac?

Must be very uncomfortable at warp speed, my ******** was definitely the size of a sixpence at 40 ft and 145 knots in the S76!! (On an empty sector )

The beast has been languishing at Kaspiysk in the Dagestan region of Russia and is visible on Google Earth. It is still substantially complete, though no doubt it has suffered the ravages of time and sea air. Good luck with opening it as a museum. I was once in Elista, and knowing that the monster was not too far away, I asked how I could get there. I was told not to bother, as the locals didn't welcome foreigners; it is next door to Chechnya. It was supposed to turn up at one of biennial Hydroaviasalon shows in Gelendzhik some years ago, and I nearly wet my pants in anticipation, but the story was that it went u/s.

A very much smaller, but not dissimilar version of it sits on the Moscow River, north of the city.

FD2 wrote:and counter the further effect of yaw

Indeed - and carefully Slightly easier with a high wing than low and no dihedral a bonus.....

was definitely the size of a sixpence

- there was a smaller coin............

Boac wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 27, 2020 10:36 am

FD2 wrote:and counter the further effect of yaw

Indeed - and carefully Slightly easier with a high wing than low and no dihedral a bonus.....

was definitely the size of a sixpence

- there was a smaller coin............

I believe that the silver thruppenny bit at 5/8", and the farthing, virtually the same size, were both smaller than a sixpence at 3/4".

I've always said - the great thing about Ops-Normal is you can alwyas fins a numismatologist when you need one.

And the Dutch had a silver coin identical in size to a silver 3d and a similar sized for 6d and the florin and all accepted in England.

I found some of these from my father, they were minted in 1941 and I wondered where he got them, then realised possibly when he was in Java during the war.

I got my AMES (Airplane Multi-Engine Sea) rating in a UC-1 (Republic Seabee conversion with 2 Lycomings on the wings).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Co ... s_Twin_Bee
Most of the training / checkride was basic multi-engine stuff (identify, verify,etc. The only really fun part was step turns, high speed skidded turns, to keep wing floats from digging in. Cross control, keeping wings level with aileron and rudder to steer.
Sad fact: The plane that I got my rating in crashed early last year.

PP

The half new penny was smaller than the old sixpence, but enough about my nether regions!

Who is going to put up some dosh to preserve it? I think as an 'oddity' it deserves it, but there is rather a lot of it to preserve.

Is there anything to learn from the design? - or was it just a crazy idea?

Personally I think it was an oddity and it will not get any funding. The concept of this huge ekranoplan was been overtaken by more modern, less obvious weaponry as missiles developed.

It's not like the Komar and Osa Class we used to be worried about in the 1960s and 70s with their Styx missiles, which could easily hide in coastal inlets then emerge at high speed towards the 'enemy' fleet. We even developed and practised the 'Didtac' to counter them, with AS12 missiles fired from Wasps and Wessex 5s, more in hope than any certainty of a 'kill'.

I think the original concept was for an economic 'oceanic' transport travelling in a straight line between two 'ports'. As such it probably would have been OK. The further development did not make sense to me.

Whilst the hovercraft found a limited use, I attended a talk by Christoper Cockerell about his attempts to interest the Army.
They had Land Rovers and 3-tonners capable of cross-country travel, but they wanted to be able to cross obstructions such as hedges, so he calculated the hover height needed and the resultant curtain area and pointed out that it would be very wide and might encounter trees, so they suggested a high hover height so as to avoid trees and the resultant craft would have been large enough to carry the entire British Army.

G-CPTN wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:46 pm

Whilst the hovercraft found a limited use, I attended a talk by Christoper Cockerell about his attempts to interest the Army.
They had Land Rovers and 3-tonners capable of cross-country travel, but they wanted to be able to cross obstructions such as hedges, so he calculated the hover height needed and the resultant curtain area and pointed out that it would be very wide and might encounter trees, so they suggested a high hover height so as to avoid trees and the resultant craft would have been large enough to carry the entire British Army.

Oh! Both regiments?

ian16th wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 27, 2020 8:18 pm

G-CPTN wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:46 pm

Whilst the hovercraft found a limited use, I attended a talk by Christoper Cockerell about his attempts to interest the Army.
They had Land Rovers and 3-tonners capable of cross-country travel, but they wanted to be able to cross obstructions such as hedges, so he calculated the hover height needed and the resultant curtain area and pointed out that it would be very wide and might encounter trees, so they suggested a high hover height so as to avoid trees and the resultant craft would have been large enough to carry the entire British Army.

Oh! Both regiments?

This was the late 1950s.