THE EKRANOPLAN part 4

In the 1970's when the first American satellite photos were taken of this vessel as it sat inland, it was believed to be a normal Jumbo jet sized aircraft under construction. When the vessel was later photographed sitting in water the questions started to fly "what is it ?
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 of the water as it moves. However, it will not hover whilst stationary but just sit and float in the water like a boat.
These craft are big and fast and were kept secret from the west until the fall of communism in the early 1990's, when information about them was slowly revealed. It can quite easily be envisaged a hundred of such craft zooming across the ocean, relatively undetected flying underneath radar to invade a country.
By the time that country realized what was going on, it would have been too late. The front of the fuselage would have opened to allow soldiers, tanks, trucks, jeeps, and armored cars to deploy and invade.
You have to imagine several hundred of these craft, all flying at over 290 knots, all under radar in a mass invasion. We could then fully realise the element of surprise that they would have had.
Never underestimate the Russians, they are practical, innovative, resourceful and militaristically astute. This relatively simple craft that just uses a bit of leverage from the air around its short wings is something that the western powers had not fully researched, if at all. You have to admit its one hell of ship, fast, manoeuvrable, and heavily armed but maybe not so well protected. Unlike a warship that has armor plating, the Ekranoplan would be susceptible to enemy firepower, a couple of rocket or bazooka hits could seriously damage or render an Ekranoplan inoperable.
Despite any short comings though, a very ambitious programme was launched in 1960 after the Ekranoplan successfully passed all flight tests. The KM or ' Caspian Sea Monster' a 540 ton machine was built and it was many years in advance of western technology. The reason why such a big craft was built was to test the fundamentals of this type of design, the tests worked and in 1967 a speed of 297 knots and a height of 20 meters was achieved, even though the maximum allowance was initially only 3 meters.
Eight of these KMs were built with different specifications.
Below a huge Ekranoplan floats static in the water as it is refueled.
The terrific speed that these craft can reach is partially due to the fact that there is no friction between the hull of the craft and the water. This of course is a factor that keeps normal ships at such a comparatively slow speed, as they must push themselves through the water and not over it.
All Ekranoplan's are amphibious and will easily fly over land just as well as the sea, and at high speed, just as long as the surface is relatively flat. Ekranoplan's usually begin and end their journeys in the sea for the greatest convenience, but it doesn't really matter.
Source of the text: vincelewis
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