Ekranoplan and Aerotrain

[D-Angle]

Some great detail pics of a seemingly derelict Ekranoplan here:

http://igor113.livejournal.com/51213.html

[Jschmus]

That looks like the Lun, the so-called "Caspian Sea Monster".  It's sad to see it in such a sorry state, but that's what happens when you go from decades of huge military budgets to nothing in the space of a few years.

[Caveman]

That photographer is such a tease! Here clearly explored within the aircraft, yet only 1 internal shot!

[redstar72]

That looks like the Lun, the so-called "Caspian Sea Monster".

It's actually the Lun' (rus. Лунь - Harrier), a 1987-built missile carrier also known as Project 903. But it's not a Caspian Sea Monster, which was the KM - a much earlier experimental machine first flown in 1966 and tested until 1980. They are very different aircrafts (or ships?); despite KM was earlier and experimental, it was bigger and heavier - its length was 92 meters, and maximum takeoff weight reached 544 tons (it was the world's heavier aircraft until An-225 Mriya appeared)! The Lun' was 73.8 m long, and its maximum weight was 380 tons.

That photographer is such a tease! Here clearly explored within the aircraft, yet only 1 internal shot!

There is Part 2 with many internal shots: http://igor113.livejournal.com/52174.html.

[Caveman]

Thanks for pointing me at those internal shots.

She is outfitted more like a warship than an aircraft. I wish I could read russian to work out the position, layout and purpose of all those compartments.
Some are more obvious than others though
http://pics.livejournal.com/igor113/pic/00862cap/s1024x768
and
http://pics.livejournal.com/igor113/pic/007kq1k2

[KJ_Lesnick]

That aero-train looks like it would have been far more successful if designed as a hover-craft "aero-bus"

KJ Lesnick

[Mossie]

I wish I could read russian to work out the position, layout and purpose of all those compartments.

I tried Babelfish, but it didn't seem to like it for some reason.  The Translate function on Google works well (click on 'more', then 'translate'), it's actually a better translation than I've seen from Babelfish.

Here's the translation:
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Figor113.livejournal.com%2F52174.html&sl=ru&tl=en

[jcf]

The A90 Orlyonok was designed with an intent that it could be used in an amphibious assault role.
It was the only one of the big ekranoplans with a limited amphibious capability. It had small wheels
on the bottom that were used as a beaching gear which it could use to leave the water, but only on
hard surfaces.

When it came to landing on and leaving a beach, things weren't so great as it had no ability to back
off of the beach, even with the big Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop mounted up on the fin.

These photos show the problems inherent to the type, landing wasn't so bad but in order to leave
the beach it had to use the forward blowing engines and swing about to leave the beach.

The results of that maneuver aren't pretty. The lower photo is a frame from a film of beach landing
tests, I'm quite sure that their Marines weren't impressed with the results.

The amount of spray, and no doubt noise, as it approaches the beach means that it would be not
be in any way stealthy and keeping separation between the craft in an assault would be critically
important, especially at night or in weather conditions that were already limiting visibility. Imagine
the mess as several machines are swinging about to leave the beach. 


You cannot view this attachment.

Image from:
High Speed Marine Craft: One Hundred Knots at Sea
Peter J. Mantle, 2015, Cambridge University Press, NY 

[kerick]

The blowing sand would blast the paint off any vehicles involved.