Russian Navy Hovercraft lands on crowded beach

[rickshaw]

Short but worth watching.  They build 'em big in Rodina!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10257870/Navy-hovercraft-surprises-sunbathers-as-it-lands-on-Russian-beach.html

[PR19_Kit]

Most of the beach goers seemed to think it was normal! Nobody moved as far as I can see, amazing.  

Amazingly it's just INCHES bigger than an SRN4 in all directions. That can't be a co-incidence, typical Russian 'Ours is bigger than yours' mentality.... 

[Captain Canada]

Awesome piece of machinery.....



Thanks !

[Rheged]

Awesome piece of machinery.....



Thanks !

As was the SRN4.  Ihave crossed the Channel a couple of times in one and it was a "curious" experience.

[Gondor]

Most of the beach goers seemed to think it was normal! Nobody moved as far as I can see, amazing.  

Amazingly it's just INCHES bigger than an SRN4 in all directions. That can't be a co-incidence, typical Russian 'Ours is bigger than yours' mentality.... 

Maybe part of the reason is conversion from Imperial to Metric?

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

As was the SRN4.  Ihave crossed the Channel a couple of times in one and it was a "curious" experience.

I did that numerous times, mostly as a passenger, but spent some time going back and forth inside the APU bay taking oil samples at intervals for three whole days! No wonder I'm a bit deaf now, even with massive ear defenders the Rover APUs were MIND numbingly loud!

You could be right about the Imperial/Metric business Alastair, I'll check the dimensions more closely and see if it works.

[rickshaw]

Might also be that the Russians designed their hovercraft around a specific load (x number of a specific vehicle [ie MBT] ) and that determined the size of the craft, just as I'm sure the SRN4 was designed around a specific civilian load...

Where there any thoughts towards a military version of the SRN4?

[Rheged]

Were there any thoughts towards a military version of the SRN4?

I know that at least one SRN3 was leased by the MoD for a brief period for trials and there was discussion of using the SRN4 as a minesweeper, but I cannot recall any actual military use.  There MAY have been military input into the design process. Trouble is, landing a force by SRN4 would hardly count as a clandestine approach to the beach!! It was noisy enough as a passenger,  so I must admire Kit's dedication to technology, stuck in an APU bay.

Didn't the USA used SRN6's in Vietnam?; and I think that the  the Imperial Iranian Navy had some missile armed ones too

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?topic=29967.0

We've been here before on this subject. I seem to recall another discussion too, involving CALMAC hovercraft in the Scottish islands with tartan kilts (skirts).  Would they  have been in MacHinery    tartan??

Added later:-

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist/BHC_ITN/1965/07/14/X14076502/

[NARSES2]

Awesome piece of machinery.....



Thanks !

As was the SRN4.  Ihave crossed the Channel a couple of times in one and it was a "curious" experience.

Yup I travelled on it twice and was never entirely "sure" about the trip  Much prefer high speed hydro foils or just really expensive power boats 

[kitnut617]

Didn't the USA used SRN6's in Vietnam?; and I think that the  the Imperial Iranian Navy had some missile armed ones too

I was going to say that I've seen photos of Royal Marines in SRN6's but it could have been the SRN5 (but thinking about it it might have been in a RAF Yearbook)

Way back when (60's) my Dad had taken me and my bro to a Hovercraft Show near Portsmouth, they had a landing simulation done by all sorts of hovercraft which disgorged tanks, trucks, Landrovers towing artillery etc, of course hundreds of troops but whether any of the hovercraft used went on to production I couldn't say.

[Hobbes]

Maybe part of the reason is conversion from Imperial to Metric?

Gondor

If they did that, the dimensions wouldn't be a couple of inches out.

[kitnut617]

Maybe part of the reason is conversion from Imperial to Metric?

Gondor

If they did that, the dimensions wouldn't be a couple of inches out.

When I dimension my drawings I have it set to have Imperial as the main measure and then I have the Metric amount in brackets.  I've noticed that if you only have one or two decimal points in the conversion factor, over a running dimension involving a lot of points on something large, you can be quite a few inches out if you just add up what the metric stuff says and then convert to Imperial.  I have the conversion factor in the program set to 8 decimal points which pretty much eliminates any errors  

[Gondor]

We've been here before on this subject. I seem to recall another discussion too, involving CALMAC hovercraft in the Scottish islands with tartan kilts (skirts).  Would they  have been in MacHinery    tartan??

That is one of my projected builds. Still to figure out a way to achieve a realistic deflated skirt look.

Gondor

[Martin H]

That beast is a Zubar class LCAC, they were intended to replace the older Asist class in the Soviet naval infantry assault role.
only nine have been built to date. And they are not Russian, their Ukrainian

Strangely a NATO member is the largest operator. Greece with four of them. The Russians only have the one seen it that video, The Ukraine and the PRC have the rest.

[PR19_Kit]

The SRN3 was an impressive beast, I travelled across the Solent in it a couple times, as I did with the smaller SRN2. The '3 had a BIG side hatch so it could disgorge vehicles and I saw it do that at a demo at Lee-on-Solent some years later. The SRN5s and 6s were both used across the Solent and both used by the UK military too, but the '6 was more popular just because it was larger.

There was also the BH7, quite a hefty beast with a bow ramp, that the Navy used for minesweeping and tested as an assault vessel as well. Iran does have a number of BH7s but it's doubtful if they're still operational, the Navy's last example is on show at the Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-Solent.

When Sealink were running their '4s in the 70s they had some problems with the hydraulically powered yaw controls for the four roof mounted props and it seemed this may have been due to contamination of the oil, thus I had to take the samples as I was probably the only person in whole of BR at the time who understood that sort of stuff. As it happened it wasn't the problem, they had fitted flexible hoses that were far too small for the required flow (because they were cheaper no doubt....) and that throttled the flow to the valves.