OMG, it's full of ekranoplanes...

[ffutures]

Pointed out by ps238principal on livejournal

Lots of VERY strange ekranoplane stuff.

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/05/ekranoplans-showcase.html

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/06/ekranoplans-showcase-part-2.html

I can only assume that some Russian engineers were on serious drugs...

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

There must have been something about these. Perhaps they were low enough that they wouldn't be easily picked up by fighter aircraft, and fast enough that conventional anti-shipping missiles would have a hard time hitting them too.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

If you think of them as a missile boat, patrol boat, or landing craft they make a lot of sense. Faster than many planes, longer range, big cargo capacity, and not vulnerable to torpedoes, mines, etc.

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

low enough: you know, that's a good point, I'd not thought of that before: when Ekranoplan research started, radar designers on both sides of the Cold War were struggling to make a radar able to spot the difference between a low-flying aircraft and the ground, so it must have been worthwhile. By the time they abandoned research, most fighters would have had no trouble picking it out. I've not seen this mentioned in anything I've read about them, but it must have been a factor.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

They would have been really useful assets, I'm surprised they abandoned them. But I guess money was tight and something had to be ditched somewhere.

But then I suppose if they were as good as all that the Americans would have designed some too.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Yes, because it must have been awful tempting to the Russians to have a fleet of craft that could fly right up to within missile range of an american carrier task force, and boom. Wouldn't see them until the missiles launched.

And when they abandoned research on these, is that not about the same time they started building vast numbers of Bears and Backfires with the intent of just swamping any American fighter screen with sheer numbers instead?