That's a BIG plane!

[ffutures]

This purports to be a Russian prototype aircraft of the 1930s. Some of the pictures are definitely photoshopped, and I suspect that they all are, or are at best concept art for a project that never got off the ground, but it's a cool idea...

http://englishrussia.com/?p=2231

Anyone know more about this?

Comments

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

The original K-7 was real enough (article in Russian, but with pictures and diagrams). As you'll see, it wasn't particularly large compared with other giant aircraft of the 1930s like the Dornier Do-X.

The other pictures are apparently a Russian CGI enthusiast's concept art for a rather scaled-up version!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That thing really flew? Wow...

It has a wonderful dieselpunk look to it.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Flew AND crashed ;-)

It is real: I've got more info about it in several books. It really was an era of building big, whether or not it made sense. Big things are impressive, after all. Look! Up in the sky! ZEPPELIN!

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

If there's no clever trickery going on here – and I suspect there is – one has to assume that this prototype actually flew, so there ought to be many more photos. It's certainly an awesome beast. The cleaner looking pictures are definitely recently created, and I just love the Luftwaffe flying saucer.

[murphys-lawyer.livejournal.com]

You are, I trust, familiar with the Iron Sky project?

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I am now.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I remember an article in Fortean Times a bout 15 years ago about giant russian planes that relied on ground effect to fly. But the project was shelved because they couldn't figure out a way to make them fly low enough over the ocean safely enough.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Ekranoplan!

Most of the bugs were ironed out, but in the end the programme succumbed to a combination of inter-service rivalry between the Soviet forces and the fall of the USSR.

For what might have happened in a rather different world, see autopope's Missile Gap.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Yes! The Ekranoplan. Thank you. :)

Gosh, fascinating. So they're still researching them.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the airplanes from Things to Come. I suspect that the K-7 would have come apart in midair if it had ever tried to turn.

[sirernest.livejournal.com]

The artist is Mikhail Levin
His page about the plane: http://www.rusring.net/~levin/k7/k777.htm
And he built a nice vacuum-filled dirigible too: http://www.rusring.net/~levin/levin3d/dz.htm
If you just want to browse the rest of his galleries: http://www.rusring.net/~levin/levin3d/2.htm

[idaho-smith.livejournal.com]

Oh it as a wiki page, so it /must/ be real!

As your other correspondents point out this chap got a bit carried away with the photoshop, making it look rather larger than it actually was. The suspension of disbelief really evaporated when I saw the battle-ship guns mounted on it.

Looking at it, the second thing I thought was that it was consistent of soviet bombers of the '20s & '30s, in that it looked like it was made of corrugated iron.
The first thing was; yeah, that's the russians for you, build it big even if it's pointless to do so!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Tank.

PS Ekranoplans flew just fine over water. It's lumpy ground that gave them problems IIRC.

[idaho-smith.livejournal.com]

Oops! forgot to paste the first wiki!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinin_K-7

[sirernest.livejournal.com]

Ah, just to add one more point.
The stuff is not photoshopped.
It's a 3D render, made in in 3D Studio Max.