Beriev A-42PE Albatros 
Lun-class Nuclear/Cruise Missile Carrier 
Posted on 08/07/2014 8:53:12 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Autumn in the State Duma will discuss prospects for the revival of production of high-speed vessels, the so-called WIG. In the long term fleet they can be used not only in the Russian army, but also to address communications to the Crimea.
Technology WIG - ships on dynamic air cushions - was developed over half a century ago. Court, more similar to passenger planes, moved over the sea at a certain height due to the effect of the aerodynamic screen, allowing marine vessel to reach speeds of hundreds of kilometers per hour - write "Izvestia".
"WIG - this ingenious development. As a prolonged version of it can help with communication between the Crimea and the rest of Russia, and in other industries, "- said the first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Industry and Vice-President of the Russian Engineering Union Vladimir Gutenev. According to him, worked out the need for a WIG and for the needs of national security
An "Ekranoplane" is a "plane" that flies in ground effect. Meaning that it floats along over water (and sometimes it can work on land) on a cushion of air produced by the aerodynamic interaction between the wings and the surface of the water.
They can go very fast, and carry very heavy loads doing this, sometimes a much larger load than an aircraft of the same size.
There are several dozen of these things lying around in various states of disrepair from the Caspian to the Black Sea and Baltic, and it wouldn't take much to make them serviceable again.
The talk is that they will be used for a passenger and cargo service to Crimea. The Azov Sea is fairly calm, and seems like it would be perfect for this.
Beriev A-42PE Albatros Lun-class Nuclear/Cruise Missile Carrier
Obviously they just need more mines to make things exciting
Military passenger and caro
“Aviation tard” ping...
Video of “The Caspian Sea Monster” Ekranplane first flight testing from the late 60’s:
http://youtu.be/R3mvLR9qb20
Beriev A42 is a SAR airplane, not a WIG.
“Beriev A42 is a SAR airplane, not a WIG”
I stand corrected. It was bunched in with other WIG pics on Google images
I have seen the films/videos and they seem very interesting as a way to send troops and materiel to a staging area across the Azov. Wouldn’t work any where else probably.
They don’t seem efficient enough for commercial use, just military use.
“They don’t seem efficient enough for commercial use, just military use.”
There was a Caspian Ferry Service using these for a long time, that went away sometime in the 2000’s, I think.
I tried looking for it.
The Wiki Page about these types of vehicles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle#GEVs_since_the_1980s
~They don’t seem efficient enough for commercial use, just military use.~
Or probably just the opposite. For military it is a large blinking target. Look at it as a hybrid of a boat and an airplane. Ekranoplane takes much heavier payload than airplane is ever capable to lift and it is almost as fast of that same horsepower. If you need to move some heavy stuff across the ocean in hours, not days these things might be useful. On the other hand I really doubt if they are able to negotiate bad weather.
Sounds like the perfect vessel for the Aral Sea....or what's left of it.
Jet turbines are terribly inefficient at sea level. Better convert them to run on Ukie natural gas.
You can use propellers, too.
Same turbine fuel efficiency issue. Nothing to do with external vs. internal fans.
Some of the new generation experimental WIG's are quite interesting.
They utilize ground effect which is aerodynamically efficient but the jet engines are no where near their optimal rarefied environment. Jet transports at altitude cruise are highly fuel efficient per unit distance traveled. It is the climb that is costly.
Ekranoplan was heavily supported by N.S. Khrushchev along with several others of his crackpot schemes. It was basis for Brezhnev & Kosygin bringing his removal from power in 1964. No more Nikita, no more funding Ekranoplan. Dead letter by 1967 or so.
A seaborne supersled is easy aerial target. Maybe Caspian Sea ferryboat, OK for that because no more Aralskii Morye.
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