Anybody taped the 30mins programme shown on Discovery (I think!) on the Soviet Ekranoplanes…? It was part of an hour-long programme on Secret Soviet Weapons, with the first 30 mins about some special Soviet subs. I saw some footage there I’d love to see again and again, particularly on the Caspian Sea Monster
and by the way, does anyone know where I can obtain some detailled 3-view drawings of this beast…?[:p]
hey dj[:)]
sorry no video, but i saw that programme as well…awesome wasn’t it!?[:D]
i couldn’t believe the size of that thing, or the way in which the whole programme was unceremoniously dropped…what a waste!
regards,
nick
Sorry, no video but check dis out!
Didn’t see it show but those are definately differant!! I’m curious now. Thanks for the link Dan. !/144 is my usual scale.
Dannyandre,
this Ekranoplane is the Orlyonok, one of the smallest…! That TV show showed quite a bit of that one too. I have lots of pics and the Aerofax book on those machines, but seeing movie footage of those things taking off and ‘flying’ was just amazing… The KM (the one I posted the picture of) was simply huge! There’s no other kit of the Ekranoplanes I think, so I’m really thinking about scratchbuilding this one, but without decent drawings, it’s gonna be hard!
Thanks for the link Dan!!! Sorry DJ, watched it but didn’t tape it.
I saw it! It was on Discovery here in Japan as well.
That thing is just nuts!
Saw it too before, here in the Philippines! A very unique show that was. I thought the brits were the only mad people (aside from the french of course), now russians too! [:D][(-D]
And who said the US was the only country that could build decent aircraft [:P]
-runs away and hides-
I don’t think anyone ever said that.
Karl
Hey DJM! here’s a link to a jet-powered one that I’ve never seen.
Dan, There’s something wrong with this link… Could you check it out? Thanks
Domi
DJM-try this:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/903.htm
Aaah! Much better! Did you see the size of that thing? It’s longer than a Jumbo…! That tv show showed the Lun firing one of it’s missile. Quite an impressive sight…!
Truly awesome-maybe Disney will revive the program. The fastest cruise ship with the ability to blow the competition out of their moorings. Wonder how it would look in White, Black and Red?
I have a photo of a jet powered sea plane…A Saunders Roe A1 on the lower Thames in Britain…circa 1951 in this book called “Pushing The Envelope”. It’s nowhere near as large as the Sea Monster, but I was still impressed with the design…I’ll see if I can find a pic online.
“Truly awesome-maybe Disney will revive the program. The fastest cruise ship with the ability to blow the competition out of their moorings. Wonder how it would look in White, Black and Red?”
Dan, I think the mouse ears would be cool too!
The Saunders Roe is currently in the museum at Duxford.
I saw it the last time I was over there.
Here she is:
Kik36, the SR A1 was not a wing-in-ground effect airplane. In effect, the concept behind the Ekranoplanes is nothing new, not even at the time the Soviet started working on the Ekranoplanes. All aircraft and all pilots know that when landing, an aircraft has a tendency to ‘stay in the air’, because it creates an air cushion upon which it ‘floats’.
The Soviet Ekranoplane programme was based on studies for a civilian transport/passenger plane that could at the time operate over longer distances than anything else engineers were trying to throw in the air. But in the Soviet society, it could only be developped through the interest of the military. Obviously, creating and operating gigantic airplanes that could transport troops and vehicles over large distances, at relatively great speeds and under radar cover, skimming over waves, was going to interest some military people. But in this case, not enough and not for long enough…