The monster of the Caspian Sea

As of the middle of the Sixties the - in full cold war - Western secret service, mainly American but also British, is intrigued by a giant aircraft built by the Soviets. Called "the monster of Caspian" to be located on this sea thanks to catches of sight of American spy satellites, the aircraft intrigues. Indicated "km" by the Russians, the apparatus belongs to this family, known under the generic name of Ekranoplane (literally plane of surface). Actually, it is good ten apparatuses masses and different sizes which left the engineering and design departments Alekseyev de Nijni-Novgorod, during forty last years.



Ekranoplane is presented in the form of an hybrid between the plane and the seaplane. Its principle of lift consists in being pressed on an enormous air cushion of ten meters thickness. A plane on takeoff and the landing creates the cushion in question naturally; from where sometimes the "refusal" which the plane opposes to touching the runway with the landing. On Ekranoplane, this phenomenon known as "of effect of surface" is amplified by two artifices. One, used at low speed, consists in directing exhaust the fumes of the engines under the aerofoil, of which the shutters were lowered beforehand, thus creating a "box of pressure" which makes it possible to obtain a first level of lift.





This apparatus which accomplished its first flight on October 18, 1966 is considered in the Soviet Union of the time as an aircraft whose military applications are obvious. Its speed of 600 km/heure, at 3 m above water, presented many tactical advantages for the transport of material of attack. The aircraft, equipped with 10 turbojets (8 installed on stubs of wings connected to the higher part before fuselage and 2 flanked on both sides control pedestal placed slightly behind of the cockpit) surprises by its configuration. During its experimental flights, the km showed, according to its manufacturer, the aptitude of the formula not to reveal any weight limit and of size, for the construction of aircraft taking as a starting point sound principe.C' the reason is remainder for which, the km is actually a single prototype intended to validate a formula, with a view to to still build more gigantic Ekranoplane, since the objective is then to develop an apparatus of 1500 tons, of payload being able to fly to 900 km/h! Whereas the Russians start with largely opening in the Occident to prolong their stopped research for lack of credit, certain American specialists estimate, even at the beginning of the Nineties, that one can, on the basis of principle of lift of Ekranoplane, to consider the construction of an apparatus of 5 000 tons.

I guess the ruskys had a fascination with the Spruce Goose.

Have you/anyone got any specifications for this aircraft/boat ?

That really was an awesome piece of kit and in an area where NOBODY else was thinkng about. When I first heard of them a few years ago I could just imagine an invasion fleet hurtling across the channel towards the UK in these huge troop carriers and missile launchers. No time to react, unstoppable. That is a scary thought.

That is indeed a fantastic piece of kit. Did nobody at the time realise that the thing would be useless if the sea was choppy. Imagine it hitting 20/30 ft waves at speed, it would surely break into pieces.

still you have to admit its a cool pice of air tek . can imange going 600 mph looking out the window with the ocean only feet below you. But of corse the storm problem high seas kills the idea very quickly. Bummer i want one.

I am not sure but i think that once the sea starts to pick up the larger waves actually create more pressure under the aircraft thereby forcing it higher above the sea. They would have huge maintenance problems if used on the sea though, can u imagine the wear and tear on those jets with all that salt hurtling inside them. I think it is more suited to large lakes for that reason alone.

I have heard about this particular project, didn't the Russians build more prototypes of these?

Needless to say I was facinated with such a strange but definitily interesting design...

i'd love to see that thing fly. there was that cool proggy that was on the discovery channel or history channel or something a few months back, im sure it'll be on again sometime or another.

when the americans first saw it from their spy plane shots, they thought that it was just the fusalage with the wings not fully on yet. thats about the only thing i remembered from the programme unfortunately.

I think this would use same principle, but from normal airports.

Pelican Ultra Large Transport Aircraft
www.globalsecurity.org...
www.boeing.com...

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
I have heard about this particular project, didn't the Russians build more prototypes of these?

Needless to say I was facinated with such a strange but definitily interesting design...

of course, as well as other types... i even have about 10 video clips of few of them


My favorite:







Comparison anyone

I have always loved the look of the Orlenok, is it? The one with the contraprop on the fin the and swept tail. very nice. And something that the Russians have without question done better than anybody else

I was in the factory and I had an interview with the Chief Designer for a complete day. I published many papers about ekranoplans in different magazines.

To Irma :
"That is indeed a fantastic piece of kit. Did nobody at the time realise that the thing would be useless if the sea was choppy. Imagine it hitting 20/30 ft waves at speed, it would surely break into pieces."

It can't be. This machine is a Cat B ekranoplan, meaning she has full flight controls and - of course - engines. In case of huge waves, the pilot can choose a higher altitude to cruise. To give you an idea, the missile cruiser Lun' ( 3D pictures in this forum ) is 74 m long. she can alight in 3.5 m waves, which is considerabl much more than seaplanes tolerances. The secret ? Large chord short wing and boat-type structure.

To Kenshin :

The KM ( Korabl Maket : ship model, also dubbed the "caspian Monster" ) made her 1st flight in october 1966, only 5 years after the SM-1, the first experimental ekranoplan which was a small craft powered by one jet engine. The concept was so promising that the design bureau, led by R. Alekseyev, decided to carry on with this almost 100 m long, 500 tons craft flying at more than 500 km/h ! In the beginning, she was flown manually ! Then, the russians developped a sophisticated auto-pilot / navigation system. Despite of various tail numbres, only one KM was build. She flew successfully 14 years but, unfortunately, she crashed and was destroyed in 1980. The accident was due to a pilot error : he stalled during take-off phase.
Remember, in 1966, the KM was he biggest flying machine ever ! But she was one of the most kept secrets.

Gilles.

The russian design bureau Marengo has plans for using ekranoplane as launch pitcher/catcher for reusable spacevehicles (cargos up to 55 ton)

www.space.com...

Well, considering the projected Pelican could carry 1500 ton, the Pelican would be an awesome launch assist for an instant moonbase or something or
bring the brainchild of Zubrin in low orbit, a 300 ton nuclear salt walt rocket, wich could be safely started outside the atmosphere.







[edit on 13-2-2005 by Countermeasures]