Not sure if this is old news in here, did a search for 'russian secret' and came up empty so here it is.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=WlEt0bCeTy8

Yeah its a ground effect craft...just rides that cushion of air that has ruined so many of our seemingly perfect flairs. It is a very cool craft and is actually in FSX. It is in one of the cargo missions in Alaska.

Take us to DEFCON2! Wait, old video. :Shocked: But the music is cool and I didn't know about that plane. Thanks for posting.

Here are some pictures of the Ekranoplan taken in 2009. What a sorry end for such a mighty beast :(

And if you've every asked yourself where game designers get their post WW3 ideas on the vehicle styling. ^_^ Thanks for the link, Jean-Paul. Indeed, what a beast. Great pictures!

There's a pretty nice version available for FS9 and FSX from AlphaSim's freeware page

 

http://www.easyfly.co.nz/Freeware/index.php

 

Under the 'others' tab look for "LUN_Ekranoplan"

Haha, I'll check that one. Thanks for the tip. The magic of freeware.

 

 

:biggrin:

 

Not the best VC there is, but I can now go fast on water, and stay there. Some stuff is actually quite cool. VC window dirt and those effects on the spray and the vortices included.

Running 348KIAS. I have to work on my landings now.

I'm curious how this thing would navigate larger waves in the rough seas. You'd think it would flop over.

Here are some pictures of the Ekranoplan taken in 2009. What a sorry end for such a mighty beast :(

 

Amazing detail!

 

I'm curious how this thing would navigate larger waves in the rough seas. You'd think it would flop over.

 

It is deceiving how high it is because of the size. I've read that it was usually 40 or more feet over the surface of the water.

I was asking myself the same on the waves as Chase. Makes sense in the actual height, Chris. And it seems they brought that flying ship concept into at least a small production cycle with the prop models and transports.

 

The things get so fast, I could even think of problems with current ships, not so much the waves then. There are parts of this planet where the lanes of ships get really long and dense and there's no way one could handle the large turn radii.

 

Traffic avoidance on water receives a different character trait at 200+ kts. :lol: To be honest, it even is difficult with the slow pace nowadays.

 

A touchy moment is the drag by partially contacting the water. Not so much when going straight, but turning the ship plus some bumpy water may cause quite some hits on the structure plus yawing moment.

This thing was first spotted in a USSR dock by a US surveillance satellite back in the 60s and was dubbed the Caspian Sea Monster. They couldn't figure out what it was at first.

 

Russian engineers have continued developing ekranoplan technology, and some of them can fly properly as well as in GE, e.g. at 3000m in the case of the A-90 Orlyonok (which would definitely be an interesting asset in flightsim).

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-90_Orlyonok

The more I know, the more I like it. Thanks for the HU. Still training on speaking the names. :blush:

The size of these was impressive , the highest they ever got the Eaglet, and C-21 was to a height of about 300-500 meters, in tests, they were way overpowered for normal flight and used to run with most of those engines off aside taking off.

Very Cool!

It is in one of the cargo missions in Alaska.

As far as I remember, there's only the chance to see it, while you'll definitely see it in that Tokio mission, where you have to transfer that guy from a skyscraper to Narita in a Jet Ranger.