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A
Andre
Guest
Re: OK, Boys and Girls, what is it?
must be an Russian "Caspian Sea Monster" Ekranoplan :smile:
http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html
must be an Russian "Caspian Sea Monster" Ekranoplan :smile:
http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html
B
Breaklight
Guest
Re: OK, Boys and Girls, what is it?
I agree with Andre.
I agree with Andre.
W
Wardog
Guest
Re: OK, Boys and Girls, what is it?
Very well done. You are correct.
Ekranoplan
The Ekranoplan flies within surface effect which means it cruises on an air cushion just above the surface of the water at about 10-30 feet. Although capable of high speed, they can not fly as conventional aircraft do, hence the abbreviated wings.
Small numbers of experimental vehicles were built in Scandinavia just before WW2. By the 1960s, the technology started to improve, in large part due to the contributions of the Russian Rostislav Alexeev and the German Alexander Lippisch. They independently worked on GEV technology arriving to very different solutions. Alexeev worked from his background as a ship designer whereas Lippisch worked from his own background as an aeronautical engineer. The influence of Alexeev and Lippisch is still noticeable in most GEV vehicles seen today.
The Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau (CHDB), led by Alexeev, was the center of ground-effect craft development in Russia. The military potential for such a craft was soon recognised and Alexeev received support and financial resources from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. This led to the development of the Caspian Sea Monster, a 550 ton military ekranoplan. Before it, some manned and unmanned prototypes were built, ranging up to eight tons in displacement.
The Russian ekranoplan program continued and led to the most successful ekranoplan so far, the 125 ton A-90 Orlyonok. A few Orlyonoks were in service with the Soviet Navy from 1979 to 1992. In 1987, the 400 ton Lun-class ekranoplan was built as a missile launcher. The second Lun was renamed to Spasatel, as a rescue vessel, but was never finished.
These craft were originally developed by the Soviet Union as very high-speed military transports, and were based mostly on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The largest could transport over 100 tonnes of cargo. The development of ekranoplans was supported by Dmitri Ustinov, Minister of Defence of the USSR. About 120 ekranoplans (A-90 Orlyonok class) were initially planned to enter military service in the Soviet Navy. The figure was later reduced to fewer than thirty vehicles, planned to be deployed mainly for the Black and the Baltic Soviet navies. Marshal Ustinov died in 1985, and the new Minister of Defence Marshal Sokolov effectively stopped the funding for the program. The only three operational A-90 Orlyonok ekranoplans built (with renewed hull design) and one Lun-class ekranoplan remained at a naval base near Kaspiysk.
The two major problems that the Soviet ekranoplans faced were poor longitudinal stability, and a need for reliable navigation.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, ekranoplans have been produced by the Volga Shipyard in Nizhni Novgorod.
GEV developed since the 1980s have been primarily smaller craft designed for the recreational and civilian ferry markets. Germany, Russia and the US have provided most of the momentum with some development in Australia, China, Japan and Taiwan. In these countries small craft up to 10 seats have been designed and built. Other larger designs as ferries and heavy transports have been proposed, though none have gone on to further development.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, smaller ekranoplans for non-military use have been under development. The CHDB had already developed the eight-seat Volga-2 in 1985, and Technologies and Transport developed a smaller version by the name of Amphistar.
In Germany, Lippisch was asked to build a very fast boat for Mr Collins from Collins Radio Company in the USA. He developed the X-112, a revolutionary design with reversed delta wing and T-tail. This design proved to be stable and efficient in ground effect and even though it was successfully tested, Collins decided to stop the project and sold the patents to a German company called Rhein Flugzeugbau (RFB) which further developed the model.
Tandem flarecraft
Hanno Fischer took over the works from RFB and created his own company called Fischer Flugmechanik. Their two seat Airfisch 3 and their later model to seat 6 passengers have been a successful design. This craft, the FS-8 will soon be produced by a Singapore-Australian joint venture called Flightship. The company no longer exists, and the ship is out of production. An ongoing research project in collaboration with the university of Duisburg-Essen, involves the development of the Hoverwing
Günther Jörg in Germany, who had been working on the first designs by Alexeev too and was familiar with those imponderabilies, developed a GEVwith two wings in a tandem arrangement, the Jörg-II. Jörg - II has been the third manned Tandem Airfoilboat which was developed during his consultancy period in South-Africa.
This Tandem Airfoil-Flairboat had been constructed under the name "Skimmerfoil" It was a simple and low cost design, however has not been produced due to commercial problems of the former principal. Consultancy of Dipl. Ing. Günther Jörg had been founded by a fundamental knowledge of WING in Ground effect physics, and fundamental tests under different conditions and designs up from 1960. In 1984 Günther Jörg got the "PHILLIP MORRIS AWARD". In 1987 Botec Company was founded.
Very well done. You are correct.
Ekranoplan
The Ekranoplan flies within surface effect which means it cruises on an air cushion just above the surface of the water at about 10-30 feet. Although capable of high speed, they can not fly as conventional aircraft do, hence the abbreviated wings.
Small numbers of experimental vehicles were built in Scandinavia just before WW2. By the 1960s, the technology started to improve, in large part due to the contributions of the Russian Rostislav Alexeev and the German Alexander Lippisch. They independently worked on GEV technology arriving to very different solutions. Alexeev worked from his background as a ship designer whereas Lippisch worked from his own background as an aeronautical engineer. The influence of Alexeev and Lippisch is still noticeable in most GEV vehicles seen today.
The Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau (CHDB), led by Alexeev, was the center of ground-effect craft development in Russia. The military potential for such a craft was soon recognised and Alexeev received support and financial resources from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. This led to the development of the Caspian Sea Monster, a 550 ton military ekranoplan. Before it, some manned and unmanned prototypes were built, ranging up to eight tons in displacement.
The Russian ekranoplan program continued and led to the most successful ekranoplan so far, the 125 ton A-90 Orlyonok. A few Orlyonoks were in service with the Soviet Navy from 1979 to 1992. In 1987, the 400 ton Lun-class ekranoplan was built as a missile launcher. The second Lun was renamed to Spasatel, as a rescue vessel, but was never finished.
These craft were originally developed by the Soviet Union as very high-speed military transports, and were based mostly on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The largest could transport over 100 tonnes of cargo. The development of ekranoplans was supported by Dmitri Ustinov, Minister of Defence of the USSR. About 120 ekranoplans (A-90 Orlyonok class) were initially planned to enter military service in the Soviet Navy. The figure was later reduced to fewer than thirty vehicles, planned to be deployed mainly for the Black and the Baltic Soviet navies. Marshal Ustinov died in 1985, and the new Minister of Defence Marshal Sokolov effectively stopped the funding for the program. The only three operational A-90 Orlyonok ekranoplans built (with renewed hull design) and one Lun-class ekranoplan remained at a naval base near Kaspiysk.
The two major problems that the Soviet ekranoplans faced were poor longitudinal stability, and a need for reliable navigation.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, ekranoplans have been produced by the Volga Shipyard in Nizhni Novgorod.
GEV developed since the 1980s have been primarily smaller craft designed for the recreational and civilian ferry markets. Germany, Russia and the US have provided most of the momentum with some development in Australia, China, Japan and Taiwan. In these countries small craft up to 10 seats have been designed and built. Other larger designs as ferries and heavy transports have been proposed, though none have gone on to further development.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, smaller ekranoplans for non-military use have been under development. The CHDB had already developed the eight-seat Volga-2 in 1985, and Technologies and Transport developed a smaller version by the name of Amphistar.
In Germany, Lippisch was asked to build a very fast boat for Mr Collins from Collins Radio Company in the USA. He developed the X-112, a revolutionary design with reversed delta wing and T-tail. This design proved to be stable and efficient in ground effect and even though it was successfully tested, Collins decided to stop the project and sold the patents to a German company called Rhein Flugzeugbau (RFB) which further developed the model.
Tandem flarecraft
Hanno Fischer took over the works from RFB and created his own company called Fischer Flugmechanik. Their two seat Airfisch 3 and their later model to seat 6 passengers have been a successful design. This craft, the FS-8 will soon be produced by a Singapore-Australian joint venture called Flightship. The company no longer exists, and the ship is out of production. An ongoing research project in collaboration with the university of Duisburg-Essen, involves the development of the Hoverwing
Günther Jörg in Germany, who had been working on the first designs by Alexeev too and was familiar with those imponderabilies, developed a GEVwith two wings in a tandem arrangement, the Jörg-II. Jörg - II has been the third manned Tandem Airfoilboat which was developed during his consultancy period in South-Africa.
This Tandem Airfoil-Flairboat had been constructed under the name "Skimmerfoil" It was a simple and low cost design, however has not been produced due to commercial problems of the former principal. Consultancy of Dipl. Ing. Günther Jörg had been founded by a fundamental knowledge of WING in Ground effect physics, and fundamental tests under different conditions and designs up from 1960. In 1984 Günther Jörg got the "PHILLIP MORRIS AWARD". In 1987 Botec Company was founded.
Re: OK, Boys and Girls, what is it?
Huh? I'm still unclear what the heck these are supposed to be used for.
Huh? I'm still unclear what the heck these are supposed to be used for.
W
Wardog
Guest
Re: OK, Boys and Girls, what is it?
Designed to transport troops and armor very quickly over water and under the radar. Could be used for very fast ferry service, too. Check the website below for more info.
http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html
Designed to transport troops and armor very quickly over water and under the radar. Could be used for very fast ferry service, too. Check the website below for more info.
http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html
P
PoorOldSpike
Guest
Re: OK, Boys and Girls, what is it?
There was a TV documentary about Ekranoplans a while back. If I remember correctly one of the main reasons for abandoning the project was that they needed too many engines to get them moving fast enough to lift them off the water, so somebody said "hey we might just as well build proper aeroplanes instead!"
There was a TV documentary about Ekranoplans a while back. If I remember correctly one of the main reasons for abandoning the project was that they needed too many engines to get them moving fast enough to lift them off the water, so somebody said "hey we might just as well build proper aeroplanes instead!"