Some really cool photos of the Ekranoplan

[UAL Tripple 7]

http://igor113.livejournal.com/51213.html

This thing was a beast! It looks scary just sitting there.

[mko]

its like star trek on water

[johnygezony]

The rediculous size of soviet aircraft never ceases to amaze me....the thing would fly near close to the ground ! its funny looking at all the guns on the thing aswell

[UAL Tripple 7]

Yeah it used ground effect to stay in the air. Skimmed just above the surface of the water.

[johnygezony]

not to mention the 6 nuclear capable tubes on its back ;)

[2002BlackDragon]

What in the f........i have never seen anything so beautiful! I love that plane!

[Jeffylou87]

It reminds me of the part in the movie 2012 where the guy says.. "That plane is huge!" then the russian guy goes "It's Russian."

[Reelax]

Lun-class ekranoplan. crazy looking thing like it was out of an old video game.

http://www.livephysics.com/gallery/d/1403-2/ekranoplan.jpg

[polishmafia]

Whoa thats awesome.

[mrg7243]

holy S*** what years was this used??

[E_Emerson88]

looks like it should have been in "The Fifth Element" lol

[UAL Tripple 7]

I think some were built around the cold war years. Some of them could fly up to around 250 mph too. They built little ones as well as huge ones. I think the biggest one was the Caspian Sea Monster. It was by far the coolest of all of the Ekranoplans.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e267/ReganH22/58005.jpg

[UAL Tripple 7]

Oh yeah as a side note, one of the reasons the ekranoplan failed was because of the size. It was actually considered too small! Boeing was at one time developing a version, but im not sure if the project is still going. It was supposed to be called the Pelican, and has a wingspan of 500ft and length of 400ft! The max weight is supposed to be over 2 million lbs. It will only cruise at 20ft above the water, and 20,000ft over land.

[polishmafia]

I'm curious... Why would it fly 20 feet over water and 20,000 feet over land? Difference the air?