the u.s intelligence community concentrated on looking for indications of nuclear weapon
development and testing but they uncovered much more than they expected what did they uncover
let's find out the united states launched its first surveillance satellite the corona at the
height of the cold war when nuclear apprehension was at an all-time high assigned to take pictures
of the soviet union's interior these early satellites carried rolls of film when they were
launched as there was no way to electronically transfer the data they contained to earth
the films had to be recovered and developed on our plant once the film was used the satellite would
eject a re-entry vehicle back to earth containing the priceless undeveloped photos where they were
discovered as they drifted down by a passing jet as the story of one such mission progressed a
mysterious item appeared in the caspian sea it was a massive airplane almost 100 meters long
with wingspans that were far too short to fly like a typical aircraft nothing like it had ever been
observed by us intelligence as they obtained more images it became evident that the craft
was outpacing even the biggest current american military aircraft such as the lockheed c5m despite
traveling at the same speed as a conventional aircraft even the soviet navy flag not the soviet
air force was embroidered on it this finding raised red flags within u.s intelligence had the
soviets made a propulsion advancement that would give them an advantage in naval combat the us
misidentified the object as the caspian sea monster because they were perplexed by what
they saw but the soviets weren't working on a massive hydrofoil or seaplane this enormous
vehicle being created in secrecy was actually an ecranoplan a massive ship with the ability to
skim across the ocean's surface at great speeds the central hydrofoil design bureau test lead
designer rosteslav alexiev with starting work on a prototype aircraft in 1962 the requita was one of
the hydrofoil planes that alexia first developed these objects easily fit the definition of a boat
however the soviets intended to go a step further they employed a hydrofoil which is effectively a
wing engineered to work in water to raise the boat's hull out of the water as it gained speed
allowing it to cut drag and improve top speeds the ekrana plan would employ a phenomenon
known as the ground effect to fly extremely close to the ocean's surface when a fixed-wing aircraft
travels at a lower height than the width of its wings the ground effect occurs the build of the
wing deflects the air downward as the massive quantities of the air come into contact with the
aircraft compressing the air between the wing and the ground this trapped air may result in an area
beneath the wing with a greater than normal pressure which will increase lift all pilots
must learn to deal with this because it occurs with all aircraft during takeoff and landing
for instance certain planes that are overloaded can take off but can't climb above the level where
the ground effect is at work ecrana plans are made to maximize this impact and never venture
outside of the ground effect zone the ecrana plan can be heavier without requiring additional power
just as our plane can take off when overloaded this would make an airplane an effective weapon in
open water fighting due to radar shadow caused by the earth's curvature it would fly beneath enemy
radar for a considerably longer period on october 16 1966 the tm made its first test flight with
chief designer alex eagle board it was against the law for soviet aircraft designers at the time to
ride in such test vehicles in case they were in an accident however test pilot vladimir lojenov
pushed for alexiev to fly so that he could test and improve his designs the initial tests
successfully demonstrated that the jm could fly at 430 kilometers hour for maximum fuel efficiency
and 500 kilometers hour for maximum operational speed during some high speed tests it is said to
have reached a top speed of 650 kilometers hour the taiam served as an important proof of concept
and set the stage for all subsequent ikrana plans using the lessons he had learned alexei set out to
create the orliamok a new transport vehicle made exclusively for transporting troops in military
hardware it had a wingspan of 31.5 meters a length of 58 meters and a maximum takeoff weight of 140
metric tones a gigantic nk12 turboprop engine was installed on the tail as far away from the saline
water as possible and its engine configuration was fascinating the most rugged turboprop engine
to ever enter service this enormous counter rotating six meters in diameter turbo propellers
produced 11 kilowatts of power additionally it had two nose mounted turbofan engines with top
mounted air intakes to reduce water intake these engine's exhaust was directed under the wings to
increase the ground effect by inflating the air cushion with the jet engine's high pressure output
these engines were only required during takeoff for the plane to accelerate quickly enough to
generate sufficient lift through the wing and ground effect once this was accomplished
they were turned off to save gasoline the orlinok had wheels and a cargo door installed on the nose
so it could drive onto the ground and unload although only four were manufactured
this ecrana plan was completely operational and entered and remained in service until 1993.
the specifics here differ and i had trouble finding reliable sources of information on what
happened to alexiev once the orlinox development was finished while several sources claimed he
crashed in the tm orlanuc or volga ii a small passenger transport atrana plan all indications
seemed to point to alexiev losing his job as a chief designer and passing away soon after i would
have no idea if they were brought on by natural or crash-related injuries the development of the
kranna plans in the soviet union slowly started to fizzle out with alexi of gone and the soviet union
on the verge of disintegrating they succeeded in creating a slightly scaled down version of the tm
that can fire anti-ship missiles from a boat at sea the initial iteration of this vehicle known as
lun was created in 1987. this car's length was 74 meters and its wingspan was 44 meters its weight
was 286 tones the engines on the tail were totally removed instead it was propelled by eight nk 87
turbofans positioned at the front of the craft each flaunted a thrust capacity of 127 kilonewtons
in 1987 the lund joined the soviet navy only one model now on display in a dry dock on the caspian
sea coasts was finished before the soviet union fell apart in 1991 although the concept of a wing
on a ground effect plane has validity no military has ever embraced it german engineers created the
x-114 a much smaller ecrana plan in the 1970s but it was never put into use the xtw for ecrana plan
developed in 1999 and put through numerous testing a year later was another experiment used by the
chinese google maps once showed the car near a chinese maritime port but it has disappeared
while boeing unveiled plans for the pelican its largest ever ecrana plan in 2002 according to
their claims the vessel would be longer than a football field and capable of transporting 17 m1
abram tanks across the ocean but in 2005 the us congress rejected the proposals simply put there
was no demand for such a plane winging ground effect planes might yet find a market but for the
time being reliability and safety issues are their main obstacle there is little time for corrective
adjustments when flying at such a low altitude and any ekrana plan is rendered useless in bad weather
with strong winds or waves some have attempted to create more compact passenger versions
like the a050 according to the russian embassy in south africa this go to source for russian
news will be operational within the next three years these temperamental vehicles may
find a useful niche in our czech logic areas like southeast asia where rising wealth and population
in combination with the proximity of islands to one another may create a market however regular
airplanes will always be a considerably more effective and dependable mode of transportation
over long distances since flying in the upper atmosphere's lower density air significantly
reduces drag these passenger versions would therefore need to fly very small distances
as airliners waste time during ascension and rising and climbing for the correct application
this technology is completely practical and someone may find a solution and use it to launch
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