Development of Ekranoplans

Since the lun and orlenok got cancelled are there any plans for the distant future to produce combat ekranoplanes? IMO they can have larger armament capacity, range, and be stealthier than conventional naval aircraft and would be cheaper and faster than ships making them good long range hit and run crafts and for sudden landings. An ekranoplane carrying 6 or 8 onix or klubs plus a SAM casette incase an enemy aircraft stumbls upon it and a succesor of the orlenok with a larger payload would be interesting. Would it be a good idea to continue work on them or it would be better to just invest in submarines for sudden naval attack and landing ships and hovercraft for landing operations?

Interesting development of WIG planes in Russia



http://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/39022/

Marketing document about above EKRANOPLAN in PDF format:

http://www.aviationunion.ru/Files/Nom_8_Orion.pdf

Sounds almost too good to be true but are we going to see -

the return of the Ekranoplans    



The Central Design Bureau "CKB R.E. Alekseev" presented at the "Marine Industry Forum" an ekranoplane design of the coastal zone type with a take off weight of 60t.

The Direktor and chief designer of concern "Morinformsistem-Agat" Georgi Ancev, informed the press that the CKB-Alekseev is working on a ocean going ekranoplan design with a take off weight of 500t (significantly bigger than the Soviet designs).

"We need a oceanic zone ekranoplan with takeoff weight of 500 tons. Such developments are carried out in the CDB Alekseev. Now comes the stage of the reboot of the Soviet period, we are currently looking for a customer-defined research and development, modeling, prototyping" – quotes RIA Novosti, Ancev.

http://www.armstrade.org/includes/periodics/news/2015/0519/172029214/detail.shtml

@Garry, Definately....there's a lot of potential

Although the direktor is talking about both civilian as well as military applications.

The smaller coastal 60t design might be this one (just a guess)

Some samples from the Russian start-up Sky and Sea Group.

http://sky-and-sea.net/

Burevestnik-24:







HSA-500 concept with a 300t cargo capacity.








Ekranoplans preform just as well on ice as they do on water, and could easily be deployed in the arctic for practically every conceivable mission due to their speed and payload. Russia still retains engineers who have real world experience designing and building these vessels. There's a real possibility these could be revived, but of course, it all depends on budget.

oh well maybe not exactly Caspian Monster but surely ekranoplans are back. I wonder what apps? ASW? SAR? Patron? antiship? Landing crafts?

http://ria.ru/defense_safety/20150530/1067303152.html

MOSCOW, may 30 — RIA Novosti. Russia returns to the design and construction of the wig, they are included in the programme of shipbuilding until 2050, said Saturday the head of the shipbuilding of the Russian Navy captain 1st rank Vladimir Trapeznikov.
Earlier in Russia was used to develop the wig, however, currently in the Navy of the Russian Federation there is only one such ship, which is conserved in the Caspian sea.
"In shipbuilding, we have included a section "development of ekranoplans"," — said Trapeznikov on radio "Echo Of Moscow".
He added that the ekranoplan is a multipurpose ship that can perform a number of tasks and on the water and in the air.

This beauty is my ekranoplan love

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%92%D0%90-14

Some samples from the Russian start-up Sky and Sea Group.

http://sky-and-sea.net/

Burevestnik-24:







HSA-500 concept with a 300t cargo capacity.








Ekranoplans preform just as well on ice as they do on water, and could easily be deployed in the arctic for practically every conceivable mission due to their speed and payload. Russia still retains engineers who have real world experience designing and building these vessels. There's a real possibility these could be revived, but of course, it all depends on budget. We will just have to wait and see.

c´mon ekranoplan is based either old German or USA/Israeli concept like Armata


As for your pics luv this majestic monster

Zivo wrote:
HSA-500 concept with a 300t cargo capacity.

In this case I say: go big or go home!

Imagine ekranoplanes crossing the arctic and rapdily deploying a massive invasion force on the canadian tundra..

look at my beauty and beast in one. Could fly as high as 10km with 760km/h and 4,000kg payload. With new engines and avionics could make difference in fending off NATO subs.

This is good for Arctic sea denial IMHO

Robert Bartini, the guy who designed the Beriev VVA-14, was a true visionary. He had a brilliant mind, and undoubtedly was way
ahead of his time. Here's his A-57 bomber concept from circa 1950. Even today, you can see the A-57's influence in futuristic aircraft/spacecraft concepts.





RIP Bartini.

''When Fantasy Meets Reality: Russia Develops Heavy ‘Flying Ship’''

http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150909/1026772726/russia-ekranoplan-development.html

''“Work on the A-050 ekranoplan with a takeoff weight of 50 tons is now ongoing at the Akekseyev Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau,” the CHDB’s chief designer Georgy Antsev said.

“We are now ready to start building the prototype and we are in talks with several potential buyers, including foreign,” he added.''

PapaDragon wrote:
''When Fantasy Meets Reality: Russia Develops Heavy ‘Flying Ship’''

http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150909/1026772726/russia-ekranoplan-development.html

''“Work on the A-050 ekranoplan with a takeoff weight of 50 tons is now ongoing at the Akekseyev Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau,” the CHDB’s chief designer Georgy Antsev said.

“We are now ready to start building the prototype and we are in talks with several potential buyers, including foreign,” he added.''

I wonder if ekrnoplanes will be used in military roles or only as fairly fast transport platforms?


BTW for Russian sub drones with thermon8cler warheads in drones´ section pls

I don't think I'd like to be a member of the deck crew on that monstrous example of fanboi art! Loading ordnance to a jet while subject to winds of 550km/hr including jet wash from the bow engines???

On a more sensible note, its interesting to think of how the Lun could be deep-modernised with current technology - exchanging the Moskit launchers for Onyx would be a start (for naval strike) or long range land-attack Kalibre as a rapid-reaction cruise missile platform stalking the Caspian and Black seas? Then add modern radar, ECM, ECCM and communications and more efficient engines... A WIG vehicle would appear to be an ideal application for stealth low-observabliilty techniques, so go fully sick and build a new model with stealth shaping, hiding of engine internals and adding RAM.... She would quite a predator

Yes I realize this isn't news and is rather nostalgia, but heck, it deserves a post here.

Sorry if it's been mentioned before.

Ekranoplans: Soviet secret weapons get a new lease of life

https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/326266-ekranoplans-soviet-secret-weapons

Also are they really capable of flying in category 5 storms? I find that quite hard to believe and the fact being so close to the surface that big waves would simply wash it away the article even states a disadvantage is that it can fly on uneven surface surely a category 5 storm would create a massively uneven surface on the water obviously the sea will always be choppy and a bit wild which I am sure they can operate fine in but category 5 storms I ain't sure. Maybe someone can shed some light on the matter. But good news if they come back.

d_taddei2 wrote:Sorry if it's been mentioned before.

Ekranoplans: Soviet secret weapons get a new lease of life

https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/326266-ekranoplans-soviet-secret-weapons

Also are they really capable of flying in category 5 storms? I find that quite hard to believe and the fact being so close to the surface that big waves would simply wash it away the article even states a disadvantage is that it can fly on uneven surface surely a category 5 storm would create a massively uneven surface on the water obviously the sea will always be choppy and a bit wild which I am sure they can operate fine in but category 5 storms I ain't sure. Maybe someone can shed some light on the matter. But good news if they come back.

I don't know about the Orlyonok, but it might be possible now.

One of the big factors against wholesale Ekranoplan adoption back in the heyday of the Soviet program for them - was exactly their vulnerablity to storms and rough sea conditions. In effect this pretty much restricted them to the Caspian and the Azov seas. Even the Black Sea was a little too turbulent for them to be employed reliably there.

However that generation of ekranoplans was a lot larger than the models currently being tested. I'm not sure if it's a factor; larger ships are afterall less affected by storms than smaller ones. But it could make sense that a smaller ekranoplane can 'ride' the waves so to speak while a larger one would be subject to turbulance and instability into multiple directions at once.

Also, new alloys and materials have been developed since then, fly by wire systems with computer-calculated corrections even for unstable aerodynamic configurations, more powerful engines in smaller dimensions, and so on.

Another factor against Ekranoplans are seabirds (gulls, terns etc.) and waterfowl (ducks, geese, etc.) that tend to be more common at those sea skimming altitudes.

The problems with the ekranoplans :
Cost as much as a similar sized airplane
has less capability than an airplane
Restricted the weather condition when it can land/take off from water
turning radius must be big( it can't lose altitude to turn)



Practically the Ekranoplans is as expensive as an aircraft, but less capable.