The Lun-class ekranoplan is a [COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]ground effect vehicle (GEV) designed by Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeyev in 1975 and used by the Soviet and Russian navies from 1987 until sometime in the late 1990s.
[ATTACH=full]330399[/ATTACH]
It flew using the lift generated by the ground effect of its large wings when within about four metres (13 ft) above the surface of the water. Although they might look similar to regular aircraft, and have related technical characteristics, ekranoplans like the Lun are not aircraft, seaplanes, hovercraft, nor hydrofoils. Rather, “ground effect” is a distinct technology. The International Maritime Organization classifies these vehicles as maritime ships.
The name Lun comes from the Russian word for harrier.
[ATTACH=full]330397[/ATTACH]
The Lun-class ekranoplan, colloquially known as “The Caspian Sea Monster,” is arguably a mish-mash of all three, and has just reared its head for the first time in 30 years.
The behemoth craft was developed by the Soviet Union as a sort of hybrid between airplanes and ships. It can move over water without actually touching it. First entered service in 1987, it was the only one of its class to be completed and has spent the past three decades hidden away in the Caspian Sea. Now, it’s back on dry land after one helluva extraction process.
[ATTACH=full]330398[/ATTACH]
The Lun was pulled from the water by three tug boats and two escort vessels. No easy feat considering the superplane weighs 380 tons and has a 148-foot wingspan. The mammoth effort took a total of 14 hours and required the careful coordination of several vessels, along with the assistance of rubber pontoons
USSR had crazy scientitsts during the cold war era. They built some weird planes and of unsual sizes. Remember the Ukrainian Antonov A225? The biggest plane in the world?
acha uwongo, their buran shuttle never flew, the US one has done more than 100 missions. But ni ukweli the USSR had a comparable tech industry, nowadays russia hata haiwezi compete, relying on USSR old technology to survive when the us keeps innovating
What are you saying? Before SpaceX all nation were relying on the Russian soyuz to get to ISS. Americans too wameomba lift kama wengine since 2011 when the last Shuttle touched down from ISS.
It did 1 trip if I remember correctly. There are even clips of it landing. It was way advanced regardless of how many trips it did.
Waliachana nayo cause of costs. They had equally capable rockets doing the same job, na there was no need of militarizing space back then so wakaachana na io shuttle
Soyuz is a Soviet era vehicle, nini una argue, the Russians haven’t built anything else post Soviet and the shuttle was discontinued juu ya politics not because it was incapable and even if it was the Americans kept innovating,
advanced means ahead of their time in terms of cost, technology, application, etc. the shuttle outdid it in all those aspects, it was only discontinued because Bush wanted to divert funding to other ventures , plus roscomos saa hii is planning on clonning falcon 9 juu wameona they can’t compete
Yea that’s what I’m saying. Them days they had quite advanced tech…tho we can’t deny kuna copy pasting mingi kila mahali.
Even their passenger jets had outstanding engineering them days
that doesn’t change anything, the Soyuz is a Soviet vehicle, using the same engines, same delivery method, same rocket fuel, same capsule configuration, etc. True innovation is what spacex and blue origin are doing, now the company that makes the Soyuz want to copy that because they can’t innovate?
Ni akili haunanga ama? kwani soyuz zenye hupeleka astronauts ISS ni myambo ya mamako?
Even US upto now uses soyuz rockets for their missions bcoz they had closed their year back
Following the Columbia disaster, shuttle flights were suspended for more than two years. And in 2004, President George Bush revealed his administration’s Vision for Space Exploration, announcing that the program would be terminated after the end of the construction of the International Space Station.