Garry

The WIG vehicles have enourmous combition of large payloads and high speed - making them the most potent litoral warships.

Caspian Mosnter was to date the largest with take off weight of 450 tons and 200 tons! payload! It could fly up to 3000m high though preferable hight was just 10m. So it was the largest aircraft. However it was in fact the fastest small ship with speed of 500 km/h.... its range in flying mode was 3000km though it could fly like a boat with a speed of just 40 km/h making its range 5 times more.

With 6 moskit missiles Lun could have no competition in litorral areas. Its speed was 450km/h and take off weight of 160 tons of which 60-70 tons were payload used by moskit missles.

http://warfare.ru/?linkid=1755&catid=272&image=894
http://warfare.ru/?linkid=1755&catid=272

Russian engineers cacluated that WIGs could reach large sizes becoming quite capable carriers of different missile weapons. The last planned designed but not produced by Caspian Mosnter creator, Alexeev in cooperation with Beriliev was planned to have total payload of 2,500 tons to be a refueling for Russian strategic bombers flying over Passific or carrying many missiles itself.....

Even though Lun is now more than 20 years old (though destroyed) there is still no competition to this vehicle created..... could you name any other littoral vehicle which could compete with it?


ps. some more links on WIGs and Amphibian aircrafts
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/903.htm
http://www.se-technology.com/wig/index.php
http://142.26.194.131/aerodynamics1/Drag/WIG.html

Attached Images

	project-903-image1.jpg (82.2 KB, 155 views)
	Caspian moster.jpg (21.6 KB, 157 views)
	Orlyonok.jpg (39.9 KB, 154 views)

Garry

just talked to my old friend who first brought my attention to this interesting but abandonned direction of aviation/shipbuilding. WIG was breakthrough from the Italian/Russian designer Bartini who talked to Khrushev and Brezhnev and promissed them to build Flying Air Carriers.... BOTH agreed to fund his research and projects.

Bartini was really a talented mind. He evisionned that WIG concept allowed creating aircraft with almost UNLIMITED size..... equal to a large ship while NORMAL aircraft has unsolvable size/weight limit which can be mounted on a WHEEL/RAIL.... Already the A-380/B-747/An-124/C-5 have problems with landing.... while having payload of less than 200tons.

Having created aircraft which could carry around 200 tons payload, Bartini started projecting flying aircraft carrier. His project assumed the carrier WIG draging aircraft which would be then hanging on a refueling hoses. Up to 4 could be dragged in IN FLIGHT for replacement of crew, weapon reload and maintenance. He viewed that such aircraft carrier would be able to reach any point on the globe within 24 hours, then bomb/Attack and fly back.

However his idea faced big problem - fuel consumption. It turned out that he could build an WIG carrier of such size..... it was feasible.... he even could design technology how to drag aircraft inside the carrier IN FLIGHT... But in order to make this WIG trully autonomous he wanted to make it NUCLEAR DRIVEN.

In 1970-es he learned about a new design of VERY SMALL but VERY POWERFUL liquid metal cooled reactors (coolant was based on liquid metal instead of water). Bartini knew that NAVY were equipping new submarins with liquid metal cooled reactors... With this reactor powering electric fan turbines his WIG was gaining capability to fly FEW YEARS without landing.

Just before his death in 1977 Bartini was very excited - Few Design Bureuas made their largest WIG flying and testing different ideas and configurations... He had preliminary agreement with NAVY for use of the BM-40 reactor with TOTAL weight of just 40 tons (less than M1A tank!!!)..... ten times smaller than operational reactor used in normal subs/ships but with SAME power capacity.

Unfortunatelly with death of Bartini, NAVY managed to kill the project. They never liked this revolutionary idea of having a flying aircraft carrier.... they also did not like Alfa sub which was equipped with liquid metal coolled reactor.... The initial flaws in Alfa sub design were used to kill the idea completelly.

Yet, some aicraft engineers in Russia are still amazed with a visionary of Italian/Soviet designer Bartini who was so close to creating a FLYING AICRAFT CARRIER

rickusn

I dont know too much about WIGS(Ekranoplan) but they seem quite ungainly,complicated and vulnerable to a whole host of natural and manmade threats and obstacles.

I also under they suffer greatly from corrosion and are a ***** to maintain.

But interested in hearing more.

Moroz

One more gadget is called Zubr. It’s air-cushion landing craft. I guess it could be used for similar purpose. Speed is mach lower, but tactical flexibility is higher.
http://www.almaz.spb.ru/home/product/zubr.asp
"...The Zubr air-cushion landing craft is intended to carry out over-the-beach landing of advanced detachments of amphibious landing troops and combat materiel, as well as fire support of their actions on shore.

PRINCIPAL PARTICULARS
Displacement (full-load), t_555
Length overall, m________57.3
Breadth overall, m_______25.6
Height on air-cusion, m____21.9
Power plant output, h.p.___5x10000
Maximum speed, knots____60
Cruising range, nm_______> 300
Sea endurance, days______5
Crew, men______________27