Ekranoplanes were invented by the Soviet Union engineer Rastislav Alexeev. They were created during Cold War, to serve as fast moving strategic “aircrafts” and were based on Caspian as well as Black Sea. These ekranoplanes could fly only meters off the ground, but had an advantage of flying fast under the radars (up to 550km/h on MD-160), carrying heavy loads as well as missiles. The “Caspian Sea Monster” also went into the history for being able to lift and fly 544 tons of dry weight, which is more weight than the biggest airplane in the world AN-225 can fly with…
“Lun” with 6 anti-ship missiles…
Even though this video is in Russian, it’s still worth watching since it shows you the rare archive videos of these birds in action…
“Lun”
“Lun”
MD-160 ekranoplane
MD-160 ekranoplane
“Caspian Sea Monster”
“Caspian Sea Monster”
A-90 “Orlyonok”
A-90 “Orlyonok”
A-90 “Orlyonok”
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