History of Caspian Sea Monster & Ekranoplan
A ground effect vehicle (GEV) is one that attains level
flight near the surface of the Earth, made possible by a cushion of
high-pressure air created by the aerodynamic interaction between the wings and
the surface known as ground effect.
Also known as a wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) vehicle,
flarecraft, sea skimmer, ekranoplan, or wing-in-surface-effect ship (WISE), a
GEV can be seen as a transition between a hovercraft and an aircraft.
Small numbers of experimental vehicles were built in Scandinavia just before World War II. By the 1960s, the
technology started to improve, in large part due to the contributions of the
Russian Rostislav Alexeev and German Alexander Lippisch. They independently
worked on GEV technology, arriving at very different solutions.
Alexeev worked from his background as a ship designer
whereas Lippisch worked from his own background as an aeronautical engineer.
The influence of Alexeev and Lippisch is still noticeable in most GEV vehicles
seen today.
The Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau (CHDB), led by Alexeev,
was the center of ground-effect craft development in Russia. The military potential for
such a craft was soon recognized and Alexeev received support and financial
resources from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. This led to the development of
the Caspian Sea Monster, a 550 ton military ekranoplan. Before it, some manned
and unmanned prototypes were built, ranging up to eight tons in displacement.
These craft were originally developed by the Soviet Union as
very high-speed military transports, and were based mostly on the shores of the
Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The largest had max
take-off weight over 544 tonnes. About 120 ekranoplans (A-90 Orlyonok class)
were initially planned to enter military service in the Soviet Navy.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union
smaller ekranoplans for non-military use have been under development. The CHDB
had already developed the eight-seat Volga-2 in 1985, and Technologies and
Transport developed a smaller version by the name of Amphistar.
