Russia bringing back ekranoplans

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DerekCZ
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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

Post by DerekCZ »

where do they want to use them? afaik the demand of sea travel to/from Russia isn't that big
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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

Post by kamnet »

DerekCZ wrote:where do they want to use them? afaik the demand of sea travel to/from Russia isn't that big
Only because sea travel is slow, because you're traveling through sea water. The downside is that this is only going to be 400 kmh when a 747 can travel at 900 kmh, but ekranoplans do not need a runway and can land on water or any unimproved or improvised runway. So, who knows? Like most things ekranoplan, though, a ship of this size probably won't take off.
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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

Post by YNM »

DerekCZ wrote:where do they want to use them? afaik the demand of sea travel to/from Russia isn't that big
Patroling the new unfrozen Arctic sea ?
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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

Post by Auge »

Hello
DerekCZ wrote:where do they want to use them? afaik the demand of sea travel to/from Russia isn't that big
There is also the possibility to travel not from or to but inside russia on lakes and rivers. There are many rivers and lakes and there are wide rivers and big lakes in russia. Much space to travel on. ;-)

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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

Post by YNM »

Auge wrote: There is also the possibility to travel not from or to but inside russia on lakes and rivers. There are many rivers and lakes and there are wide rivers and big lakes in russia.
Going 400km/h on a winding river ? Seems legit...
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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

Post by Train<In>Vain »

Some of those rivers are like a mile wide. At 400 k/h the danger on rivers and lakes is the other ordinary watercraft, I reckon. Then again, Russians aren't famous for being adverse to danger in transportation.
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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

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Train<In>Vain wrote:Some of those rivers are like a mile wide.
Only 15 seconds across at 250 mph (400 kmh).

I can only see them faffing about Caspian Sea, Sea of Azov, White Sea or Baltic Sea. Or as I said earlier, the new shipping route of unfrozen Arctic Sea...
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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

Post by Auge »

Hello
YNM wrote:
Train<In>Vain wrote:Some of those rivers are like a mile wide.
Only 15 seconds across at 250 mph (400 kmh).
Who said, the ekranoplan had to cross a river like a ferry from bank to bank? A river is normally longer than it's wide. My brand new idea (obviously noone had it before in the history of the world) is to fly the river lenghtwise. From Kazan to Volgograd (a bit more than 1000km) on the river Volga in two and a half or maybe three hours (at 400kph).

I don't know if this is possible because rivers are often not straight but winding. To be fair, Russia is wide (and the tsar is far away). There are giant lakes, rivers and, as you mentioned before, the shores of several seas. If there would not be an use case for ekranoplans, the russians would not work on ekranoplans.

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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

Post by YNM »

Auge wrote:
YNM wrote:
Train<In>Vain wrote:Some of those rivers are like a mile wide.
Only 15 seconds across at 250 mph (400 kmh).
Who said, the ekranoplan had to cross a river like a ferry from bank to bank? A river is normally longer than it's wide.
It's just some relative measures on how it's relatively very narrow for thr application. If you have another aircraft flying with 400 km/h relative velocity with only an nmi to spare, the ATC would go mad.
Auge wrote:I don't know if this is possible because rivers are often not straight but winding. To be fair, Russia is wide (and the tsar is far away). There are giant lakes, rivers and, as you mentioned before, the shores of several seas. ...
... Which spans north-south, not east-west which is more meaningful for Russia. (it's why they made the railway it's often said)

I could see it shuttling between ports on the shore, but it's a bit hard imagining it to then go upstream or started going downstream.
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Re: Russia bringing back ekranoplans

Post by kamnet »

Considering that the article states the vehicle was created to navigate sea waves of 5-6 points, and considering its size and weight, these are not going to be navigating rivers or most inland water bodies.
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