We haven't done a combo Retro Wednesday and RECCE quiz in awhile. This one will be fun.
See the below, and then see if you can guess what you are looking at before you read the text below it.
I remember that thing as a young MIDN when I first read about it. Just a grainy pic and a little hyperbole - a lot of things about tremendous speed and quick strike ability in the littorals or some such transformationalism ....
Yes my friends, its the Caspian Sea Monster; the Ekranoplan - more great pics here.
Note the background - it reminds me of my trip to Russia a couple of years ago - the smell of imperial decay is thick. Heck - how many old Soviet Republics have I been in - four? They all have "that" look.
I remember that thing as a young MIDN when I first read about it. Just a grainy pic and a little hyperbole - a lot of things about tremendous speed and quick strike ability in the littorals or some such transformationalism ....Yes my friends, its the Caspian Sea Monster; the Ekranoplan - more great pics here.
Note the background - it reminds me of my trip to Russia a couple of years ago - the smell of imperial decay is thick. Heck - how many old Soviet Republics have I been in - four? They all have "that" look.
I have a 1/700 scale Ekranoplan, and it sits on a shelf next to a 1/700 scale EVARTS class DE. The Ekranoplan is over half the length of the EVARTS, and considerably wider. With typical Soviet workmanship. the Ekranoplan looks like a contemporary of the EVARTS, even though the EVARTS is 40+ years older. I wonder what made the Soviets think that the Hawkeyes wouldn't notice something like that, and send Tomcats to take a closer look.
ReplyDeleteGood news: Americans rescued in Somalia!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/25/sources-us-raid-frees-american-and-dane-held-hostage-in-somalia/?test=latestnews#ixzz1kSCyKUhl
Hooyah!
'morning CDR. Ekranoplan (in one quick glance)....dear to my heart! I learned of wing-in-ground-effect in 1967.
ReplyDeleteTook another 13 years to reach the idea of marrying a solid, lightweight rigid "turtle" airship hull to a WIG craft to reduce the deadweight overall and thus eliminate the biggest drawback to Ekranoplan type craft; fuel consumption. Keep the speed and payload, (to 500 tons) but add in the ability to hover, or fly over continents. Cover the whole with solar cells and achieve unlimited range/linger ability. Construct em properly, using carbon materials, shape them; and gain a fair measure of stealth as well. operate blue/green/brown waters, or ice, or overland, all with equal ease.
Got to be some Navy use in there somewhere!
Those things were proof of an old design axiom:
ReplyDeleteIf it's ugly, it's British
If it's weird, it's French
If it's weird and ugly, it's Russian.
Ah, you mean like these too? Oh, wait... :(
ReplyDeleteLUN Baby!
ReplyDeleteYou csn find them on Google Earth along the Caspian - shout if you want coordinates
Amazing what a large budget can do when "what if?" is followed by "why not." Honestly, though, it looks like the designers were hitting some serious juice.
ReplyDeleteI passed the RECCE quiz. Huzzah!
ReplyDeleteRussians had a curious mix of dazzling successes and dead ends in military technology, pioneering all forms of air, surface and sub launched ASM, and creating unmatched long range missile bomber strike force, yet at the same time blundering into things like ekranoplan and Alfa class SSN which while extremely fast was also probably noisiest object to move underwater, ever...
ReplyDeleteEven now they have some extremely curious weapons like cavitation bubble torpedoes capable of almost 200 knots - if they don't blow in their face like the one that sank the Kursk.
Greetings:
ReplyDeleteAre you sure that that wasn't the Erkle-oplan ???
And now American, We like boxes and angles.
ReplyDeleteI think part of that was that while they invested in SAM and missle types we invested in fighters and aircraft. Plus alot of their stuff was lets face it American copied....
ReplyDeleteStill while American ships,subs,and planes and such are better they make Great Tanks WHEN THEY TRY TO. Same with Helicopters.
Same problem pops up though to many years of communist work ethic= crappy quality.
Does that smell like Detroit?
ReplyDeleteSorry.
NO what have they done to you!
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time I saw TICONDEROGA. It was Fall 1985, she was pierside in Portsmouth, UK. I was on the ferry from Portsmouth to Jersey, and TICO was almost close enough to touch. So beautiful. She was moored next to HMS BEAVER - now also long gone.
ReplyDelete*sigh*
"Back in the day," half expected to see one of these come ashore on Adak.
ReplyDeleteI had a really great joke I was all set to deploy but chose not to.....you never know when Kristen will dial in. And I don't want AR to kill me.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Kursk sunk by leaking fuel from a practice torpedo which had been damaged on the pier prior to being loaded aboard the sub?
ReplyDeleteApparently, at some point prior to being loaded aboard, it had been dropped on the pier and they decided to use it anyway.
Massive converters, when all was said and done, of jet fuel into smoke and noise. But, boy, I tell you, NOBODY was going to wrest command of the Caspian Sea from the Red Navy! I recall a "boy, wish we'd known all this before we had huge hissy fits" briefing that the reduced drag of ground effect was way overcome by the massive fuel flows needed by that axial-flow turbojets at sea level. I also recall, after said briefing, someone asking "did you ever consult any of the engine experts at Pratt & Whitney or GE about running that many jet engines at sea level density altitudes?" "Uh, no." 8-)
ReplyDeleteI saw the opening i just giggled....i refrained im learning restraint.
ReplyDeleteAwww...I'm touched. AOD, I appreciate your restraint and I'm willing to compromise with you. If you just post a warning that your next paragraph is going to have something that I won't like, I'll tiptoe quietly out of the room. Then you can settle down with the boys and share some cigars and adult beverages, and swap off-color jokes. Deal?
ReplyDeletethen F-117 is ultimate American design :P
ReplyDeleteWikipedia says they're going to start working on this thing again this year...?? Nuts!
ReplyDelete