During the Cold War, in 1968, the US spy planes once brought photos of a unnatural-looking vessel. It looked like an aircraft, but its proportions were much too large; larger than anything they had ever seen before. Furthermore, this thing looked like it was docked by the sea. What on earth was that thing? The Americans never found out, until a few years ago when an abandoned model beached on the shores.

It was the most ambitious project ever undertaken by the Soviets. Utilizing a breakthrough phenomenon, this 600-ton vessel can reach speeds up to 640km, by flying a few feet above the sea surface. This would have given a huge advantage to the Soviets when the war came.

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How did it do it? This ship made use of a phenomenon known as the ground effect. Pilots

have experienced this; as the plane

descends onto the runway, it suddenly develops a huge lift and ascends almost as if the plane refuses to land! This is because, when lift-producing wings are very close to the ground, the lift-generating capacity increases. Why? Well, during normal flight, high up in the atmosphere, some of the air that flows underneath the wing tries to escape through the sides due to the higher pressure. And they do, in the form of vortices. But, when they are close to the ground, these vortices don’t form completely, trapping the air under the wings. This in turn increases pressure, generating massive lift.

Lift powerful enough to heave the 600-ton ship above the surface.

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But, just what can this vessel be used for? Well, the ekranoplan was tasked to disable and destroy enemy aircraft approaching Soviet land before it even reached the shores. To do this, it was fitted with an advanced RADAR aircraft detection array, and 6 missile tubes, each carrying four-ton supersonic, self-guided surface-to-air cruise missiles.

By 1987, the Ekranoplan was in its final stages of testing, when suddenly, military funding got cut and the project ground to a halt. The USSR was not in good shape economically, and therefore the government was executing cost-cuts wherever possible. The project never was continued again, as the Soviet Union shortly collapsed in 1991.

Now, we can only speculate on what could have happened. If the Ekranoplan was completed and put in service, would it have changed the Soviet Navy entirely? We will never know.

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Credits: wikipedia.com