Correspondent "VPK" followed in the footsteps of the Caspian monster
Veterans of our fleet and shipbuilding proudly recall what a stir in NATO caused by Soviet ekranoplanes - uncontrolled air defense systems, low-flying, all-weather general purpose vehicles: missile attack carriers, landing, rescue, cargo, passenger … In the 21st century these vehicles are born in our country anew.
The first serious developments of flying super-transports in the USSR date back to the early 60s. The pioneers were the Gorky Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau (CDB for SPK), headed by Rostislav Alekseev, and the Taganrog Aviation Design Bureau, headed by Robert Bartini. Scientists have made the so-called screen effect work - the lift force of an incoming air flow, when the "wind" from a soaring wing reaches the surface of the earth or water, is reflected and has time to return back to the wing, increasing the pressure under it and ensuring flight. The then secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (future Minister of Defense of the USSR) Dmitry Ustinov and the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Sergei Gorshkov gave a start in the life of the new development.
"Eaglet" millions remained a dream
Special flight test laboratories were organized on the Volga and the Caspian Sea, and by the mid-60s it was possible to build a unique, the largest aircraft at that time - the ekranoplan "KM" (the model ship, however, the Western special services deciphered this abbreviation as the Caspian monster) … This one-hundred-meter hero with a wingspan of 37.6 meters once took off with a take-off weight of 544 tons, setting a world record.
“Valery Polovinkin:“The main advantage of the ekranoplan is stealth. Even from a satellite it is difficult to detect it, because it has a blurry outline. And it is very correct that they finally paid attention to the construction of ekranoplanes””
In 1972, the first serial military ekranolet "Orlyonok" was assembled, intended for the transfer of amphibious assault forces to a distance of up to 1,500 kilometers. According to data from open sources, it was supposed to build more than two dozen of these "Eagles", capable of rising to a two-kilometer height, but before the collapse of the USSR, only five managed to get up on the wing.
In 1987, tests began on the Lun strike-winged missile carrier with six 3M-80 Mosquito guided anti-ship missiles on board. However, this project also came to a halt with the collapse of the Soviet Union. And even the first model of the civilian ekranoplan "Volga-2" did not manage to become serial and died together with the USSR.
Rumor has it that our overseas "partners" have shown a special zeal in destroying the production of many advanced Soviet developments, including ekranoplanes, directly or through their agents of influence. In any case, as soon as the "iron curtain" collapsed, probable friends achieved to be shown the "Eaglet" and even with certain technical documentation, after which similar devices suddenly appeared in the United States …
We, on the other hand, returned to the revival of the construction of ekranoplanes only in the 2000s.
Two dozen small five-seater vehicles "Amfistar" and its modernized version "Aquaglide" under the supervision of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping were issued by the companies "Amphibious Transport Technologies" (CJSC "ATT") and "Arctic Trade and Transport Company" (CJSC "ATTK"). In development - machines with a lifting capacity of 20 tons.
The Sukhoi Design Bureau demonstrated its own model - the S-90 ekranopole with a payload of up to 4.5 tons and a flight range of over three thousand kilometers in the altitude range from 0.5 to four thousand meters.
Nizhny Novgorod and Petrozavodsk are mastering the production of the Orion-20 ekranoplan with a displacement of up to 10 tons and a passenger capacity of 21 people. KB "Sky Plus Sea" has created its version of the 24-seat Burevestnik-24 with a payload of 3.5 tons.
The Alekseev Central Design Bureau, together with JSC NPP Radar Mms, is preparing for the construction of next-generation ekranoplanes with a carrying capacity of 50 to 600 tons. The working portfolio includes transport and cargo-passenger vehicles capable of moving loads up to two to three thousand tons.
Manufacturers from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Irkutsk, Moscow, Chkalovsk offered their services in mastering new technology …
Laboratory missile carrier
Are there too many developers and in general how much ekranoplanes are in demand in today's conditions? ekranoplan construction needs to be considered from several positions. The first one is rather trivial, but technologically important: this vehicle experiences exceptional loads in its motion, especially when it gets on the wing (during takeoff, during landing). Therefore, the ekranoplan, even from the point of view of creating advanced technologies that will be equally used in aircraft and shipbuilding, is, first of all, research, laboratory facilities, verification of design, materials science and technological solutions. As well as from the standpoint of improving control systems: the apparatus must be obedient at ultra-low altitudes, behave accurately and relaxed for the pilots. And here we have the most complex object and research base. The same is true for materials of construction. Extreme loads help to find solutions that can be implemented in the future in aircraft and shipbuilding. All this is obvious.
From the point of view of the future use of ekranoplanes, when they were created by the great designer Rostislav Alekseev and his bureau, were considered in several versions. First: a rescuer, a tool that is quickly, promptly delivered to the disaster area to help people and evacuate them. WIGs can do without airfields, start from the water surface, from the ground, from the ice. The second option: an ekranoplan - a means of transferring troops, special forces. The third option, which was supported by both the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Sergei Gorshkov, and Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov, which Alekseev brought to life: the ability of these vehicles to carry missile weapons.
The main advantage of ekranoplanes is their stealth. It is very difficult to detect this object against the background of the sea, especially the rough one. He can imperceptibly approach the target and strike or land some means. It is difficult to detect it even from a satellite, because it has a blurred outline - a low-contrast spot. And it is very correct that they finally paid attention to the construction of ekranoplanes”.
Waiting for a single customer
“Now the main problem,” Valery Polovinkin continues “debriefing,” is not so much the absence of some engineering ideas, but the absolutely unreasonable duplication of developments. I can tell you in the Far East a very serious group of specialists who create their own architecture, their own approaches to ekranoplanes. There is an association of ekranoplanostroeniya in Moscow under the leadership of Oleg Volik, they have their own developments, two experimental devices, there are ideas to build a composite production in Petrozavodsk. The next group is the Morinformsistema-Agat concern with the Alekseevsky bureau. They have their own ambitions and plans to create ekranoplanes. So it turns out, as in the fable "Swan, Cancer and Pike".
But the tasks in ekranoplan construction are the same, and critical technologies are common, without the solution of which the idea will not be implemented. First, you need to combine efforts to create a power plant. This is the "chilling" of either a helicopter gas turbine engine, or a tank engine, which was at one time on the T-80. We need a modern reliable unit that will work in a fairly aggressive environment, sea air, salt and other things. Secondly, efforts need to be combined to create the appropriate materials. We are not talking about metals, because under the operating conditions of the ekranoplan, they will corrode and deform so quickly that the resource will be extremely limited. Therefore, it is not necessary to spray funds, but to create unified structures, at least for the range of composites. We at the Krylov Institute are testing the wing, each of the designers gives his own material, this is not normal. It is necessary at least to jointly understand what it will be: a set of carbon-fiber structures (especially now, with the development of nanotechnology), next-generation composite materials, which are not just as inferior, but much stronger than metal ones, and most importantly, they have no permanent deformation. We need to work together. And ekranoplanes may have a single customer for both defense and civilian use. After all, a promise has already been made at the level of the country's leadership to create something like an ekranoplan-bus on the Kaliningrad-Petersburg line. In order not to cross borders, it would be worth organizing such a transport system. And calculate its analogue for Yakutia, Siberia, and other remote regions. The Far East is attractive for the introduction of ekranoplans.
By and large, each technical or military means has its own niches, where its use is most optimal. And for ekranoplanes such specialization is offered, even several, we have already spoken about them. It is, without a doubt, a lifesaver. Better than an ekranoplan, no one can cope with the task of evacuating people in case of an accident at oil and gas fields. It is also from such a device that it is more convenient to throw special-purpose groups behind enemy lines. It is optimal to use ekranoplanes for monitoring and guarding the state border and other strategic objects.
The family of ekranoplanes can consist of large, medium and small vehicles, which must be created for specific tasks. If we conduct scientific reasoning, any technique will seem too expensive, unprofitable, and if everything is calculated, substantiated and compared with the level of problems being solved, it turns out quite acceptable, if not quite economically.
The fleet is not built by separate models - only by divisions, squadrons, and larger formations. So it is with ekranoplans. Their place in the ranks will be determined, and it will be filled.
In the meantime, it is an excellent research base for developing new technologies for a decade to come. And in order for them to develop more efficiently, it is important not to spread the available funds over several designers, but to combine efforts, research, production and creative potential of all who are rooting for the future of Russian ekranoplanes”.
