Skip to main content

The Caspian Sea monster: MD-160 "Lun"-class ekranoplan emerges on the water again after 30 years.

MD-160 "Lun"


The Caspian Sea monster: MD-160 "Lun"-class ekranoplan emerges on the water again after 30 years. 


The 380-ton MD-160 or "Lun"-class ekranoplan or ground-effect aircraft has been a very interesting technical project, but the thing is that the purpose of this kind of aircraft has been a mystery. The "Lun" was the ekranoplan or wing-in-ground (WIG) or ekranoplan technology demonstration system. 

WIG or ground-effect airplane (or vehicle) is hovering above the overpressure air bed. That makes it easier to handle low-level flights. The air bed can form by using the flaps, which can pull in, and that thing makes it possible to install the WIG-system also to supersonic jet aircraft. That system gives them good STOL-(Short-Take-Off and Landing) ability and increases the payload of the aircraft. 

There are rumors that the Soviet Union has been planned to use that aircraft or flying boat in the high-speed transporter for amphibious operations or antisubmarine warfare. The "Lun" has been also a very good equipment for giving resupply for nuclear submarines. The missile equipment of that ground-effect aircraft has caused speculation that the "Lun" was the multimission body, which can have many roles in the military world. 

Those missiles would have the ekranoplan a similar ability with the rocket assault craft in the amphibious attack, and that makes it possible that the fast amphibious warfare unit can shoot the salvo of those missiles to the beach, where it is heading. But it can also use them against ships and other targets. The ekranoplan is the wing construction where the aircraft is hovering above the air bed.  And the thing is that kind of bed, what is formed by using overpressure air, what is dam under the aircraft is making the low-level flight easier and safer.

 So the similar technical solutions, that are tested with "Lun" can install to conventional aircraft like Tu-26 "Backfire" or Tu-160 "Blackjack" bombers. If that air bed is made by using flaps, what can turn down, that thing gives those aircraft ability to make low-level attacks against enemy aircraft carriers and other similar targets safer. So the ekranoplan-technic is a very multirole thing, what can install in many other aircraft like fast tactical systems what gives them also the STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) capacity, and allows aircraft to rise airborne in the heavier cargo than usually. So that system could be one of the most capable things, that ever created in the aircraft. 


Sources:


Caspian sea monster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Sea_Monster


Ground-effect vehicle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-effect_vehicle


"Lun"-class ground-effect aircraft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lun-class_ekranoplan


https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/russia-lun-class-ekranoplan-caspian-sea-monster-moves-1234577120/


Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lun-class_ekranoplan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Antimatter motor

Antimatter motor Antimatter would be an effective fuel for interstellar spacecraft Antimatter would be the most effective power source in the world. It will be the most suitable motor for interstellar spacecraft, but the problem is that thing is very reactive. And actually one of the biggest problems with this kind of motor is that the gram of antimatter would turn the entire planet to the molecular nebula. So this kind of motor can produce only outside of our solar system. Producing antimatter would need large particle accelerators, and that kind of systems might look like giant donuts, what is floating on the space. There are two ways to create the antimatter motor, one is to store the anti-ions in the magnetic bottle, where the pushing magnetic field will keep those ions away from the wall of the bottle, and then the antimatter would conduct to the water or some other particle. The huge explosion or annihilation reaction would send the rocket to a very high speed. The antimatt...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts about strong leadership

Thoughts about strong leadership Everybody knows, how the dictators would rise in the power of the nation, and the thing what makes people supporting those persons is that they offer strong leadership as the way to make nation proud. And also they have always the same parroting, the foreigners and other nations have a too strong influence in the country. But what makes those persons like some Robert Mugabe or Kim Jong Un to think that they are only possible leaders, and why people would need them? Why there is nobody else allowed to try to come to the head of the state, or even try to challenge those leaders? If they are so popular as they want people to think or believe, why they don't tolerate any kind of opposition if they are done so good and big actions for their people, that they are celebrated in every home in their country. The thing that would return the morale and spine for the nation is the strong leader, who would put the state back in order and row. The thing is ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Next-generation nanotechnology can be independent-operating molecule-sized robots.

 Next-generation nanotechnology can be independent-operating molecule-sized robots. "A DNAzyme (red) uses its binding arms to dock at a specific location on an RNA strand (yellow) and then cleaves it at its core. High-resolution, real-time NMR, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, and Fluorescence Spectroscopy." "As well as Molecular Dynamics Simulations are used to identify the structure. And catalytic mechanisms of the DNAzyme. Credit: HHU/Manuel Etzkorn" (https://scitechdaily.com/dnazymes-how-active-dna-biocatalysts-that-destroy-unwanted-rna-molecules-work/) The active DNA catalysts are the gate to DNA-controlled, independently-operating, molecular-size nanomachines.  The DNAzymes or active DNA biocatalysts are next-generation tools for destroying unwanted RNA. The DNA molecule is one of the tools. That can use for controlling molecular-size machines. DNA is like a chemical computer program. And if the researchers can make synthetic DNA that can make exactly what the...
Post a Comment
Read more