[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Nu94khHoo[/ame]

Anyone know what these are no longer made or tested?
Seems like a great idea to me!

We could get our ARF's here quicker!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbecl88NsEQ[/ame]

Interesting!

Evolution of the Ekranoplan - Be-2500 Neptun 2022 (2 min 40 sec)

Thats a badazz boat!

Pretty cool stuff. I'd like to see that Sea Monster on a high speed pass.

Originally Posted by SleepyC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Nu94khHoo

Anyone know what these are no longer made or tested?
Seems like a great idea to me!

We could get our ARF's here quicker!

The alien flying the boat stole it. Look at the video (29 second mark). That's the thief.

Let's see. Half the speed of a commercial jet, but it gets to deal 100% of the time with marine environment corrosion. But the real reason the idea didn't take off according to an Aviation Week article I read years ago is that it has to fly at 20 foot altitude to achieve the efficiencies noted. There are more of places around the world than not where you can't guarantee no obstacles 20 feet tall. Even over oceans and inland seas in rough weather. And at 300 miles per hour, it is really easy to find a fishing boat or something else pop over the local horizen too late to do anything about it. So except for certain military cases, where cost is no object, and where it doesn't necessarily have to work all the time, the plane just didn't make sense. The pictured application as a sort of very fast patrol boat with missile launchers may have been one of those military cases where it made marginal sense.

Get into heavy seas with that thing and it will crash into a wave before long, nice idea but only works over fairly calm seas.

What the heck is piloting the one in the first video????? Looks like an alien from V or something!

And let's face it, turbine engines suck gas at low altitude (say, 20 feet above sea level).