"Caspian Monster"
Good day to all, I'll try to tell you about the prototype of the project 903: "Lun"
Background:
In the summer of 1967, a group of US intelligence analysts gathered in the so-called green room to decipher the unusual photographs taken by the spy satellite. The photographs showed a plane; the size was significantly larger than any bomber or civil airliner. The plane was standing in a fenced area in the area of ​​Caspian - a small town on the coast of the Caspian Sea.
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For this reason, the scouts began to call the giant car "Caspian monster." Subsequent considerable efforts by American intelligence allowed us to collect only some information. Everything became clear only after the end of the Cold War.
A little about the principle of the screen
Here we should mention another class of vessels capable of floating above the surface of the water, the so-called hovercraft. They found application in military science and were produced both in the USSR and in foreign countries. Here the screen effect is used, but it occurs due to the air injection under the bottom, which has a special shape. Such vessels are capable of speeds up to 120 kilometers per hour and it is easy to overcome small shoals, overgrown reeds and similar obstacles. One of these ships was the Soviet "Lynx", equipped with three engines: two of them set in motion propellers, and the third forced air under the bottom.
The ekranoplans also use the screen effect — a change in the wing carrying properties at low flight altitudes — discovered by aviators back in the 1920s. Since the flight data of the aircraft, and, in particular, its stability, were not designed for this effect, in some cases it led to accidents and catastrophes of aircraft during take-off and landing modes of motion. Apparently, one of the first domestic works devoted to the influence of the earth on the aerodynamic properties of a wing was the experimental work of B.N. Yuriev (1923). In the period 1935 - 1937 A complex of experimental and theoretical studies in this direction was conducted by Ya.M.Serebriysky and Sh.A.Biyachuev at TsAGI. Around the same period, a number of theoretical studies were conducted by prominent foreign scientists: A. Betz, K. Weezelsberg, S. Hagget, D. Bagley, M. Finn. The results of these studies allowed us to give a qualitative assessment of the effect of the screen effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of a low-flying wing. In particular, it was shown that the lift force of the wing grows, and the more the closer the wing is to the ground; resistance decreases, the longitudinal moment changes. This made it possible to develop appropriate recommendations for the control of the aircraft, in which the influence of the screen on the aerodynamic characteristics in takeoff and landing modes is manifested.
However, for aviation, this effect continues to be "harmful."
This healthy shitty Caspian Monster was built in 1966 and had 10 turboprop engines - eight on the wings and two on the tail. The length of the aircraft was about one hundred meters, and weight - 540 tons.
The CM, or the mock-up ship, as it was called in the TsKB, had a length of 92 m, a height of 22 m, a wingspan of 37 m. The bottom of the hull was arranged ship-side, although the CM looked like a plane. On the front pylon, 8 turbojet engines were placed with 10 tons each - their power was mainly used at the start. On the keel were two more of the same engine, sufficient to maintain the cruise mode. In record flight, its mass reached 544 tons, which was at that time the unofficial world record for aircraft of that time. It was only beaten with the creation of the An-225 Mriya .
Achievements of the Caspian Monster:
1. For the first time in the world a heavy seaplane designed and built for a long cruise flight in the “screen” mode was designed and built
2. For the first time in the world, on the heavy aircraft, the principle of takeoff on an air cushion was carried out by means of blowing gas from the cruise jet engines under the center section;
3. For the first time in the world, in the assembly of a heavy seaplane welding of aluminum alloys was widely used.
The tests, in which R. Alekseev personally participated, showed that for take-off from the water it is necessary to accelerate an E-wig to a speed of 350 km / h. The first flight over the Caspian Sea lasted 50 minutes and took place at a height of four meters.
The Caspian Monster became the ancestor of two new cars, and in 1972 the Orlenok transport paratrooper was built, which had more modest parameters (58 meters long, 120 tons in weight). The design was successful. The second ekranoplane, which appeared in 1987, was the Lun combat bomber carrier, which was intended to fight warships and had six cruise missiles.
It should be noted another valuable property of military ekranoplan. Conventional air defense radars have a very small range of action on low-flying targets. Therefore, WIG flying at a height of several meters, almost not visible on the screens of the locators. It was planned to launch the "Eaglet" in the series, but this did not happen - the military leadership did not show proper interest in a new type of military equipment.
The tests of the CM took place in the Caspian for 15 years and ended very sadly. On February 9, 1980, Alekseev died. In the same year, the CM was killed. The pilot, who had not been sitting at the “monster” steering wheel for a long time, pulled the nose of the car too fast when she took off, she quickly and almost vertically went up, the confused pilot abruptly dropped traction and did not follow the instructions with the rudder - the ship fell on the water . There were no casualties. Everyone who knew the “Caspian monster” still assures that it was necessary to do something out of the ordinary to ruin it.
ps: Thank you vaproldj for the story about the project "Lun"
Background:
In the summer of 1967, a group of US intelligence analysts gathered in the so-called green room to decipher the unusual photographs taken by the spy satellite. The photographs showed a plane; the size was significantly larger than any bomber or civil airliner. The plane was standing in a fenced area in the area of ​​Caspian - a small town on the coast of the Caspian Sea.
')
For this reason, the scouts began to call the giant car "Caspian monster." Subsequent considerable efforts by American intelligence allowed us to collect only some information. Everything became clear only after the end of the Cold War.
A little about the principle of the screen
Here we should mention another class of vessels capable of floating above the surface of the water, the so-called hovercraft. They found application in military science and were produced both in the USSR and in foreign countries. Here the screen effect is used, but it occurs due to the air injection under the bottom, which has a special shape. Such vessels are capable of speeds up to 120 kilometers per hour and it is easy to overcome small shoals, overgrown reeds and similar obstacles. One of these ships was the Soviet "Lynx", equipped with three engines: two of them set in motion propellers, and the third forced air under the bottom.
The ekranoplans also use the screen effect — a change in the wing carrying properties at low flight altitudes — discovered by aviators back in the 1920s. Since the flight data of the aircraft, and, in particular, its stability, were not designed for this effect, in some cases it led to accidents and catastrophes of aircraft during take-off and landing modes of motion. Apparently, one of the first domestic works devoted to the influence of the earth on the aerodynamic properties of a wing was the experimental work of B.N. Yuriev (1923). In the period 1935 - 1937 A complex of experimental and theoretical studies in this direction was conducted by Ya.M.Serebriysky and Sh.A.Biyachuev at TsAGI. Around the same period, a number of theoretical studies were conducted by prominent foreign scientists: A. Betz, K. Weezelsberg, S. Hagget, D. Bagley, M. Finn. The results of these studies allowed us to give a qualitative assessment of the effect of the screen effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of a low-flying wing. In particular, it was shown that the lift force of the wing grows, and the more the closer the wing is to the ground; resistance decreases, the longitudinal moment changes. This made it possible to develop appropriate recommendations for the control of the aircraft, in which the influence of the screen on the aerodynamic characteristics in takeoff and landing modes is manifested.
However, for aviation, this effect continues to be "harmful."
The CM, or the mock-up ship, as it was called in the TsKB, had a length of 92 m, a height of 22 m, a wingspan of 37 m. The bottom of the hull was arranged ship-side, although the CM looked like a plane. On the front pylon, 8 turbojet engines were placed with 10 tons each - their power was mainly used at the start. On the keel were two more of the same engine, sufficient to maintain the cruise mode. In record flight, its mass reached 544 tons, which was at that time the unofficial world record for aircraft of that time. It was only beaten with the creation of the An-225 Mriya .
Achievements of the Caspian Monster:
1. For the first time in the world a heavy seaplane designed and built for a long cruise flight in the “screen” mode was designed and built
2. For the first time in the world, on the heavy aircraft, the principle of takeoff on an air cushion was carried out by means of blowing gas from the cruise jet engines under the center section;
3. For the first time in the world, in the assembly of a heavy seaplane welding of aluminum alloys was widely used.
The tests, in which R. Alekseev personally participated, showed that for take-off from the water it is necessary to accelerate an E-wig to a speed of 350 km / h. The first flight over the Caspian Sea lasted 50 minutes and took place at a height of four meters.
The Caspian Monster became the ancestor of two new cars, and in 1972 the Orlenok transport paratrooper was built, which had more modest parameters (58 meters long, 120 tons in weight). The design was successful. The second ekranoplane, which appeared in 1987, was the Lun combat bomber carrier, which was intended to fight warships and had six cruise missiles.
It should be noted another valuable property of military ekranoplan. Conventional air defense radars have a very small range of action on low-flying targets. Therefore, WIG flying at a height of several meters, almost not visible on the screens of the locators. It was planned to launch the "Eaglet" in the series, but this did not happen - the military leadership did not show proper interest in a new type of military equipment.
The tests of the CM took place in the Caspian for 15 years and ended very sadly. On February 9, 1980, Alekseev died. In the same year, the CM was killed. The pilot, who had not been sitting at the “monster” steering wheel for a long time, pulled the nose of the car too fast when she took off, she quickly and almost vertically went up, the confused pilot abruptly dropped traction and did not follow the instructions with the rudder - the ship fell on the water . There were no casualties. Everyone who knew the “Caspian monster” still assures that it was necessary to do something out of the ordinary to ruin it.
ps: Thank you vaproldj for the story about the project "Lun"
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/87249/
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