On Sep 29, 6:52 pm, Dan wrote:
Rob Arndt wrote:
On Sep 29, 6:04?pm, Eeyore
wrote:
Rob Arndt wrote:
The Soviet-era Ekranoplans were comparable to seaplanes
Not at all similar.

The Ekranoplans flew only in ground effect.

Graham

A technicality at best.

Ekranoplans are planes and are sea-based, so they are only a DIFFERENT
type of seaplane.

You can't call them flying ships- they are WIG aviation.

Rob

Oh, please, seaplanes can fly overland, fly at altitude, don't have
to go around islands, can fly over rough seas and a few other things
WIGs can't do. Even you should be able to see that, xenia.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

So how would you define an Ekronoplan? Seacraft? It is piloted and
flies. I believe ti has a/c controls as well...

Here is a dated article from New Scientist and their description, used
as an example:

Spacecraft may one day take off from the backs of seaplanes travelling
at half the speed of sound. That's the future of space travel if
Russian and Japanese scientists get their way, according to the
journal New Scientist.

Here's their plan. A spaceplane is placed on the back of a 1500-tonne,
rocket-propelled seaplane, or what Russians call an "ekranoplan". The
seaplane skims the water on a high-pressure cushion of air. When the
ekranoplan reaches speeds of more than 600 km/h, the spaceplane's
rockets fire and the two crafts separate. The spaceplane continues to
fly until it reaches its escape velocity of around 966 km/h.

Researchers believe this technology could be at par with the
traditional vertical take-off system such as the space shuttle.

Alexander Nebylov, director of the International Institute for
Advanced Aerospace Technology in St. Petersburg, says the high initial
launch speed gives this system an advantage over a conventional take-
off.

To land, Nebylov says the spaceplane will dock with a moving
ekranoplan when it returns to Earth.

Nebylov points out that the craft can be launched from any point in
the ocean - and that's important in achieving orbit. Scientists prefer
to launch as near as they can to the equator since the Earth's extra
rotational velocity in that area helps a spacecraft get into orbit.

Nebylov and Nobuyuki Tomita of the Musashi Institute of Technology in
Tokyo plan to conduct initial sea trials next year with a scaled-down
ekranoplan weighing 400-tonnes.

Rob