Ekranoplans: The New Dirigible?

Ekranoplan: The New Dirigible?

  • You can have my blimp when you pry it out of my cold dead fingers.

    Votes: 12 19.7%

  • Ekranoplan! Da! Party come to you!

    Votes: 36 59.0%

  • I might still be Spetznatz, but meh on Ekranoplan.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Gorbachev? Si! Ekranoplan? No!

    Votes: 1 1.6%

  • Shut up and design new Studebakers.

    Votes: 4 6.6%

  • Only if they're the size of Taiwan.

    Votes: 8 13.1%
  • Total voters
    61
modelcitizen

modelcitizen

I propose that Ekranoplan vehicles supplement dirigibles as part of the pantheon of tropes that signify for the viewer that you are no longer in Kansas.

I have a lot of enthusiasm for vehicular signifiers of Something Different About This Place. I mean, sure, there are always steam-powered vehicles with gigantic wheels, and, flying cars, and, atomic-powered trains, and, oversized triple-deck jet-liners with swastikas on the tailfins, and, of course, big-ass modern dirigibles.

How about Ekranoplans?
 
modelcitizen

modelcitizen

I took the pictures from http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html a site which I think has worthwhile information on the subject.




-Additional info, how "WIG" works, http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aerodynamics/q0130.shtml

-Another Ekranoplan fan-page with additional images, http://englishrussia.com/2007/06/21/ekranoplans/

- A fellow who is into his Ekranoplans, with like over a dozen attached PDF items on the page, http://www.grahamktaylor.com/about%20me/full_bibliography.htm and this page http://www.hypercraft-associates.com/author%20bib%20prof.html has similar stuff.

Ekranoplan pics.JPG
 
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modelcitizen

modelcitizen

Julius Vogel said:
Agreed. Ekranoplans are great.

Author Charlie Stross, in his short story "Missile Gap" (see the collection titled Wireless) includes a nuclear powered Ekranoplan

There are some spoilers in this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_Gap
Click to expand...


I remember that!

I only read part of it. Yuri Gagarin himself, deprived of ability to leave Earth's gravity, assigned a nucular Ekranoplan :).

The text,
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring2007/fiction-missile-gap-by-charles-stross/
 

Petros >Peter Fergus<

Ekranoplanes are firmly alongside Zeppelins, Rotodynes, Project Orion, the Trolley and some kind of Telex www.

Could still be. But do we need something in between container ships and jetliners? Is there a market, or could there have been? Maybe if supersonic transports were the standard for first-class flight, second-class could be served by huge, steerage crowded ground-effect liners? Ryanair with a half dozen Boeing Pelicans on a continuous circuit between New York and Portsmouth? A quick google shows that the maximum cargo of the Pelican would be around 1,400 tons, while the maximum cargo of the Airbus A380 is 100 tons. If the A380 carries upwards of 500 people, we could be looking at ocean-liner levels of passenger capacity on the Pelican. Circa 4000 people from Europe to America in eight hours, maybe one return journey a day. That's one lucrative circuit, depending on maintenance costs.
 
Petike

Petike

I am quite an ekranoplan lover, though I actually prefer the smaller, civilian ones. Ekros appear quite often in my Carpaverse as common water vehicles, both in civilian and military roles (there's even a turbofan ekranoplan APC model !). And no, the descendants of Russians aren't their only users. They are as generally common as other types of ships and hovercraft.

Um, yeah, they could be "the new zeppelins", especially in Cold War-inspired dieselpunk. Honestly, I've never understood why the Soviets in the Red Alert series use those silly zeps, ekros would be far more fitting. If the series ever gets rebooted, I demand Kirov-class ekranoplans ! :D


Alternatively, picture this :

Snotty steampunkish Victorians (or Prussians) conducting bombing runs on Petrograd in airships, only to be shot out of the sky by AA missiles launched from the ekranoplans of dieselpunkish Tsarist Russia that routinely scout the waters of Lake Ladoga. :D :cool: :D :cool: :D :cool:
 

Color-Copycat

They're alright. What's even cooler is the various rusting remains of abandoned ekranoplans in the former Soviet republics. They have a certain post-apocalyptic charm to them.
 
modelcitizen

modelcitizen

Petros >Peter Fergus< said:
.....
Ryanair with a half dozen Boeing Pelicans on a continuous circuit between New York and Portsmouth? ...... Circa 4000 people from Europe to America in eight hours, maybe one return journey a day. That's one lucrative circuit, depending on maintenance costs.
Click to expand...


That could be quite fine.

It could make for a horrific evacuation evacuation scene, too. :eek: (Fill in appropriate line of narration and/or dialogue. Ah ha! Searching WWZ... Redeker! "First of all, there was no way to save everyone...")
 

Hendryk

Banned
Does anyone know whether ekranoplans are any good on open oceans? It's one thing to use them on the Caspian Sea, but could they handle, say, the North Atlantic?
 

NothingNow

Banned
Hendryk said:
Does anyone know whether ekranoplans are any good on open oceans? It's one thing to use them on the Caspian Sea, but could they handle, say, the North Atlantic?
Click to expand...

Depends on the Wingspan. One the size of a 747 should be able to operate just fine, but smaller designs can't climb as high while still receiving the benefits. They tend to have issues with waves. As for storms, well, just no. Anything over Force 8 conditions would get really iffy even for something like Pelican. Going out in Force 10 conditions would be pretty much suicide if you couldn't just climb or fly over of it.
 
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