New Flying "Sea Monster"

Russia Is Making a New Flying "Sea Monster" to Skim the Surface of Water

The Chaika A-050 restarts the old USSR's interest in ground effect vehicles, or GEVs.

Via Twitter
 
By Kyle Mizokami

The Russian embassy in South Africa has tweeted pictures of a new ground effect vehicle, the Chaika A-050, which it claims will be ready by 2020-2022. The unusual aircraft, which flies just a few feet above the surface of a body of water, will act as a passenger transport, carrying up to 100.

A basic aerodynamic principle is that the closer a wing operates to the ground, the more efficient it becomes. That isn't a factor for most aircraft, which endeavor to stay far away from the ground during the vast majority of their flying hours.

A ground effect vehicle (GEV), on the other hand, embraces the increased wing efficiency by hugging the surface of an ocean, lake, or other body of water. GEVs fly over water because it is universally flat without obstacles and safer to crash on in the event of emergencies. The Soviet Union was an early pioneer in GEV research, building the so-called "Caspian Sea Monster" in the mid-1960s. At 544 tons, the Caspian Sea Monster was the largest GEV ever built.

The Soviet built a number of military GEVs: the A-90 Orlyonok functioned as a military transport, while the giant Lun-class ekranoplan had six Moskit anti-ship missiles. The Lun is no longer in service but is visible via satellite—it's parked on a floating barge in Kaspiysk, Dagestan.

The photograph shows off the A-050 in civilian colors, but it's difficult to see the advantages such a craft could have over ferries or conventional transport aircraft. GEVs are more difficult to fly than regular aircraft and, though there are few data points, seem to have a high accident rate.

On the other hand, a craft that flies low under surface radars, can attain speeds of 250-350 miles an hour, and can quickly disgorge troops on a beachhead might be very useful to the Russian military and other armed forces around the world. The A-050 may yet turn up in Russian military service.