The Ekranoplan Orlyonok zoomed across the water not far from where I lived … my mate over there saw it a few times, though there was a Soviet ban on telling anyone. They were talking a powered vehicle, whereas I was wanting to run a sailed version.
The only way I was going to be able to do that was with what’s called a Brucefoil … I had the builder teed up, he’d seen the blueprints, he was happy enough, the yard was teed up, advertising to cover some of the costs was no great issue, so I gathered. Regulations killed it. Greed. Language barrier too.
This one by this young boffin … a very handy guy with his tech and building ability .. was interesting … at first … but as someone steeped in Ekranoplan, I knew he could never completely do without the front mounted lifting props … to rely only on the surface thrusters was not going to cut it. Why cut all lifters anyway? It’s not a cheap form of motion, end of.
If you go to my youtube channel, it has two videos only … both wing in ground vehicles.
Plus there’s this: