Legendary project "Convair" - American plagiarism of Soviet ekranoplanes

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The arms race between America and the Soviet Union gave impetus to a number of extraordinary projects. Sometimes they took innovative, albeit unusual, forms. So it was with the initially very promising development of a new generation - ekranoplanes. But if the United States, despite far-reaching plans, in the end abandoned this advanced project, then the USSR made a bet on a new direction and did not lose.

The development of ekranoplanes was one of the promising areas of Soviet engineering. The pioneering technology itself consisted in the creation of machines that move above the plane using the so-called "screen effect". The outstanding engineer Rostislav Alekseev is rightfully considered the ideological inspirer and popularizer of the development of ekranoplan projects in the USSR.

Alekseev Central Design Bureau actively created hydrofoil vessels, but nevertheless, it was ekranoplanes and ekranolets that made it a world celebrity. The Soviet giants "Lun" and "Caspian Monster", which were the embodiment of the most advanced developments, still amaze the imagination with their scale and work.

However, the "colleague" of the Soviet Union in the Cold War and the arms race did not want to put up with the primacy of the socialists in this direction. American scientists and engineers planned to give a worthy answer to the USSR. So, in the 1960s, the specialists of the "Convair" company began to develop an ambitious project: they undertook to create a fundamentally new technical miracle that would combine an ekranoplan and a hovercraft.

One appearance of the projected vessel was going to be made non-trivial - "Convair" was supposed to look like a flying saucer. Such an unusual step was dictated by the desire to achieve maneuverability. The technical characteristics were supposed to be no less impressive: according to Novate.ru, the length of the car was 122 meters, the thickness was 20 meters, and the speed reached was 100 knots (or 185 km / h). And the design itself was well worked out: jet engines were installed along the perimeter of the ekranoplan for the possibility of rotation in place. And the function of the "air cushion" was supposed to allow you to quickly go under the water.

The developers realized that the future of an ambitious project can only be ensured in cooperation with the military. Therefore, equipment with nuclear missiles, which were to be located inside, was added to the initial plans of the machine. It was assumed that in the event of a battle with enemy submarines, this weapon would be used against them. When choosing missiles, the authors of the project settled on the SSM-N-8A "Regulus" or the new UGM-27 "Polaris".

It seemed that a promising project, which was supposed to be a response to Soviet atomic ekranoplanes, would easily win the interest of the government, and they would give him a start in life. But everything turned out the other way around. The American leadership was focused on the development and support of other areas, and the US Navy simply abandoned the unusual development. After a number of rejected similar projects, such as an aircraft-carrying ekranoplan, engineers have completely lost all interest in ships of this type.

But the Soviets, decades later, became interested in the idea of placing aircraft on such machines. In the 1980s, Rostislav Alekseev was personally involved in the design of aircraft-carrying ekranoplanes. He came up with a huge machine, which was supposed to deliver individual parts of launch vehicles to the Baikonur cosmodrome.

However, the development was seriously interested in the military, and the original idea had to be changed.

So, Alekseev was asked to remake his project so that in the end an ekranoplan would be obtained, which could deal with the transportation of nuclear weapons. It was planned to launch such machines into mass production so that they would cross the territory of the country in whole groups.

Interesting fact:some ekranoplanes wanted to equip real intercontinental ballistic missiles, while others - only their dummies.

Such an idea would not allow the enemy to open return fire on these mobile "targets" in the event of a direct military clash with the enemy. However, Rostislav Alekseev did not manage to realize his ambitious project. And during the perestroika period, all such developments were shelved. But in recent years, engineers have re-inflamed interest in ekranoplanes. And, perhaps, in the near future we will see other brainchilds of the legendary designer.