Russia’s ekranoplane on the move
 

The previously secret vessel is going to a museum and someone managed to get aboard it, fascinating images.

https://www.rferl.org/a/photographer.../30777774.html

https://theaviationist.com/2020/08/1...ss-ekranoplan/

Looks in surprisingly good condition inside.

I wonder who is digging out salt in Siberia?

Aye, exactly what I was thinking too. It's pretty good for something that's supposedly been tied up for the last 20 odd years alongside a dock. Now compare that to a western vessel of the same era that's been left tied up alongside... There's a lot to be said for 'agricultural' style engineering!

So how does the thrust issue work..... do the pilots (I assume they are called pilots) select a thrust setting on the limited number of centre console levers, (most must surely be trim related) and the 8 power levers at the engineer position automatically move, or do they (on the intercom) request a certain power setting and the engineer responds by moving his/her controls and verbally reports back for example "75% thrust applied Captain" ? Fascinating machine.

VC10 although they had a set of levers would call out power settings to the engineer who also had a set.

I take it you mean the guard is now in Siberia?

Might have been wrecked unfortunately

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hisutto...e-been-wrecked

Awesome machine.
Anyone know the turn radius at 250kts and 5 degrees bank angle?

Emperor Ming must have been bricking himself.

What I have always found strange is that for an 'Aircraft Carrier Killer', it was based in the landlocked Caspian Sea.

Who's aircraft carriers were they planning to kill?

Seeing as it was still being tested and under development, the Caspian Sea is a logical place to carry out such tests. Lots of space, not many people watching...

There is a smaller passenger version of one parked in a canal just north of Moscow.

See here on Google Earth

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place...6!4d37.6172999

Cheers
BH.

Good point Saints, a Soviet politician would claim they were a successful deterrent in that case !!!. I've visited the Caspian Sea a few times and the first massive drilling barges (cut into sections less than 17m wide) , drilling platforms and equipment for the early oil/gas industry were towed down rivers and canals from (believe it or not) The Baltic Sea and reassembled. Aircraft carriers can eat their heart out though.

Indeed. The Soviets did much of their torpedo testing on Lake Issyk Kul in Kryg Krygszds in one of the former satellite states.