OT Totally mad Russian aircraft pix

[harry]

[newshound]

Apart from the K7 and the Ekranoplan the west had something similar to most of the rest.

Nice set of pics though.

[Nightjar]

Verifiable photographs of the K-7 show a much smaller aircraft, with six tractor engines and one pusher engine, as in the Wikipedia entry.

The Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorki was larger:

The Latécoère 521 was a French attempt to build an aircraft in the 50m wingspan range:

While Germany built the Do X:

A more modest 30m wingspan, but marvellously weird, was the Caproni Ca 60:

[Andrew Mawson]

Obviously 1930's with the 'Art Deco' windscreen :)

Andrew

[ss]

There was a prototype, designed to skim the water surface rather than proper flying. Video clip....

[Nightjar]

On 31/07/2015 15:18, ss wrote: ...

The Ekranoplan. By flying at less than the wingspan above the water they took advantage of ground effect. The ground interrupts the formation of wingtip vortices, which results in less drag and more lift.

Nasty music on the video though.

[Bob Eager]

And here it is: