wonwinglo

What an unusual machine ? I thought at first that it was one of your Photo shop things Greg ! so it did exist.
The problem with these Russian machines is that they are more suited to wide open spaces,I cannot imagine our Civil Aviation Authority allowing them to skim across the UK ? the developments in vectored blown flap research etc are areas for further development,the Hunting Jet Flap research aircraft ( now in the museum at Cosford ) is a good example of just what can be achieved,and that aircraft was only for development.
As regards Airships,some years ago British Caledonian,were thinking of developing large airships to transport hevy goods and passengers across nations,it is true that the advances in airship design, appear to have been neglected in recent years in favour of conventional energy guzzling and environmentally unfriendly large aircraft.
But I do think that one day aircraft design will change radically,the one thing that is ancient is running a machine down a runway to get airborne,but the sheer power needed to lift into the vertical has precluded large VTOL designs,they can be for the time being only be dreams,but the answer is out there somewhere ? if a designer finds the answer then the jet airliner as we know it today would be made quickly redundant overnight.

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Bluewavestudios

I must admit, the machine Greg posted up is a new one on me, but having said that, the Russians have certainly done a lot of experimentation with some very unusual designs and methods of flight...and they have always fascinated me...purely because I like Unusual aircraft designs.
Ok, not all of these were successful but a good few were extremely successful and probably way ahead of their time. Sadly a lot of those machines are just rotting away at outdoor aircraft museums now in the USSR, some of them look really ugly but it's what they did that counts.
Eg....The A90 was just a smaller version of one of Many Ekranoplans built, the biggest being the Famous Caspian Sea Monster...other variants were built all using the same principle which was proven to be very successful. Hence the recent re-interest in the designs now. The Russians on their limited budgets, proved the principle works extremely well. It is just now that they do not have such budgets to develop these machines anymore...Shame really when you look at some of the real class products that they are turning out like the latest Generation MiG and Sukhoi aircraft.

These machines are no longer ugly ducklings but very good looking aircraft with very capable performance !! and now thanks to better relations between The Eastern Bloc and The Western nations we are getting to see more of these machines and learn of their capabilites....I regularly see Mig 29's in the skies around here now (usually on Fly in Visits to RAF Valley)...you normally hear them first as they are louder than our usual air traffic..!!!

You may also remember a certain Mr Igor Sikorsky...Another Russian....I think we know the rest from there...!!

Regards........Mark.

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I'm Only Here Coz I'm Not All There !!!