O Flat screen MD160better known as Middaywas built by the Soviet Union to carry out Lightning attacks on ships🇧🇷 O exotic eightengine hybrid airplane boatnickname “Monsters of the Caspian Sea” and “armed to the teeth”was built as part of a top secret project during the Cold War, but it is abandoned on a beach in Russia🇧🇷
With its engines stacked in the wings, the Ecranoplane can claim to be one of the strangest machines ever built. The “firebreathing beast” was equipped with it Guided missile fired from six launchers with a range of up to 100 kilometers🇧🇷
American spies were convinced that the Ecranoplane could also be used for minelaying, antisubmarine warfare, and search and rescue operations.
According to naval warfare expert HI Sutton, in the 1980s the Soviet Union planned to build eight to counter US Navy warships. A formation of three ships could launch 18 rockets, each traveling at three times the speed of sound🇧🇷 In a statement published in The Sun, he describes the Ecranoplane as “impressively fast and heavily armed” and one of the most powerful weapons of the Cold War.
The idea was that it would fly very quickly just above the waves under radar, using what is known as “ground effect” the aerodynamic interaction between the wings and the surface. This impressive machine was able to take off and land in stormy conditions with waves approaching 3 meters. Would have 74 meters long (bigger than a Boeing 747400) and 20 meters tall with a wingspan of 44 meters underway 550km/h🇧🇷 But could not fly more than 9 meters high🇧🇷 Using ground effect meant it was technically classified as a shipdespite the “airy” appearance.
Work on the MD160 began in the 1970s and entered service with the Soviet Navy in 1987, as the Cold War drew to a close. It was crewed by six officers and nine sailors. It has been said that upon becoming aware of the project, the US was apprehensive about the possibility of bringing one “New dimension of naval warfare”🇧🇷 However, the program was discontinued in the early 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed.
The mission to transport the Ecranoplane Lun to a museum in Russia failed and it ended up abandoned on the beach Photo: Reproduction/Twitter
By 2020, the Lun Ekranoplan was languishing at a Russian naval base. This year he has was transported to a military museum in Derbent (Russia). Transport the machine 385 tons by sea was not an easy task. On the way, the behemoth threatened to sink after a leak and was abandoned on a beach, a few kilometers away from your final destination. turned tourist attraction🇧🇷
Other smaller models of Ecranoplanes Photo: Reproduction/Twitter