MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti.) Golly gee whiz Batman is it a boat, a plane or a new secret weapon? Those good ol' boys at CIA headquarters at Langley, Virgina must have been scratching their heads during the 1970s.
Their spy satellites had spotted something huge skimming along at high speed over the Caspian Sea. Not knowing what it was, they just called it "the Caspian Monster."
What they saw was a new type of a highly secret Soviet airborne vehicle - a Wing-In Ground (WIG) craft. Now also known in the West as a Par-Wig craft (Power Augmented Ram Wing in Ground Effect). It combines the benefits of ocean- and river-going vessels, ground vehicles and aircraft. Russians uses the term Ekranoplan meaning ground effect vehicle, it flies close to the surface receiving lift from an air cushion created by powerful engines.
Not requiring conventional airfields, take off can be achieved using bodies of water, flat land surfaces and even marshes. Being high-endurance vehicles WIG boats are capable of operating for several days without returning to their bases.
The phenomenon of ground effect has been known since the early days of aviation. It caused WIG pilots considerable problems during take-off and landing. Only the ingenious Russian scientists were able to "tame" this little-studied physical occurrence. They placed an enormous vertical tail assembly, similar to that of an aircraft above the ground effect. Therefore giving it a plane like, yet unorthodox appearance. The vehicles were then built using this successful design principle. Meanwhile back in the good old US of A those fellows in Washington are "trying to build a better mousetrap," by pumping billions of dollars into a national WIG craft program. So far, little has been achieved. The same goes for Germany and China who also have had little success in developing the craft.
Russia completed a number of successful R&D projects between 1960 and 2000, creating new high-durability and corrosion resistant structural materials with impressive flexibility. As a result it has built an entire family of WIG craft, including the Strizh, the Amphistar and the Volga. The Orlenok amphibious-landing WIG craft, Lun missile launcher and its modified version the Spasatel. The latter is being used for search-and-rescue operations at sea. All were thoroughly tested and subsequently approved for operation.
By the end of the Cold War WIG craft were inessential. Considerable efforts were made to find new applications for the craft, but only recently a potential solution has been found. Due to their size, use of high-speeds and low-altitudes the vehicles cannot fly over densely populated regions, nor can they be flown effectively over rivers, lakes and coastal zones that are used for industrial purposes.
WIG craft can, however, operate effectively in Russia's sparsely populated Arctic, Siberian and Far Eastern regions. They can zip along over the taiga and the virtually uninhabited tundra expanses just as easily as over water surfaces. Experts are already discussing starting mass production of the craft.
Providing cheaper cargo and passenger transportation both in winter and summer using WIG boats in these regions would replace the need for expensive airstrips and well-equipped ground services.
Light take off weight WIG craft, namely, the 1.6-ton Strizh, the 2-ton Volga and the 3-ton Amphistar, could supplement conventional aircraft on interregional routes. These vehicles would have a speed of up to 200 km/h (125 mph), depending on their design.
Heavy take off weight craft such as the 120-ton Orlenok and the 350-ton Lun can reach speeds approaching 600 km/h (370 mph). Custom-made versions could also carry ore and petroleum on regional and existing routes, alleviating pressure on the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) and the Northern Sea Route.
Super-heavy WIG craft such as the over 500 ton Caspian Monster could be used to deliver containers on West - East - West routes. Operating around the clock, these giants would provide high-speed freight transit along routes that would be three times shorter than the Northern Sea Route and half as long as the BAM.
Experts are hopeful that, in addition to operating in Arctic areas, WIG craft could be used to launch and receive reusable space planes, thus considerably reducing launch costs. The United States, France and Japan are developing such advanced vehicles. Russia has also conducted some unique experiments in this regard. Many of the underlying concepts of the reusable space transport system have already been successfully tested. The necessary industrial infrastructure already exists.
The system would operate as follows: a WIG boat carrying the space craft will accelerate to a designated speed over water, take off and climb to an altitude of 8-12 km (7-9 miles). After separation from the mother ship the shuttle will fire its engines, and soar into outer space. Once in the proper orbit, the payload is launched and it will then eventually re-enter the atmosphere, and while traveling at the same speed, dock with the WIG craft in mid-air. The use of these vehicles as boosters will allow payloads to be increased by nearly 100%. This transport system can also be used for take off from equatorial regions and put spacecraft into a wider range of orbital trajectories.
Experts say that a reusable space transport system utilizing WIG platforms, as well as the required infrastructure, could be ready in eight or nine years.
Yury Zaitsev is an expert at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
