The Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoil named after R.Ye. Alekseev (Central Design Bureau for SEC) was developing a project for an ekranoplan ocean zone with a take-off weight of about 500 tons. About this on Tuesday at the forum “Marine Industry of Russia” said the director and chief designer of the concern “Morinformsystem-Agat” Georgy Antsev.

The International Forum “Marine Industry of Russia” takes place from May 19 to 21, 2015 in Moscow, in the Gostiny Dvor exhibition complex. The forum presented a project of a coastal zone WIG with a take-off weight of 60 tons.

“We need WIG ocean zone with a take-off weight of 500 tons. Such developments are conducted in the CDB Alekseev. Today there is a reboot of the Soviet period, a search is underway for the customer, certain research and development, modeling, and prototyping, ”said Antsev. – It has a very good direction – it is necessary both for passenger transportation, and for northern tasks, and for tasks of protecting state borders. He can use the airfield infrastructure and be at some point, in essence, an airplane. “

The ekranoplan, or a ship on a dynamic air cushion is a high-speed vehicle flying at a height of up to several meters from the surface of water, land, snow or ice. This is a kind of hybrid between an airplane and a watercraft, with equal mass and speed, the winged surface of an ekranoplan is much smaller than that of an airplane, and according to the international classification it belongs to sea vessels. Ekranoplans capable of tearing themselves off the surface for a long time and moving into “airplane” flight mode are called echo flight.

The very first developments, as well as actually operating samples, were obtained by designers of the USSR. The direction was developed by two independent teams. One, under the leadership of Rostislav Alekseev, who, as early as October 1, 1941, defended his thesis “Hydrofoil Glider”. After that, he devoted his life to the development and creation of ekranoplanes. The CDB for SEC was founded in the early 50s.

In the early 60s, a test base for these devices was built on the Gorky Reservoir. In 1961, the first flight of the SM-1 / CM-1 screening vehicle took place, and the following year, the SM-2 / CM-2.

Developed by the Soviets from the 1960s onwards, particularly by Dr Rostislav Alexeyev’s Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau, the leading exponents in the design and operation of Wing in Surface Effect types are now located in the Russian Federation. Far ahead of the West in terms of construction and flying experience, the Soviets planned a fleet of 120 surface skimming WISE military transports in the 1980s and four prototypes were built. However, with the end of the Cold War the funds and the cause for the manufacture of the planned balance-of-power-altering transport fleet ceased.