Photos of the LUN Ekranoplan

[nick_stevens_graphics@mastodon.art]

Photos of the LUN Ekranoplan

[sturmunddranger@mastodon.ie]

@Nick_Stevens_graphics So I saw a video of Russians shooting a Ukrainian sea drone as it entered a harbour at high speed and I thought it made sense to have as fast as possible for defensive purposes.

Would a drone Ekranoplan be a better idea or just a bigger target?

[nick_stevens_graphics@mastodon.art]

@SturmUndDranger

Not sure.

The Ukrainian approach to drones is cheap and loads of them.

From my understanding, the benefits of an ekranoplan are that it can be heavier than a plane as it gets more lift. Faster than a boat too.

I suspect the simplicity of a boat approach would win out.

I suspect an ekranoplan drone would also be noisy.

I'm out of my depth here.

[sturmunddranger@mastodon.ie]

@Nick_Stevens_graphics Me too. Good points.

[dzwiedziu@mastodon.social]

@SturmUndDranger
AFAIR Ekranoplans had stability problems, which made them infeasible. Add to that very low attitude and rough seas are a problem.

With drones and modern missiles they're a large target that cannot dodge. You need just to blow out an engine or two, or a wing fragmenty to disable their lift.

And there always more drones.

@Nick_Stevens_graphics

[sturmunddranger@mastodon.ie]

@dzwiedziu @Nick_Stevens_graphics Excellent explanation, thank you.

While modern technology would help better maintain stability, the size of the target a larger drone represents is probably the fatal flaw. I guess you want a sweet spot between carries a useful payload and too small to easily target and take down.

[xinit@mastodon.coffee]

@Nick_Stevens_graphics
Is @NanoRaptor doing planes now?
@cstross

[f4grx@chaos.social]

@Nick_Stevens_graphics
"whats the thrust level?"
"Yes"