Invasion!

[fabiane]

Hi all,

so if you're looking for some inspiratrion for this month's contest I'd recommend some of these fine russian invasion vehicles.

It was not the best weather for an invasion but L.A. finally belongs to the Soviets .... ,

Cheers,
Fabian
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[Brando14100]

Odd looking aircraft. Nice shots.

[MOUSY]

Those things actually flew?!? For some reason I find it hard to believe that an aircraft of that size is powered by a single engine that small.

I'd like one of those hovercrafts though... 8-)

[specter177]

It has two jet engines in the front that help it take off, then they are shut down and the plane flys on ground effect.

[MOUSY]

Are those the engines? With the red bars just beneath the cockpit?

[specter177]

Yep.

[Jayhawk Jake]

Those things actually flew?!? For some reason I find it hard to believe that an aircraft of that size is powered by a single engine that small.

I'd like one of those hovercrafts though... 8-)

It's called a WIG (wing in ground effect).  It essentially flies on top of the cushion of air it's massive wing creates between the plane and the water.

[Razgriz]

Were did you get that hovercraft

[tag86]

+1 for knowing where that hovercraft is available from?

[fabiane]

It's Tim Conrad's model. It's called LEBED.

It took me quite a while to find it out on the web again, but here it is:

lebed.zip on flightsim.com

Cheers,
Fabian

[Ivan]

Those things actually flew?!? For some reason I find it hard to believe that an aircraft of that size is powered by a single engine that small.

I'd like one of those hovercrafts though... 8-)

That 'small engine' is worth some 12,000 horsepower. Same as on the Tu-95 but it only lasts a few hundred hours due to salt spray

[Vuikag]

WIG was also on the caspian sea monster, and I think the hellenic navy also uses the same hovercraft.

[specter177]

Boeing is thinking about making a WIG. It's called the Pelican.

[Ivan]

WIG was also on the caspian sea monster, and I think the hellenic navy also uses the same hovercraft.

In total there were 4 big WIG craft that saw army / navy trials
[*]The A-90 Oryelnok (on the screenshots)
[*]The 'Caspian Sea Monster' (the KM-1) had 10 VD-7 engines (same as the Mya M4).
[*]The 'Lun' (8x i think D-30) with the missile tubes. This one did fire a few shots on a trial
[*]The Bartini VVA, that weird thing that is stored at Monino. This one was land based but was rebuilt to early specs before putting it in the museum. Wings are missing

And there is a load of smaller craft too
Image too big to put on here

[Daube]

Wow, those Bartini arcrafts are surely some of the best looking things I've ever seen