[McG]

In September 1966 an American spy satellite flew over a Soviet naval base on the Caspian Sea and took a series of photographs. This being the height of the Cold War, the results created quite a stir among the American intelligence community, because they showed an object, more than 100m long with inexplicably stubby, square wings, quite unlike anything they had seen before. They had stumbled on one of the most top secret military projects of the Soviet era. The object was soon dubbed the Caspian Sea Monster.

The Soviet Superplane Program That Rattled Area 51

Its ability to fly just a few feet above sea level lent it one huge military advantage - the fast and efficient Ekranoplan was stealthy, capable of carrying troops and armoured vehicles rapidly under the gaze of enemy radar. But all this was still a mystery to the West in the 1960s. It would be a quarter of a century later, in 1991, before the first photographs of these "sea monsters" were finally published and their existence confirmed. The original Caspian Sea Monster spied by the Americans was a colossal 540-tonne research craft. At 100m long, it was bigger than a Jumbo Jet and twice as heavy as any contemporary aircraft, but much more efficient and capable of flying at up to 400km/h.

• Ekranoplans Showcase Part 1 + Part 2
  
  
• Ekranoplan Part 1 + Part 2
  
  
• Ground effect vehicle
  
  
• Lun-class ekranoplan
  
  
• Riding the Caspian Sea Monster

Apsolutno nevjerojatno kaj sve su ludi Rusi bili u stanju provesti u djelo.