Russia Travel Blog | All about Russia in English

Apr/13

9

Soviet missile-carrying ekranoplan “Lun”

The Soviet Union was spending most of its budget on various military purposes, sometimes creating projects with incredible technical characteristics.

In 1987, ekranoplan (ground effect aircraft) “Lun” was constructed – the first aircraft of the series of military missile-carrying ekranoplans weighing 400 tons.

It was armed with three pairs of cruise missiles. Volley of four such missiles is enough to destroy any ship, including the aircraft carrier.

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 1

The main characteristics: wingspan – 44.00 meters, length – 73.80 m, height – 19.20 m, empty weight – 243,000 kg, maximum take-off weight – 380,000 kg, maximum speed – 500 km/h, range – 2,000 km, altitude of flight – 1-5 m, aircrew – 10.

Among the main advantages are fairly high speed, higher efficiency and higher capacity compared with the aircraft, low profile on the radar, anti-ship mines immunity. Photos by igor113

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 2

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 3

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 4

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 5

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 6

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 7

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 8

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 9

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 10

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 11

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 12

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 13

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 14

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 15

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 16

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 17

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 18

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 19

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 20

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 21

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 22

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 23

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 24

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 25

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 26

Soviet missile ekranoplan Lun aircraft, Russia photo 27

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Tags: 

<<

>>

3 comments

  • Orang Akaun · April 10, 2013 at 10:32 am

    I have to say this is one of their most badass military invention.

    Reply

  • Luiz · April 23, 2013 at 4:00 pm

    Imagine how much schools and hospitals coud be donne with the money used to construct this fly monster…

    Reply

  • Jim Steele · December 5, 2019 at 11:19 am

    Wow, this this is awesome. I wish there was some video footage of this ronky ponky monster in action – weird wings indeed!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Luiz