why did so much dumb, absurd, and insane shit come out of the cold war? was it all the lead in the air or just thinking that anything was possible after weaponizing nuclear energy?

>>63989288 (OP)
You shut your whore mouth. The Ekranoplane is one of the coolest things the Soviets ever did.

>>63989288 (OP)
How good would they be just for hauling cargo?

>>63989288 (OP)
this looks like what kid going through his "i fucking love jets and military planes" phase would draw up during math class

>>63989385
The USSR was really good at that

>>63989288 (OP)
The designer and his supporters were stuck in the 50s when Pulse Doppler wasn't compact or common.

>>63989288 (OP)
There was basically a second industrial revolution around that time. Machine tools got much better shortly after WWII. CNC started becoming a thing, though it ran on punch tape rather than memory. Integrated circuits, computers, all enabled a lot of new stuff to be tried, a lot of was shit.

>>63989605
maybe its just because im not a military guy but i genuinely could not tell what the orientation and what side of this shit i was looking at for a solid 10 seconds

>>63992450
this plus nobody was questioning defense budgets due to all the fear of the other side.

>>63989321
More expensive than both a plane or a boat and slower than a regular plane, plus you can only use it when the conditions are very mild.

>>63989288 (OP)
desperation for another chess peice on the board. counter measures to counter counter counter measures.

>>63989288 (OP)
boatloads of money being thrown at a lot of different things
competition brings out the best (or worst) in everything

>>63989288 (OP)
i cant tell if this was actually ever intended to take flight, and if it wasnt then what the fuck does this do that warships couldnt at the time

>>63992747
>more expensive than plane
Now that sucks, I thought it would be more fuel efficient than planes and faster than ships.

>>63993094
It is, he’s being retarded

>>63989302
At least fucking spell it right if you claim to love it so much

>>63989288 (OP)
this shit looks like something autistic kid will make out of lego

>>63993073
Support amphibious operations in the Black and Mediterranean Seas.

>>63993073
Warships can't sail at 300 knots.

>>63992506
It's a visual clusterfuck from any angle

>>63989302
>The Ekranoplane is one of the coolest things the Soviets ever did.
And it still sucked. A great waster of resources, though.

>>63992997
The counter measure to this was sanity and clean living.

>>63993073
>actually ever intended to take flight
Relied upon ground effect, so no.

>>63989321
KM was the biggie.
Difficult to drive before electronic gubbins took the world over.

>>63989288 (OP)
its the 4 fucking turbojets just slapped on to each side that does it for me

>>63993526
Ground effect is still flight. It just is within one wingspan of the ground. Lots of cool aerodynamic stuff happens there.

>>63993073
Multiple great theoretical advantages, none of which were realized because it never became a mature technology. Perhaps one of the greatest missed opportunities of the 20th century.

>Many times faster than any ship
>Carries far more cargo than a plane at less than 50% of the fuel expenditure
>Invisible to both radar and sonar on approach

The problem lies in maintenance, tolerating high sea states, and the fact that it could not be escorted because of its flight profile. An answer looking for a question, you say. Maybe so. But it could have been great and it's a shame it wasn't taken further. Maybe the new Chinese Ekranoplan will be useful.

>>63989288 (OP)
That is not Cold war but Soviet Cult of Personality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostislav_Alexeyev
Rostislav Alexeyev achieved mythical status with his hydrofoils success. After that he could do whatever pet projects he wanted even if he was completely wrong.

>>63989302
Effortlessly mogged by the Seamaster

>>63993227
They can sail in rough seas though.

>>63996336
He didn't ask what ships could do.

>>63989288 (OP)
They're a good idea if you make them big. Move lottsa shit lottsa fast.

>>63996831
Imagine
>service ceiling: 15,000ft
Suez? Panama? Rogue waves? Just fly over lol.

>>63996925
>service ceiling
What does that actually mean for GEVs though? I assumed that meant that it could fly across a lake that was at 14k feet altitude, but it could only do so at a maximum of 100-200ft (or w/e its max flight height was) over that lake as it still needs the ground effect to actually fly.

>>63993685
>Invisible to both radar and sonar on approach
It'd be visible on a ship's radar ...but difficult for a ship to counter. Anti-ship missiles couldn't hit it. Most guns couldn't hit it. Anti-missile missiles of the time would have a lot of trouble hitting it.

As for interceptor aircraft, most radars carried by aircraft of the time couldn't see it (this is likely what you're talking about). But because low level bombers were the cool new thing, look-down-shoot-down radars were in development

>>63993073
>what the fuck does this do that warships couldnt
Go fast. Rape warships.

>>63989288 (OP)
societies were run by people with vision and a willingness to take risks, people who believed in the power of technology to fundamentally change the world. Now our managerial class is saturated with glorified bean counters who only understand "markets" and who answer only to "shareholders" in lieu of behaving like actual leaders.

>>63989321
>heaver cargo than any aircraft
>faster than any boat
>briddy good fuel economy
although I am sceptical of how well they take off and land

the last of them is an high speed water taxi.
it travels around south east Asia looking of buyers.

it's funny how many of them have made a comeback
>t-15 torpedo as status-6
>brilliant pebbles as golden dome
>project pluto as skyfall

>>63989288 (OP)
Because we were REALLY thinking it would all come apart any day for over 45 years. We as a civ. have blue balled ourselves over a Mexican Standoff of fatigue because no one here has the balls to push the button to think history will remember them as monsters worse than any that have come before but will not matter because most will be gone and it will pass into legend/myth anyhow.

>>63989385

low IQs like you thought the Sturmgewehr 44 was a fancy gadget as a reminder but yes, massive use would have required a total review of the management of maritime flows to avoid a container ship being hit by one

>>63989288 (OP)
OP, when did you realise that you have no soul?

>>64004945
We still are anon. It's just more...subtle.

>>63989288 (OP)
Wait, so I can have all the dowsides of an airplane combined with the downsides of a boat? Sign me up!