{"id":13110,"date":"2024-07-07T18:35:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T18:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=13110"},"modified":"2024-07-07T18:35:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T18:35:23","slug":"one-of-worlds-most-unusual-planes-bigger-than-boeing-747-is-abandoned-on-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=13110","title":{"rendered":"One of world’s most unusual planes bigger than Boeing 747 is abandoned on beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking like something from Star Wars, this humongous warship is now beached<\/h2>\n

When you hear of anything that has been beached, you would naturally assume it was a whale, dolphin or another marine mammal… but in this case, you’d be wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the coast of Derbent, a city in southern\u00a0Russia<\/a>, lies a dormant 283 tonne, 63ft plane – nicknamed the Caspian sea monster, and is way bigger than a Boeing 747.<\/p>\n

Designed in 1975 and used 12 years later towards the end of the\u00a0Cold War<\/a>\u00a0by soviet and Russian navies, the Lun-class ekranoplan is equipped with six fixed-elevation anti-ship missile launchers, and two twin turrets – it struck fear in the enemies eyes.<\/p>\n

It was part of the Soviet’s wing-in-ground-effect programme (WIG), and while it looks as if it was lifted from a scene in\u00a0Star Wars<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and dropped on the coast of the landlocked Caspian Sea – often described as the largest lake in the world – it wasn’t and took years to build.<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/div>\n

The 283 tonne maritime ship looks like it has been lifted from Star Wars. (Getty\/Anadolu)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Fortunately for the residents 21 miles away in the small village of Samur\u00e7ay, by the Russian border in Azerbaijan, the once heavily armed craft has been converted into a museum.<\/p>\n

While we’ve been describing the ginormous vessel as a plane, in actual fact it falls under the ‘ground effect’ category, which would classify it as a ship – no, not a spaceship, but a boat.<\/p>\n

Despite looking strikingly similar to traditional aircrafts, ekranoplans like the Lun are not, nor are they hovercrafts.<\/p>\n

The awe-inspiring\u00a0ship<\/a>, which was retired in the late 90s just years after the conclusion of the\u00a0Cold War<\/a>, miraculously floated above the water with the help of its eight jet engines.<\/p>\n

It flew using a cushion of air beneath its wings generated by the ground effect acting on its large wings when within about 13 feet above the surface of the water.<\/p>\n

According to the International Maritime Organization, the MD-160 is in fact classified as a maritime ship – a large vessel that travels the world’s oceans.<\/p>\n

With it gliding just 13 feet above the water, it essentially made it near impossible to detect on radars – or at least extremely tricky.<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/div>\n

The lun-class ekranoplan has been turned into a museum. (Getty\/Anadolu)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Speaking of the programme and referring to the ship as ‘Utka’ which means duck in Russian,\u00a0CIA<\/a>\u00a0officials added: “The Utka class WIG is a tactical strike and coastal defence vehicle for the Soviet Navy. It carries six supersonic SS-N-22 anti-ship cruise missiles.<\/p>\n

“The Utka, can engage enemy ships out to its radar horizon (about 35 kilometers\/22 miles) but can fire the SS-N-22 out to the missile’s 100-kilometer (62-mile) range with over-the-horizon targeting data.<\/p>\n

“The Utka is larger than a US Boeing 747 jet airplane and flies at about 250 knots [287 mph]. One Utka has been built.”<\/p>\n

They added: “We believe that an Utka strike force or coastal defense force would give the Soviets a quick-reaction capability against surface combatants.<\/p>\n

“However, unless the Utka can pop up out of ground effect to extend its radar horizon, it will require external sources of targeting information.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking like something from Star Wars, this humongous warship is now beached When you hear…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":127,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}