BOATS OR PLANES? EKRANOPLANES

In technical terms they are called Ekranoplanes they are more specifically half way between a sea plane, a catamaran and a hovercraft. They in fact fly few metres above the surface thanks to a buffer or air cushion which forms below the wings exploiting what flyers would call WIG in short for Wing in Ground Effect. This is why recently they have been termed GEV or Ground Effect Vehicles. The Russians were the first to experiment these in the fifties hence the name ekranoplane which is nothing more than an adaptation of the Russian term экраноплан, ekranoplan. The idea was to develop a strategic transportation vehicle which could equal the load capacity of a ship with the speed of a plane. Despite approximately 40 years of tests, this vehicle never made it in terms of safety, reliability and efficiency