The Alexiev ‘Lun’ was designed to operate in arctic waters and over the tundra so an updated version should be able to handle most of the weather conditions that commercial shippingl may find.

The other aspect of ground effect is that even small increases in wing area improve the effect. Therefore a huge ekranoplan would ‘fly’ with a higher ground/water clearance and be able to take most conditions in it’s stride. The flip side of this is that the ‘ram’ effect which helps longitudinal stability (ekranoplans have a tendency to pitch nose up at high speed in the same way as Donald Campbel’s Bluebird) decreases with height.

However – it is the only way to get a multi thousand ton passenger craft to cross long distance at speeds anywhere near aircraft.

Still don’t see it happening though 🙁

Brian

i honestly dont think the problem is as bad as the Media makes it out to be.

Sorry to disagree there but;

I have regular blood screening because I have type 2 diabetes. (other than the calories and sugar content, alcohol has no bearing on my condition). Three years ago my results showed a big increase in a liver enzime, signifying damage. I was referred to a specialist, had a scan and was told I would need a biopsy as the scans were not conclusive.

The specialist advised me to stop drinking alcohol. Full stop – no maybee. I was to be re-tested in 3 months, then 6 months.

I looked up a few liver ‘tonics’ as it is the only organ to be able to repair itself – if a certain level of damage is not exceeded. Some veg juices and grapefruit are known to help.Obviously I went Dry for the 3 months and on the re-test the enzime was half the original level. The next test was back to healthy normal.

The interview with the specialist was revealing. I had worked shifts for most of my life (I was 52 at the time) and was a red wine drinker, with beer on (rare) nights out. I thought I was around the NHS safe level, as I reckoned on about 28 units a week. Two years previously I had come off shifts and was able to indulge myself of 2-3 glasses every night. Whilst on shifts I always had a 4 day break each week from alcohol. That was Snag 1.

Snag 2, was my accounting. I drank big glasses and without realising I was consuming nearly a bottle of wine a night. The two of us liked a certain brand which was screw topped, and you easily loose track of how much is gone from each bottle if you put unfinished bottles away till ‘tomorrow’. My wife drank much less than me and if she nattered me about the quantity I shrugged it off. When I did a full ‘audit’ of my consumption it was double the limit – over 50 units a week. I never drank to the level of drunkeness (because I have always had a low threshold and become dizzy after about 5 pints or a bottle of wine)

I now drink again but in very limited quantities and usually with a break of weeks rather than days in between.It’s usually for celebrations or on holiday. I’m lucky to not be an ‘addictive’ type person and didn’t drink for underlying reasons. Lucky because I found it easy to stop.

The specialist and my GP are adamant that another few months of this ‘abuse’ and I would have had cirrhosis and subsquently cancer of the liver.

Please take it seriously, I didn’t like the 3 months before the first ‘good news’ results.

Brian

exellent idea perhaps you could get an EU grant to fund the project and go global.:cool:

Having to justify use of vehicles that some person, with an axe to grind, doesn’t like would also mean the end for hot hatches, 200mph motorbikes, sports cars, and (sadly, victor45) gas guzzling, polluting, non safety rated vintage cars. The owners could always trailer them to a show I suppose.

The UK has already gone down this route with firearms and I would think some Whitehall mandarin already has a report on his/her desk looking at banning or restricting certain classes of vehicle.The recent tax hike for high Co2 vehicles would have been a lot higher if some govt minister hadn’t been scared of all the job losses when Land Rover shut down.

I have always been, and will for the forseeable future, be able to justify my use of a 4×4. Depending on how my future motor caravan manages with rutted tracks and farm fields will dictate whether I then ditch the Merc (because it’s hopeless on rough ground) for another 4×4. Just because I have a reason to own one doesn’t mean I won’t defend those who drive any type of motor out of personal choice. So – victor45, when vintage cars are threatened, I’ll sign your petition

I had a Fiat Panda 4×4
I used to intimidate lots of invalid carriages (you remember – the blue ones?) and some Reliants.
I got intimidated by lots of ‘Hot Hatches’ – now there’s a subject for debate. What is the point of a (insert mass produced family car) GTi or RS or Turbo. These cars are designed to take the family into town or to the supermarket. Why put a powerful engine in and make it a weapon for the brainless. I can’t see any USE for a ‘hot hatch’ so perhaps they should be banned. They’re not particularly carbon friendly either so why don’t the green mafia attack them instead of aircraft (and 4x4s).

Brian
Driver of; a little Mercedes at 50mpg and soon to trade my Subaru estate (4×4 of course) for a really intimidating motor caravan.

I occasionally use a pre-WW1 Kodak.
Wonder how many digital cameras will still be usable when they are over 90?

This was one reason I got the Nikon FM2n. The only non-mechanical thing on it is the light meter and you can always get a hand held meter if that fails.

Coincidently I had lunch yesterday with an old pal who has spent a lifetime in photography and now lectures at uni on such matters. We both love using digitals for the convenience, but we were both already fairly computer savvy and had all the appropriate gear needed to handle digi-pics. He has a poster that the uni did when he presented a paper on photography as art, it is about 5ftx3ft and the fine detail is incredible. It was shot with his EOS1n RS (which I have since bought off him) on 35mm slide. To achieve that quality in digi you would need 30 grands worth of Hasselblad and something like a ‘Leaf Aptus’ back with 126meg per file 😮 .

BUT- give it a couple more years and who knows?

Hmmm LBA (or wasn’t it YDN then?) has a lot to answer for. I started spotting there 40years ago and haven’t stopped since. I had a pal at school who was a spotter and I had built Airfix kits as a child and had been fascinated by pics of Stratocruisers and such wonders as B36s in my uncle’s National Geographic mags. We built our own airlines of 1/144 scale kits and we went to LBA to see planes in real life. We caught the train (and a bus that went on forever) to Manchester to see the BEA Vanguards and the big stuff that didn’t go to Yeadon. At our local we had to make do with BKS 748s and Dan Air Ambassadors.
Courtesy of his Gran we even managed a couple of trips to LAP (sorry – Heathrow) so that kept me buzzing for weeks! I was lucky to have family within a bus ride of Prestwick and I spent a few summers hols up there. KLM/SAS/Air Canada DC8s and the odd C97s and C124 Globemasters kept me interested.
My hobby has survived marriage and change of career, it dipped a bit in my young free and single years and again in the mid 70’s when I gave up engineering to work for the Govt. but I never stopped. I have always been a photographer too and I ‘do’ anything that flies.
I’ve been lucky to have a good wife and good employment, which has enabled me to travel most of the world in search of that elusive ‘number’ I’m looking forward to early retirement next year and my colleagues have already given up asking “What are you going to do?”.
BTW – My pal Chris gave up spotting to play the guitar and now has a successful music publishing business – but his son flies fast jets for the RAF so thats OK then!!