If you've never had the pleasure of flying, ground effect is wild. I'll never forget my first time landing everything was smooth and felt great. I remember the instructor saying "alright your about to hit ground effect". It was like the plane hit a pillow that took more effort to get through it than i anticipated. I had to go around and he had me take a few low passes to get a feel for it and then touch and go's. I wasn't expecting it to be like that at all. Everything about aviation is so amazing. It's like nothing else.

@bigbasil1908

6 ай бұрын

I've flown small Cessna's a few times but never took off or landed them, back when I was 14/15 years old. I kind of wish I'd had the opportunity to take off and land.

@robertmantell1700

6 ай бұрын

It is funny in helicopters too. I have around a dozen hours in the R22 and it is funny how you have to sorta force it onto the ground. You learn real quick to make sure you are doing the "Look out ahead of you" or you'll have a very shaky set down.

"In 1961 the US Navy came up with the Polar missile" It was the POLARIS missile.

@gxlbiscuit

6 ай бұрын

this channel is known for volume of content not total accuracy or understanding. We will still watch.

@aaronkcmo

6 ай бұрын

this dude is a total shill for the soviets. he routinely gets things like this wrong and gushes with glowing praise some of the most ridiculous soviet failures, like the one in this video.

He was named "Zmey Gorynych" not because of his size, but because from the ground he looked like a three-headed reptile, and “Zmey Gorynych” is a three-headed dragon from Slavic fairy tales. And the residents of Taganrog called it that, since the tests took place on the Azov Sea and these residents did not understand what was flying above them.

This thing looks like something out of the Thunderbirds

@jchapman8248

6 ай бұрын

Good observation. Maybe the creators of the Thunderbirds series got some of their ideas from some of those Soviet designs?

@Usa_mikek

6 ай бұрын

​@@jchapman8248or the Russians stole it. Lol

@billgund4532

6 ай бұрын

Remember "Supercar?"

@CorRedBeagle

6 ай бұрын

​@@jchapman8248That great Green Transport Vehicle, but I have not yet seen Penelepe....

@brealistic3542

6 ай бұрын

Thunderbirds are GO ! 😂

I've long seen pics of the abandoned wingless hulk. This is the first time I've seen video of it's complete form, and in flight. Cool machine. 😎👍

@clearcreek69

6 ай бұрын

Me Too. I would've liked to see the plane testing its VTOL capabilities in this video but we didn't get a chance to see it.

@AtheistOrphan

6 ай бұрын

@@clearcreek69- I’m not sure if the lift jets were ever fitted.

@clearcreek69

6 ай бұрын

@@AtheistOrphan I think the aircraft company was still waiting for the lift jets, as it was mentioned in the video

@AtheistOrphan

6 ай бұрын

@@clearcreek69- You’re correct, thank you.👍

The Soviet Union had extremely remote areas where the ground effect craft could provide greater freedom of movement in sparsely populated regions. That would mean not having to build railroads or highways at considerable expense.

@aaronkcmo

6 ай бұрын

uh, the soviet ground effect craft were practically useless on land and completely unusable in wilderness. this is one of the reasons they all went away and no other military ever experimented with them. also, they were made completely obsolete by improved aircraft and jet engine design. your idea of using ground effect craft to access remote areas is a fantasy.

@1nkyarts

6 ай бұрын

yeah but trains dont use 7,000,000,000 tonnes of jet fuel and collide with the ground if they go too slow. plus they carry more with higher efficiency than literally anything else.

Truly stunning work on the ekranoplan. What a monster.

This plane looks as if it belongs on the 1960's show Thunderbirds for its design.

(To be read in hushed voice) ..another excellent video in the iconic DARK style on a most intriguing aircraft and it's designer. Having only seen photos of the airframe in it's current state I'm delighted by the compiled clips, stills, and history you've assembled and presented. Thanks Dark guys.

Wait - but that's one of the Thunderbirds!

Slight correction: it was the Polaris missile, not the Polar. Nevertheless, interesting report.

Such a pity! Clearly one of the most original thinkers of all time in the aviation industry.. I first learned about these craft under the nickname of Caspian Sea Monster.

Thanks for the big red arrow pointing at the plane. Never would've figured it out without it.

Favorite episode!!!

Thunderbirds? Nice pull, I agree

So Bartini was drafted into the army when the first world war broke out in 1915 and was a prisoner until Russia retired from the war in 1920...🤔

Excellent visuals, archival footage and explanations! Such a highly produced episode of Dark Skies!

That is fantastic!!

Deffo got the look of Thunderbird 2 about it. I thaught the thumbnail was a mock-up.

fun fact: this plane makes a "cameo" appearance in the old PS2 videogame "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater". One of those planes is destroyed during a chase section on an airfield, and another is used by the protagonists as their exfil vehicle. Never openly mentioned (it's called only the WIG, or the Ground Effect plane), but that's the model rendered in the game

A amazing looking aircraft. One of the aircraft I would like to make a model off. Which I never done. I wonder if they have a model kit 👍👾

That craft looks like a charging grizzly bear! 🐻

This wouldn't look out of place sitting next to the Millenium Falcon. I have a limited edition 1:72 scale model kit of this wonderful aircraft.

@vincedibona4687

6 ай бұрын

Good for you!

9:11 You are confusing STOL with VTOL. No Ekranoplan was EVER designed for VERTICAL Take Off and Landing.

@shaun469

6 ай бұрын

Did you not watch the end? He died while waiting for the vtol lift engines.

@LordDustinDeWynd

6 ай бұрын

@@shaun469 Once the dilithium crystals arrive at my laboratory, I will be introducing my new warp drive to the world. Exact same thing, I will be dust before they arrive, but by this logic, I've ALREADY INVENTED IT and all I need is the crystals!

@shaun469

6 ай бұрын

@@LordDustinDeWynd it was always designed as a vtol. It just didn't get there.

The ideas behind all of those ground effect units is amazing. If they had use they would be used. Those were a waste of a brilliant people's minds and time.

Bartini: "I work hard for the glory of the USSR!" Stalin: "Send him to the Siberia gulags". He sure did know how to ruin or outright kill talent!

Where could one find the music you use?

The very last part, about his request I'm his will, have me chills. Imagine if his documents even have a single thing beyond the technology of that year

The Russian all-Union Central Design Bureau for Hydrodynamics was always cooking up weird oddities.

@shaunlaverty8898

6 ай бұрын

Go TsAGI or go home! 😁

300 years!? You can’t just peek at those designs??

SNAKE EATER!!!

Nice!

Man.... this is a good channel, but I've never seen any other narrator describe every single video with the same grim intensity as one would if they were describing an outbreak of cannibalism in a nursery school. "The toddlers. Left on their own. Had no choice but to hunt. And eat each other. The grim fight for their lives. Left them no choice. But to kill. Or be killed. Little Sammy Feinstein died. Cuddling his teddy bear. It was a grim sight."

@marycorrell2557

6 ай бұрын

😂😅😂😅😂😮😊

Thankyou for the big red arrow, I would have missed it otherwise.

We did not want to match the ekranoplan, it wasn't that we couldn't. The soviets never matched the SR 71 or the Space Shuttle either.

If the people setting up the time capsule don't know how to properly preserve paper then in 300 years they'll find dust in that box.

@kennethjackson7574

6 ай бұрын

There’s a book in my bookcase that was printed in 1612. My main concern in preserving it is keeping silverfish from eating it.

@anon_y_mousse

6 ай бұрын

@@kennethjackson7574 Papers in a box buried in the ground are far more susceptible to all kinds of problems. If not adequately sealed, water damage is very high on the concerns list and several recent time capsules fell victim to that.

My cat Luci has tons of nicknames. One is "little Mochi Mar Mar" because she's sweet like ice cream/mochi 🍡 and when she meows she goes, "MAAaar MAAaar"

I remember trying to land a hanglider in a field when ground effect took over and swept me across the field to land on an electric fence. I then experienced a screaming vertical takeoff!

It was so unique it was useless.

I haven't watched the video yet, but plenty of aviation KZread channels have covered the Ekranoplan, so I've heard of it. 😉

@8:50 "... the Italian born inventor..." also @1:20 "...born in Austria Hungary..." I find most of the videos on this channel interesting, but there are inconsistencies which are grating. But there are lessons to be learnt from every experience, so I suppose that I should be thankful, as this particular inconsisteny made me go investigate, and as a result I am now (until I forget about it) aware of the quite interesting history of the city Fiume. I can also accept how the inconsistency could have slipped through the editing. But then there is the tone of the narrative; it's like someone is telling a ghost story, and not providing information about interesting inventions and people. It is like a History Channel Lite narrative. (not intented as a complement) But thumbs up on this video.

@robshirewood5060

6 ай бұрын

it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Fiume which i think was later Trieste was contested later between Jugoslavia and Italy, i think at one time it was an open city controlled by neither but by an International force. I stand to be corrected

@JohnHughesChampigny

6 ай бұрын

There is no inconsistency. He was born in italy, in part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. You need to see a few operas to understand.

I’ve always wondered how that pile of scrap metal works and watching this video shows me how it works…. Great video

US Navy built the Polaris missile not Polar

The Russians stopped fighting in the first world war before the Russian revolution in 1917 not sure exactly when!

@paulqueripel3493

6 ай бұрын

And certainly not 2 years after everyone else had stopped fighting.

bringing back metal gear solid chain in PS1/PS2, many of its dream plane looks like this

@Bajoomboe

6 ай бұрын

This was the escape vehicle in MGS 3 Snake Eater

These type aircraft have too many shortcomings to ever be worth building.

it's italian....looks great!

@lancerevell5979

6 ай бұрын

And.... would have been a maintenance nightmare. 😮

Why does you always talk like your running late for the train or something?????

@robertclark972

6 ай бұрын

Thinks it's dramatic, apparently .

Now I know where the design for the cockpit on the millennial falcon came from. 💫

Soviet ground affect research

5:22 What's wild is how the US. found out about the Hydra pictured at the time stamp. Us. spies stateside used remote vision (telepathic spying) to draw the shape size and engine schematics from their desks. The Hydra was so cutting edge that the brass didn't believe their findings and added wing extensions to all of their models. After the Soviet fall, the telepaths were proven to be spot on.

@jedimindtrix2142

6 ай бұрын

Can you link me to your source for this? I goggled it but can't find anything on it. Im very familiar with the CIAs telepathic agent program but I never heard this particular story before.

Nope, I recognized this monster right away.

Thunderbird 2 :)

07:29 POLARIS missile, not Polar.

It looks like it’s always just about to crash

I didn't really get that the project was cancelled because of Bartini's death, it's high cost or it's efficiency?

@rankoorovic7904

6 ай бұрын

Ground effect airlanes work only on a drawing board

@vandermitch5146

6 ай бұрын

yep and dont work in high wind , large wave, etc...

Art deco inspired designs.

futuristic shape? please tell me what future plane this looked like. i'll wait.

Its in my video game. Its well known actually. But great video.

The US was never worried about where Soviet subs were because we could HEAR them on our SOSUS lines.

Always thought this design would make a goodish water-bomber

@Thickcurves

6 ай бұрын

Unfortunately, ground effect vehicles are a terrible idea. Imagine going 250KPH and hitting a random ass wave? You can't fly out of ground effect to go over it because the entire purpose is to carry way more stuff so you can't actually take off. You can't fly it over land because of things like trees and ditches and the speed you are going to maintain ground effect. Basically you can use it only on calm bodies of water. Even tiny waves makes it shake your teeth out and eventually destroys the craft. Huge waste of money. It isn't that it shouldn't have worked... it's that it literally doesn't work in any meaningful way.

@Robertlynschultz

6 ай бұрын

​@Thickcurves The VVA-14 was more of a hybrid design... it could utilize "W.I.G." to maximize efficiency, but had a service ceiling of 26,000 feet... also it had a much higher "W.I.G" effect with the surface... about 40ft.

Looks like a firefly space

No disrespect, but let's open that box!!!

Never understood why these people who were imprisoned for nothing, went back to work as if nothing happened.

I hope in 300 years people would regard this man as the quack that he actually was.

Robert Ludvigovich Bartini was born in Croatia, Fiume = Rijeka

I'm pretty sure I saw one of those flying in a Star Wars movie

Russia retired from the war in 1920.... pretty sure it ended earlier than that

Twelve engines? I only see two. "I SEE...TWO...ENGINES!"

@luddite6239

6 ай бұрын

The prototype flew with the two engines you can see mounted over the wings but the plan was to fit 12 additional lift engines for VTOL, which would have given the aircraft 14 powerplants in total. Bartini died before the lift engines were ever fitted 11:28 and its VTOL capabilities were never therefore tested.

The Cold War included far more countries than the US and USSR as stated in the intro....

This is what too much vodka during the design stage of a project can lead to.. Maybe they should try to make a aquatic tank too...

Yep, that's one Chonky airplane...

The aircraft looks like something out of STAR WARS. Where is Han Solo?

By that time humanity won't be able to even read it. How sad.

That's an AT-AT. 🤓

It delivered Borscht to the front lines

Never heard of? Who hasn't heard of the Caspian sea monster?

Han Solo won that in a card game with Lando Calrissian.

How do you know which planes I never heard of? How would I?!

so, what's with the click bait Star Wars looking craft that heads this video?

Dark Skies is at it again with click bait, this isn't a AIRplane!

@makedemocrapsafraidagain4729

6 ай бұрын

It flew 107 times; it showed it flying in the video.

I heard of it year's ago

Polar missile? Do you mean the POLARIS missile?

👍

If it looks ugly it likely won’t be any good either

@lancerevell5979

6 ай бұрын

A-10 Warthog says, "Hold my beer!" 😂

This plane like every ground effect aircraft worked only on the drawing board

We couldn’t match it, because we surpassed it. Kinda hard to hide from a satellite, and ballistic missiles….

Another one of my cats nicknames "Meow-mar-cat-daffi" because when she meows it's like "MAAaar" and sometimes she's a little terrorist like Muammar Gaddafi. Who remembers when Hilary Clinton said about Gaddafi, _"WE CAME, WE SAW_ *_HE DIED!!! AH HA HA HA"_*

The reason ground effects aircraft are not a good idea is how close to the surface of the water they have to be. Even a mild storm on the ocean can create waves that will ground an aircraft that relies on the ground effects principle especially one designed to travel at high velocity. It was certainly a novel idea just not effective in the real world most of the time. Mission critical military vehicles need to be able to operate in the worst weather to maintain a 24 / 7 mission ready status.

@stevenlochner4619

6 ай бұрын

Also turning is difficult without dipping a wing in the water.

“… retired from the war in 1920”? WWI ended in 1918.

FLÜGELENTE

Getting tired of seeing stories about this thing. Every military history channel feels the need to make multiple videos about it.

Star wars on Earth

I'm just Overjoyed that no country ever actually got this to work. Because we would be sitting on a whole new set of problems if this actually worked.

Russia withdrew from WW1 in 1917.

@user-McGiver

6 ай бұрын

yes!... Kaizer's plan was successful, but still, he lost the war... and he left us with a curse... communism...!

@DrivermanO

6 ай бұрын

This is one of the dark mistakes! Didn't he say 1920?

@user-McGiver

6 ай бұрын

@@DrivermanO ''dark'' is a brilliant AI... can't make ''mistakes''... these are carefully planted ''threads'' for us to pick up and start working on the ''AlMighty Algo''

don't you feel ashamed to have stupid enemies?

@user-McGiver

6 ай бұрын

nope!... it's a blessing... ask the Ukrainians!

It wasnt an 'Aircraft' as such. It was a 'ground effect' vehicle, not a lot unlike a hovercraft in some respects.

@tHaH4x0r

6 ай бұрын

It was both. It could do high altitude flight, but was primarily designed to be used in ground effect.

@luddite6239

6 ай бұрын

Did you watch the whole video? You can clearly see it airborne during its test flights e.g. at 11:00 and it had an operational ceiling of over 30,000 ft. That makes it an aircraft in my book. Oh and, for the record, as someone who regularly takes the hovercraft from Southsea to the Isle of Wight, the operator of a hovercraft is deemed to be a pilot of an aircraft rather than a captain of a marine vessel.

The reason there was no American counterpart is because the concept, as we understand it now, sucks for lack of better words. I don't think it's viable.

2197 will be the day

Its not an airplane its an ekranoplane, kind of a clickbait title, the designs are totally different and the way they fly is totally different, they are more like hovercraft than they are airplanes.