> ... A "surface effect" aeroplane.
No. Maybe it's worth borrowing the one more word to English from Russian - the "ekranoplane"
>... In ground effect flight only
Yes. Not more than 30m AFAIK. Usually 5-10.
Contrary to the aircraft flying rules - higher is more dangerous. The chief designer of ekranoplanes was stongly against using the aircraft pilots during the testing, because they could not understand that rule. And in fact these pilots have killed (at least one) ekranoplane, trying to fly it too high.
... In today's battlefield how can it compete with Russian or American Anti-ship missiles?
And it does not
compete with the rockets - it carries 6 of them
.
Корявый русский перевод.
Не самолёт с эффектом экрана, а экраноплан.
Только у земли(5-10м обычно). Конструктор был против лётчиков на испытаниях - они не могли понять, что выше - значит не безопаснее, а наоборот.
Минимум один экраноплан был "угроблен" именно из-за этой ошибки пилота.
Этот проект - не конкурент ракетам, он их возит - 6 штук.
[This message has been edited by 00 (edited 17-12-2000).]