KM is an experimental ekranoplan with a takeoff weight of up to 544 tonnes, built in Gorky to a design by Rostislav Alekseev and the heaviest flying craft of its time. Launched in June 1966, it made its first flight in October of the same year and was tested on the Caspian Sea until a 1980 crash. In the West the craft was nicknamed the "Caspian Sea Monster." [1][2][3]
The heaviest in the world
A takeoff weight of up to 544 tonnes made the KM heavier than any aircraft flying at the time. The craft was neither a ship nor an aircraft in the usual sense: it travelled over water at a height of a few metres, riding a cushion of air it generated itself between its wing and the surface. [1][3]
The craft was built in Gorky and towed to the Caspian Sea, where a suitable body of water and a secrecy regime were both available for testing. It was launched in June 1966 and made its first flight in October. [1][2]
"Caspian Sea Monster"
Western analysts, spotting the craft in satellite imagery, could not identify what it was, and, going by the KM markings on its hull, nicknamed it the Caspian Sea Monster. The name caught on in Russia as well. [1][3]
Testing continued for almost fifteen years and ended with a crash in 1980. The craft sank; the crew survived. By then the experience gained on the KM had already carried over into other craft — the Orlyonok and the Lun. [1][2][3]
Sources
- techinsider.ru — Plane of the Day: the "Caspian Sea Monster" (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Pravda of Nizhny Novgorod — The ekranoplan's flight: how Rostislav Alekseyev's invention made headlines around the world (archive)
- arsenal-otechestva.ru — Arsenal of the Fatherland — Ekranoplans (archive)