UT-1 is a training ground-effect vehicle (ekranoplan) built by the Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoil Ships named after R. E. Alexeyev) in 1968 to train pilots for the growing ground-effect vehicle programme: practising takeoff, flight in ground effect, and landing. [1][2]
A school for a new craft
By the end of the 1960s the ground-effect vehicle programme had grown to the point where trained pilots were needed, yet there was nowhere and nothing to train them on: handling a craft in ground effect matched neither ship handling nor aircraft piloting. The UT-1 was created specifically as a training machine. [1][2]
On it, three key elements were practised — entering ground effect, stable flight over the surface, and landing — precisely the regimes in which a ground-effect vehicle behaves unlike any craft familiar to the pilot. [1][2]
Sources
- airwar.ru — UT-1 (archive)
- redstar.gr — UT-1, a training ground-effect vehicle