xiaohuangdou

The 550 ton KM (Russian abbreviation for prototype ship) was baptised in 1966. In the five years before that, a number of manned and unmanned prototypes were built, ranging up to 8 ton displacement. They were designated SM followed by a number, where SM is the Russian abbreviation for self-propelled model. The KM was built in the (at that time) closed city Gorky,wigs sale, now called Nizhny Novgorod. No foreigners were allowed there and only when the KM was transported to the Caspian Sea for trials it was discovered by Western intelligence on sattelite photos. At first they did not know what it was and assumed that it was a seaplane under construction, later they found out what it was and called it the Caspian Sea Monster. This name is sometimes also used for ekranoplans in general. To illustrate the secrecy surrounding this project at that time: it was even forbidden to use the word ekranoplan in public.
When the KM programme was launched in 1963 it was very ambitious, it was to be more than 100 times heavier than the SM-2P, which was the heaviest ekranoplan at that time. Basically the KM was far ahead of its time and even today many developers of WIG boats do not consider a craft of this size feasible within the next few decades.
After the experimental craft the Russian ekranoplan program continued and lead to the most successfull ekranoplan so far, the 125 ton A.90.125 Orlyonok. The Orlyonok incorporated many features that had been tested separately in earlier designs: it was amphibious, it had a huge turboprop engine for cruise thrust at the top of the fin and two turbofans in the nose for air injection. A few Orlyonoks have been in service with the Russian Navy from 1979 to 1992.