[ExI] The 'Caspian Sea Monster' rises from the grave

[John Grigg]

 "Beached on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, it looks like a
colossal aquatic beast -- a bizarre creation more at home in the deep than
above the waves. It certainly doesn't look like something that could ever
fly.But fly it did -- albeit a long time ago.

After lying dormant for more than three decades, the Caspian Sea Monster
has been on the move again. One of the most eye-catching flying machines
ever built, it's completing what could be its final journey.

In July of this year after 14 hours at sea, a flotilla of three tugs and
two escort vessels maneuvered slowly along the shores of the Caspian Sea to
deliver their bulky special cargo to its destination
<https://edition.cnn.com/travel/destinations>, a stretch of coast near
Russia's southernmost point.

It's here, next to the ancient city of Derbent, in Russia's republic of
Dagestan, that the 380-ton "Lun-class Ekranoplan" has found its new, and
most likely definitive, home.
The last of its breed to sail the waters of the Caspian, "Lun" was
abandoned after the 1990s collapse of the Soviet Union, condemned to rust
away at Kaspiysk naval base, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) up the coast
from Derbent."

The plane weighs more than a 747! There are drones and planes now under
construction using the same "ground effect" principle. I would suspect
China is considering building something along these lines, for the future
invasion of Taiwan.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/caspian-sea-monster-ekranoplan/index.html
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