The Soviet Superplane That Rattled America

"Powered by 8 turbojets mounted on the front and two on the tail..." Now this is some Kerbal tier shit..

I had no idea old spy satellites actually dropped film to be picked up and developed. It makes perfect sense but it's not something I ever thought of before and it's incredibly interesting.

Things impossible for US: stop measuring length in football fields, and weight in abrams tanks.

America: These Soviets are up to something... but what? Soviets: Giant seagoing missile launcher plane.

3:23 I never realised what 'flying under the radar' actually meant, wow

Plane? No comrade, that's a flying ship.

U.S. : Is it a boat or a plane? Soviets: yes

“The United States launched their first spy satellites, the Corona” Visible sweating

You can say what you want, but Russian engineers are creative af

I thought Wendover Productions had a monopoly over anything aircraft related

The Corona? Lord, that word just keeps popping up.

Ekranoplans have fascinated me ever since I was a child, I even built the Revell kit for the Orlyonok. Unfortunately, my cat destroyed that years ago. Alexeyev was not involved in the accident that destroyed the KM, that was caused by an inexperienced pilot who brought it out of the ground effect zone. Alexeyev was on board the Orlyonok prototype when it suffered an accident in 1975, but he was not at the controls at that time. He was instructing new pilots, and one of them ran it aground on some rocks. Recognizing the seriousness of the situation, Alexeyev took over the controls, engaged the nose engines, and got the craft back to base. Unbeknownst to the inexperienced pilot, his little accident had managed to shear the tail of the Orlyonok off. Alexeyev recognized this, and managed to keep thine thing under control on just the nose engines. Pretty amazing. The hull of the Orlyonok prototype was not reinforced in the same way as a production craft, so it was much more "delicate". Anyway, this was the excuse that the Brezhnev government needed to push him out of a leading role at the CHDB. Brezhnev had little interest in Ekranoplans, and apparently fell asleep during a screening of demo reels for the KM. So the blame for the accident was dumped on Alexeyev, and throughout the rest of the 70's, was slowly demoted, until finally being kicked out of his own design bureau.

Is it a plane? Is it a boat? No,its a ploat

"Caspian sea monster" An aircraft with this name could only be nothing short of amazing XD.

Sea birds use that effect and so does that sheet of paper which falls off the desk and then skims along the floor for feet/ inches before dropping.

Soviet: this can hide us from the radar cuz of the curvature of earth Flat Earthers: thats a lie

You know it's a badass plane when it's name is CASPIAN SEA MONSTER...

Great quality videos, never disappointed :)

“I want a ship!” “Sure” “Make it fly” “So a plane then?” “No, it’ll be on water” “A seaplane?” “No, a ship that’s on top of water at all times”

@Real Engineering At 5:44, when you say counter-rotating, you actually mean contra-rotating. It's a common mistake, but an important one nonetheless. Counter-rotating propellers are those on a twin-engine aircraft, when one is rotating clockwise and the other one counter-clockwise (so that there's no critical engine). Contra-rotating is what the ekranoplan had, two sets of propellers rotating around the same axis in opposing directions.