Picture of the Alekseyev A-90 Orlyonok aircraft

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Visitor comments (29)   [Hide]	Post your own comments by rating the photo above!
A visitor from United States posted Wed June 17, 2009: Different. Very different, but an excellent picture. I've never seen an aircraft picture like this!
A visitor from Croatia posted Wed June 17, 2009: Breath taking photo! Very nice
A visitor from Pakistan posted Wed January 7, 2009: Looks like oversized nostrils on this plane!
A visitor from Pakistan posted Tue November 4, 2008: This airplane is very halpfull for navy.
A visitor from United States posted Mon September 22, 2008: Is that the "Caspian Sea Monster?"
A visitor from - posted Fri August 15, 2008: Good shot , wow that looks so communist .
A visitor from Brazil posted Mon June 23, 2008: It is called the "orlionok" it's an ekranoplane
A visitor from United States posted Fri March 21, 2008: Just ignore its cockpit and it will look like a smiling raccoon.
A visitor from Russian Federation posted Sat December 1, 2007: Great shot!
A visitor from United States posted Sat September 29, 2007: I would have loved to see one of these skimming madly over the black sea... i couldnt resist building a model of it... -josh
A visitor from - posted Wed September 5, 2007: Yes! An Ekranoplan! These machines are straight out of a sci-fi book....Unbelievable. I would love to see a picture of similar quality of the Lun Ekranoplan. Thanks to Russian inventors for thinking outside the box. 5 stars.
A visitor from Netherlands posted Thu August 30, 2007: Simply an astonishing and very ingenious aircraft design. I would love to see one flying!
A visitor from Colombia posted Wed August 29, 2007: Amazing, just amazing, an original ekranoplane, it just fly a few feet over the water, incredible sigth of a master piece of aircraft history.
A visitor from United States posted Thu July 26, 2007: I have never seen an airplane design like this... would be interested to see one in flight!
A visitor from India posted Wed July 25, 2007: Truly A 5Star category post! iam amazed the way russian built there planes, especially ampnibians like this Orlyonok or beriev. gr8 pics
A visitor from Germany posted Fri July 13, 2007: Five stars!! first time I see a photo of it here, I got a model of it. it used to have a counter-rotating-prop on the tail-stabiliser. in the front are two huge jet enines mounted. all three engines are used to accelerate and lift the Orlyonok. liftet once the jet engines are shut down and the intakes are closed AFAIK. then it stays in ground effect only by the props. flying in 10ft/3m alt at a 500km/h or even faster, if I´m not mistaken, and saves an enormous amount of fuel. it´s also able to climb to higher altitudes like a usual plane, but that takes much more power. it also have small wheels to land on a beach or smth prepared near the water. due to the ground effekt itt´s even able to fly over flat land. EDBM/Germany
A visitor from Indonesia posted Wed July 11, 2007: Wow rare picture
A visitor from France posted Mon July 9, 2007: It could be great to see more pics & other kinds of ekranoplanes on this site ... They are amazing machines !
A visitor from France posted Sun July 8, 2007: Unfortunately, ekranoplans don't fly anymore, since fall 1993, due to funding after the Soviet Union collapse and by lack of interest by the Navy. I believe this Orlyonok # 26, last surviving of 3 machines which entered official service end of 70s / early 80s - was demoed to a delegation of US DoD in the early 90s. I had the chance to visit the Alekseyev Design Bureau in Nizhni-Novgorod in 96, where I could see the Spasatel in the assembly hall and a Volga-2 running on the Volga river. Keep in mind those machines are huge. The Orlyonok is as big as an Airbus 310. I hope it will be overhauled for display and I hope as well that the missile cruiser Lun' still in Kaspiysk will have the same fate.
A visitor from United States posted Mon July 2, 2007: What a rare sight...does this thing fly anymore?...it's a cross between a flying boat and a ACV/landing craft...it's technically the largest fixed wing aircraft to fly...what a monster!
A visitor from Russian Federation posted Mon July 2, 2007: To visitor from US: yes there are two jet engines in the nose of this monster
A visitor from Russian Federation posted Mon July 2, 2007: That's Moscow city, Tushino district, 10 minutes from my house. There is a museum in the sub, I suppose they will probably make the A-90 open to the public, too.
A visitor from Italy posted Sun July 1, 2007: A very rare shot!!! great! A ground-effect vehicle isn't a common see! this is the first picture of such a vehicle I see
A visitor from United States posted Sun July 1, 2007: This must be one of a kind plane... A propeller in the back and what are those two huge holes under the cockpit window? Jet engine intakes?... Crazy design!
A visitor from United States posted Sun July 1, 2007: No, it's not a plane, it's a ground-effect vehicle.
A visitor from Sweden posted Sun July 1, 2007: Great one. Never seen like this one before. But, what is that thing?
A visitor from Australia posted Sun July 1, 2007: An extraordinary photo although it is heartbreaking to see the A-90 in such disrepair. More information on the location of the photo would be appreciated.
A visitor from United Kingdom posted Sun July 1, 2007: I thought it was a boat
A visitor from Hong Kong posted Fri June 29, 2007: WOW! Is it a plane? Nice, a unique shot in a.net!

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