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For many it is one of the most fascinating aircraft ever built, although technically this “Lun class” Ekranoplan, the only armed model ever produced, is considered a hybrid between a plane and a ship. The Ekranoplan, long in service during the Cold War, and nicknamed “the monster of the Caspian Sea” due to its deployment in the stretch of water between Russia and Iran, could fly on the surface of the water by exploiting what in aeronautics is known as the “ground effect”.
This mammoth plane weighing 380 tons, capable of reaching 550 km / h, was abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and remained in the Kaspiysk naval base before being transported just two years ago. on a stretch of coast about 100 km from Derbent, where the Government intends to become the main attraction of a theme park where you can get a close look at other Soviet war machinery.