But first, let’s go back to how and why such a machine was ever even thought to be built. After the end of World War II, the two major world players, the USA and the Soviet Union even though allies during the war, found themselves to be rivals at the end of it. With the emergence of nuclear bombs that could vaporize whole cities in a matter of seconds, the ideological conflict between both nations and the spread of both Capitalism and Communism around the world gave raise to one of the biggest and most dangerous rivalries humanity had ever witnessed.
As both countries tried to impose themselves as the biggest superpower at the time, while simultaneously being very careful to not overreach and cause an actual worldwide apocalypse, eventually they started developing alternative ways of showing off their superiority.
Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare, with the spread of misinformation in the respective rival’s population, propaganda campaigns, to convince other countries and themselves that war was worth it, espionage, rivalry at sports events and technological competitions such as the famous Space Race.
That is the reason the Cold War got its nick name, because no actual war ever happened, but as I said, neither country was standing still. On the Soviet Union side there was the development of infamous weapons such as the AK-47, the Tsar Bomba and the Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bomber, on the American side they presented the world with the SS-18 IBM, the F-4 Phantom II and the USS George Washington submarines, but none of these was quite as intriguing as the topic of this video.
You see, the Soviet Union navy was facing a challenge, when winter came about, the lakes and seas of the country would freeze and all the boats would get stuck for months at a time and be useless sitting ducks waiting to get bombarded, while during summer even though they were operational they weren’t quite fast enough to be in and out of battle zones without being targeted, so they had an idea.
Why not use an aerodynamic effect known as “ground effect” to add extra lift to a massive aircraft shaped vehicle and make it fly lower than any airplane and faster than any boat, and that’s exactly what they did.
The Caspian Sea Monster became the biggest airplane ever built at the time, with it being twice as heavy as any aircraft of the same era but far more efficient and faster, it was effectively a flying ship. The vehicle could reach top speeds of nearly 700km/h and cruise over any flat surface such as water, ice and even land, at a more modest speed of 430 km/h, but most of all, it was stealthy.
The also known by then, as Project 903, was capable of moving tanks and troops rapidly beneath enemy radar, was capable of carrying payloads of around 50% more than an equivalent sized plane yet using half the fuel, and with leading edge defence weapons it was still able of completing its missions even if detected.
It flew four metres above the surface of the water meaning that, unlike a ship, it was safe from underwater torpedoes, and it is speculated that it would have had a deadly potential as a missile-gunship defending the Soviet Caspian or Black Seas, seeing they have relatively calm waters.
Its record for largest aircraft in the world in 1966 was only broke by Antonov An-225 Mriya in 1988, eight years after the KM's destruction, but it is still seats proudly in second spot till this day. It was at first seen as a promising vehicle specialized for use by military and rescue workers but its design caused many difficulties, from the limited location and conditions it could be operated to more specific engineering faults.
Select video clips courtesy of Pexels
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