00.30 — 06.05

First sighting, by a high-flying US spy plane, of what came to be known as the Caspian Sea Monster. Twice the size of a B-52 bomber (the US Air Force’s biggest aeroplane), it was designed to fly just above the ocean surface. The Central Hydrofoil Bureau, where the Ekranoplan was designed. Ekranoplans — ‘ships that learnt to fly’ — make use of a new area of research in aerodynamics.

06.05 — 16.50

How Ekranoplans make effective use of wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) flight. The development of hydrofoil boat design into giant Ekranoplans. The great success of the first trial flight.

16.50 — 20.20

The development of the combat Ekranoplan, and the last known flight of one of the only two such craft still kept and maintained by the Russian military.

20.20 — 26.45

The development by the old Ekranoplan team and by a German team of small civilian craft which make use of WIG flight. A design problem faced by all such craft: they have no natural stability. How the delta wing shape provides the stability for one of the German designs.

26.45 — 34.00

The technically simple solution to stability adopted by another German designer: the Flairboat — a boat with wings rather than a plane designed to fly low over the water. The wings can ‘sense’ the waves and always stay above them. But the design suffers from the drawback faced by all ground-effect craft: it needs a lot of power to take off, especially in choppy water. The skirted Hoverwing as a solution to the problem: a cross between a Flairboat and a hovercraft.

34.00 — 39.00

The giant Russian Ekranoplan — 300 feet long and 60 feet high — that has been under construction since 1981, but which may never be finished due to poor funding.

39.00 — end

The future of the Russian Ekranoplan. Commercial development of lightweight Ekranoplans for the Western market, funded by Taiwanese and American money, and the development of a new range of giant ocean-going craft. How top-secret cold-war Russian technology may provide twenty-first-century America with a entirely new type of military vessel — a triumph of engineering over politics.