Sea-going passenger ekranoplan craft for 550 passengers

   The sea-going passenger ekranoplan is designed for high-speed transportation of passengers and cargos in the offshore and closed sea water areas with aviation speeds on the lines of average length from 1500 up to 3000 km during the natural day, including hard meteorological conditions.
In opinion of flight participants on the big ekranoplans-analogs, one might say that indelibility of impressions from the screen effect is a pledge of this new type of transport’s special appeal both for business passengers and tourists. For them dynamic sea trip on the ekranoplan will be well combined with the possibility of more enduring stay on the shore in comparison with ordinary (slow-speed) sea cruises.
During the development of passenger ekranoplan optimization of an analog is provided by means of removing from it special devices and articles not necessary for the passenger ekranoplan as well as for the improvement of a series of constructively-configuration solutions.

   
Construction and configuration peculiarities

The ekranoplan will represent a cantilever monoplane including the fuselage of streamlined form with hydrodynamic elements in the underbody, low wing of small elongation and developed tail unit.
The fuselage of the ekranoplan has relatively simple semimonocoque construction and it is divided by configuration into three parts: the nose part, the middle part and tail part.
The cabin and crew room are situated in the nose part of the fuselage, as well as booster engines, compartments with electronic equipment, including radar station, located in the nose of fuselage in the radiotransparent radome.
In the middle part of the fuselage passenger saloon are situated on two deck, outfitted with aviation arm-chairs, audio-videoequipment, electronic communications facilities.
The tail part comprises: baggage compartment with a stern door, compartments of auxiliary engines and units, providing for starting of mid-flight and booster engines, working capacity of ekranoplan’s hydraulic and electric systems.
Fuel tanks-compartments ate located in the left and right wing panels. On the whole the wing as well as the fuselage represents an air-proof watertight construction, which provides buoyancy of the ekranoplan afloat. At the same time, the necessary stability and unsinkability are provided, achieved owing to the division of fuselage underbody and wing into waterproof compartments.
The main power plant consists of two or three propulsion screw- ventilation engines of NK-93 type and four booster turbofan engines of NK-87 type by «Samarsky N.D. Kuznetsov scientific and technical complex” construction.
The screw-ventilation engines of NK-93 type provide economical cruising flight and are located on ekranoplan’s tail plane. Such a relatively elevated arrangement of the propulsion engines is determined by the necessity of their removal from the splashes of sea water when starting, landing and run of ekranoplan, as well as the reduction of possible engines’ salinization during the flight from aerosols of sea atmosphere which saturation depends, as is well known, on the height above the surface.
The booster engines are working only during take-off of ekranoplan and are equipped with steering exhaust nozzles, designed for direction change of engines' flows:
- during the run - under the wing for the creation of air cushion (“feed” mode);
- during the change to the cruising regime –on the horizontal thrust, ensuring speeding-up of the ekranoplan up to the cruising speed.
The necessity of the mentioned operating modes of the booster engines determined their disposition in the fuselage’s forebody with a certain angle of installation in regard to ekranoplan’s longitudinal axis.
Air inlets of the booster engines and the engines are inscribed in the general contour of ekranoplan’s bow for the purpose of aerodynamic drag’s reduction.
The feed of gaseous streams from the turbines under the wing during the start ensures reduction of hydrodynamic resistance and external hydrodynamic loads, which is particularly important during ekranoplan’s take-off in the conditions of rough sea. “The feed” is used for the same purposes during ekranoplan’s landing in the run modes.
Main systems of the ekranoplan (control system, hydraulics system, power-supply system, life support system, radio and navigation equipment systems, etc.) are performed in the aviation version with the appropriate doubling and system redundancy to ensure safe operation of the ekranoplan.
Special attention should be given to the issues of provision of construction and equipment working capacity in sea conditions. They have been approved by now on the flight models of ekranoplans. The developed technology of parts’ production of corrosion-resistant aluminium alloys, adaption of equipment and systems to the sea conditions will be applied in full measure when developing the sea-going passenger ekranoplan.