• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

S-90 Ekranoplane

The S-90 ekranolet was designed as a non-aerodrome-based multifunctional aviation vehicle for transporting passengers and goods in regions with undeveloped infrastructure, where it is not economically feasible to build roads and airfields with natural surface or to maintain unpaved runways.

A distinctive feature of the aircraft is its ability to fly at altitudes of up to 3,000 m at a range of 1,500 km and to fly at a height of several meters to a range of 3,000 km with the same load. The main feature of the new aircraft is that, thanks to the air-cushioned chassis, an airfield is not required for its base. As the chief designer of S-90 notes, this allows the use of a flying vehicle in remote areas of the Far North to replace Mi-8 class helicopters and dramatically reduces airfield maintenance costs.

The S-90 ekranolet is intended for operation in three main modes:

1. local airline aircraft with an air-cushion chassis (Ball Screw);
2. ekranoplan;
3. hovercraft (SVP) / self-propelled barge.

This allows combining several features in one type of vehicle:

• flight “on the screen” over low-water sections of the water surface with waves up to 2 points and long, even land with an uneven height of not more than 0.5 m with high fuel efficiency and comfort (no bumpy) similar to high-altitude flights of airplanes with a pressure cabin
• safe, economical “airplane” flight (in cat. FAR25) in the conditions of impossibility of flying “on the screen” (storm, lack of extended smooth surfaces, when flying around obstacles and in mountainous areas).
• “helicopter-based” (“micro-point take-off / landing with ball screws”) - for lowland areas where there are no prepared sites and there is no need for vertical take-off / landing.
• application as a universal cargo platform for transportation inside the cargo compartment or with open top hatches (in the cargo and passenger version) of maximum weight (Gmax = 4500 kg) or oversized cargo (Vmah = 3.65m, Nmah = 1.85m, Lmah = 4.60m) in SVP or displacement mode.

Airborne electronic equipment was based on modern integrated elements and systems to perform aerodrome, route (along the MVL airways of category 1 and 2), route and off-route flights, flights in sparsely populated and non-reference areas in simple and difficult weather conditions, day and night, at altitudes up to 4000 m. and also flights "on the screen".

The large volume of the passenger compartment (seat pitch = 762 mm (30 "), seat width = 440 mm, passage width = 440 mm, maximum height in the passage = 1850 mm) allowed the plane to comfortably carry: 25 passengers with a toilet, kitchen and wardrobe; 31 passengers in the embodiment without service or freight embodiment inside the cargo compartment two LD-3 container or loads with (B * H * L) max = (2.6 * 1.6 * 3.6) m with a maximum mass of 4500kg.

The much larger Sukhoi S-90-200 was originally designed to carry passengers, military troops or cargo on routes laying over the water surface or flat terrain. Proposed as an amphibious vehicle for regions not equipped with airfields and support facilities.

The program conducted marketing research showed that the potential Russian market for S-90 it will reach 2000. Upon receipt of appropriate funding, it will take at least three years to create a prototype of the new ekranoleta. At the third international air show "Gelendzhik-2000", which was held from September 6 to 10, Design Bureau named after P.O. Sukhoi was first introduced by a unique project of the S-90 ekranolet. The lead developer of the S-90 project is Alexander Polyakov. The Ministry of Emergencies showed great interest in the S-90, but the lack of financial resources for the development of specialized aircraft for the ministry did not allow talking about the possibility of purchasing the S-90.

A working sample of the ekranolet was supposed to be demonstrated in 2000 at the Gelendzhik-2000 air show, but for undeclared reasons the demonstration did not take place. On the site of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, information about the S-90 is completely missing.