Awesome! Please tell me they have that thing parked in a hanger somewhere. Maybe we can talk Paul Allen into buying it to go with his submarine.
But what happens if you put it on a treadmill?
It seems to still be around:
Though that is in the Caspian sea, while some sources say it was operating in the Black sea, and I don’t think there’s any way to go between with one of those. Then I thought it might be the KM ekranoplan “Caspian Sea Monster”, but it does seem to have three rows of launchers as the Lun, and the KM is on the sea floor :(. Also, towards the end of the video below, the location seems similar to the satellite shot in Google maps. So it probably is the Lun, and the other sources are incorrect.
All fast vessel types use a lot of fuel so only light cargo can be taken. For passanger craft, standard solution nowadays seems to be hydrofoils for small ships and catamarans for larger (but not big) ships. For large ships the solution so far has been to give it up.
If you need a long route (with usually potentially bad weather) the conventional mono-hull cruise ship or ropax ferry with active fins is safer and has smoother ride than any other system. There’s only so much speed you can get with it but since you can’t compromise safety it’s the way to go. In really long routes it is the aircraft that dominates. Technically and economically you could replace that with an ekranoplan but you need a lot of customers who are ready to bear storms. What exploded the air travel was taking the planes above weather.
The unconventional ship types are used in short routes. Those are often passages with a lot of traffic so fast ships going across the straight are always in danger of hitting a very slow tanker. In that sense the ekranoplan has probably exactly the very same non-technical problems as other types of fast craft. This is a serious problem because you can’t start your production based on areas where the teeming millions live.
As for economic model, a short route operator wants as short time at port as possible. Increasing speed will result in increasing fuel costs and decreased time for the passangers to buy beer. So do everything to fill the ship up as fast as possible. If you think that you’re still too slow after that, give the vessel speed a thought , but it usually comes to nothing because of the rocketing fuel cost. The result is that ferrys are not at all as fast as they technically could be.
The future of both hovercraft and ekranoplan could be more in certain ice conditions than open sea conditions. And then there’s always a niche where noise, money and ride comfort don’t count: the military.
I have flown a hovercraft (yes they call driving it ‘flying’) for the fire service. It’s primary official use is water and ice rescue, it’s primary actual use is a enjoyable training day at the lake.
For ice rescue it is most likely the best possible craft as the weight is spread out over the greatest area + if it does break through the ice it doesn’t care and just keeps going. It can travel from beach to water to ice. One down side is that it is riding like a air hockey puck and if you are trying to get to a person you have to be aware of the maneuverability issues. Another 2 advantages is that the craft is very light, and it can go in shallow water, even swamps (but we have not tried that), and areas where you may have to travel over land and water to reach someone.
Don’t forget a lousy air vehicle too.
I rode the hovercraft across the English Channel. I was all excited to take this nice smooth ride. I guess there was a fair amount of chop that day (but I have no point of comparison). Anyway, it was like being on an amusement park ride for an hour. I had to do everything to keep from losing my lunch. Never again!