The old Soviet Union carried out top-secret work on ground effect aircraft
for 30 years in the closed city of Gorky. Satellite photographs, taken 15
years ago, showed a huge aircraft 100 metres long, with a wingspan of 40
metres, skimming just over the Caspian Sea. The legend of the ‘Caspian Sea
Monster’ was born but Western analysts had very little hard data about the
craft.

Now Boris Chubikov, director of Russia’s Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau,
is going public in an effort to attract outside funding for further development
and western expertise. Last week he released the first close-up photograph
of the craft.

The method of flying has been known for several decades without being
effectively harnessed. At a certain height above the surface, usually equivalent
to 10 to 25 per cent of the width of the wing where it joins the fuselage,
air is tightly compressed beneath the plane. Riding on this cushion of
air, at typically anything from 2 metres to 5 metres, large economies of
fuel are possible, particularly on journeys across oceans.

These economies can be further enhanced with the use of ‘screens’, metal
flaps beneath the wing which run parallel to the main fuselage, or with
vertical winglets attached to the tip of each wing. These devices increase
the compression of air under the wing.

Last week in Moscow Chubikov met Peter Thomasson, head of flight dynamics
at Cranfield College of Aeronautics, and other British aviation experts.
During the visit, Chubikov revealed his latest ‘Ekranoplan’ craft which
will combine high-efficiency flight with a hovercraft’s ability to come
directly ashore and pull up in a very short space. If necessary the aircraft
can soar to several thousand metres to overcome a large coastal feature,
such as the cliffs of Dover.

On the Ekranoplan several jet engines are slung low on the fuselage
near the front of the airframe blowing air which is trapped by the squat
wings. ‘We understand that one of these planes will be near completion in
about 18 months’ time,’ said Thomasson.

The British visitors were shown a video of operations. ‘The video was
very exciting – up to now there have only been artists’ impressions to go
on,’ said Thomasson.

The Russians’ own estimates suggest that the craft would use only 20
per cent of the fuel used by normal high-flying aircraft, giving a range
of 16 000 kilometres, with a cruising speed of 800 kilometres per hour.

Next month Alan Morris, professor of computational analysis at Cranfield,
will visit Moscow to follow up the collaboration. ‘Fly by wire techniques
and the use of materials would be the sort of areas where we could be usefully
involved,’ he said. The next step in the collaboration would be an application
to the European Commission for funds from its technical assistance programme
to support a feasibility study.

The fridge, which is light enough to be carried as a backpack, has been
developed at the Cranfield Institute of Technology, Bedfordshire. It will
be used to carry vaccines to people living in remote areas of the developing
world.

The fridge was designed specifically for Nepal. Around 10 per cent
of Nepal’s population live as much as a week’s walk away from the nearest
road and infant mortality figures can reach 30 per cent in some regions.
Measles, tuberculosis, whooping cough and polio are endemic.

The prototype runs on just 10 grams of kerosene a day, weighs only 22
kilograms and maintains a steady 5 °C. The fridge can run for up to
three days without being topped up with kerosene.

Kerosene is widely available in Nepal, even in the more remote areas,
where it is the commonest fuel for cooking and lighting. But ice, which
is needed to replenish conventional cool boxes, is not.

The backpack has a light alloy frame and supports a fridge of the type
used for hotel minibars. Liam Nagle, a student at Cranfield, adapted the
fridge. The design has won him a prize from the Institute of Refrigeration.

The key to Nagle’s design is a special burner which produces a small
intense flame and ensures that the exhaust flue holes do not clog up with
soot. ‘I wanted a simple burner and to avoid using a pressure system such
as a primus,’ he said.

‘When I initially tried a conventional wick it produced so much soot,
the flue became clogged and the device burned inefficiently.’

His solution was to design a cylindrical wick with a hole in the side.
Once lit the radiant heat evaporates fuel up the centre of the wick where
it mixes with air entering through the aperture at the side. This results
in a secondary flame which increases the efficiency of the burner without
generating large quantities of soot.

Cranfield has been working on keeping vaccine cold for four years. ‘We
started off with a survey of all available cold packs and found they were
mostly based on ice and varied enormously in price,’ said Paul O’Callaghan,
professor of mechanical engineering. ‘None was suitable for the conditions
in Nepal.’

Early experiments included a hand-cranked pack which would have tested
the endurance of many aid workers. It required two hours of cranking to
sustain the motor for 12 hours.

The spur for this research originally came through Princess Anne, who
is not only President of the Save the Children Fund, which is currently
running an international vaccination campaign, but is also a patron of the
Cranfield Trust. The trust was launched in 1989 to use the skills of the
institute’s staff for charitable causes.