Alexeev’s Hydrofoil Design Bureau is set to design a river-going ekranoplane, IAA PortNews correspondent cites Sergey Italyantsev, General Director of the design bureau, as saying at the meeting of working group Marinet held in Moscow on 24 March 2020.
According to the speaker, the interest to ekranoplane for 40 passengers has been expressed by the Government of Yakutiya. It can be used in the Ob-Irtysh and other IWW basins. The design also has a good export potential.
Among the ekranoplane advantages are its high cruising speed (200 km/h) and economical efficiency as compared with other high-speed passenger ships. Besides, it can land on the beach.
The payback period of the ekranoplane on the Yakutsk-Olekminsk route is estimated at 17.5 days with the ticket cost of RUB 4,000 (at expenditures per passenger of RUB 8,000). A ten-year leasing and subsidies are taken into consideration.
The ekranoplane will be equipped with a power plant of Russian origin (OOO “NPTs LKT”).
The total cost of the ekranoplane is estimated at RUB 812 million including about RUB 440 million for the construction of the prototype and the rest of the amount to be spent for designing and other activities.
Working group Marinet supports the project.
JSC Alekseev`s Design Bureau builds high-speed civil, dual-purpose and military vehicles based on various hydrodynamic principles. These are hovercraft and hydrofoils, air cavity craft and gliding boats with different bottom configuration, multipurpose platforms and ekranoplanes.