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Passenger ground effect vehicle seating 100 to be created in Russia in 2020-2022

According to the vehicle's designers, it is a fundamentally new and promising type of transport
A model of sea-based multipurpose ground effect vehicle Valery Matytsin/TASS
A model of sea-based multipurpose ground effect vehicle
© Valery Matytsin/TASS

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. Sea-based multirole ground effect vehicle Chaika (Seagull) will be created in Russia in 2020-2022, the executive director of the research and industrial association Radar MMS, Ivan Antsev said.

"Designer documentation is being drafted for this project at the moment. Work is in progress on its model and the details of control, piloting, navigation and radio-electronic systems. Scale models have been tested. We are determined to make Chaika fly in the near future. It is realistic to expect it will materialize in 2020-2022," he said.

"Chaika is a ground effect vehicle (sometimes referred to as flying yacht) having a displacement of 54 tonnes capable of carrying 100 passengers. Inside it will look like a plane and have a crew of two," Antsev said. Chaika will be about 35 meters long and carry a payload of nine tonnes. It will be used for carrying passengers, in emergencies, for ecological monitoring and cargo transportation.

"In principle I can say that the government is interested in GEV vehicles. We are working in this direction… The GEVs are a fundamentally new and promising type of transport. It can approach unequipped coast, fly over rough seas and carry large payloads," Antsev said.