Have you ever come across a vehicle that looks like an airplane but is not designed for the sky? If you haven’t followed the Cold War agenda well enough or lived in the Soviet Union, your answer is probably “no”.

The “KM Screenoplan” project, one of the most interesting breakthroughs of the USSR in history, is exactly the kind that fits our description above.

First of all, let’s clarify what KM Screenoplan is and what it is.

KM Displayoplan, also known as the “Lun-Class Screenoplan”, was a massive cargo delivery vehicle with wings and capable of flying over water.

Screenoplan, which resembles an airplane in shape but fulfills the functions of ships, is a vehicle that fundamentally shakes the perception of transportation for some of us, not only with its working logic, but also because of its existence and function.

The function of this gigantic vehicle, which can weigh up to 550 tons and carry up to 100 tons of cargo, was to transport heavy cargoes and vehicles on the route from Soviet Central Asia to the Soviet Caucasus across the Caspian Sea. It is thought that this vehicle, which has 4 cannon barrels with its later armament, was also tried to be turned into a warship.

Contrary to popular belief, the working logic of the ekranoplan does not consist of flying on the water or swimming on the water surface.

Yes, you heard right. Traveling over a layer called the “enormous unstable zone” between the air and water surface, the ekranoplan technically neither touched the water nor flew.

It could sink through the “enormous unstable zone” layer if it came close to water, or if it moved away from the layer itself, it could damage itself by being affected by the air current. For this reason, it was necessary to provide this layer balance very well. When the necessary balance was achieved, the vehicle was capable of going as far as 2000 kilometers.

In short, how to classify the progress logic of this tool is therefore a matter of debate even today.

With the failure of the project and the collapse of the USSR, the ekranoplans were left to rot.

Since it was a very expensive project and ships were more advantageous in every aspect, the ekranoplans were forgotten over time.

• The image is of an ekranoplan left to rot on the shores of Dagestan.