Turn Ekranoplan into Museum, Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Said

16.02.2012 Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod Oleg Kondrashov came up on his LiveJournal blog with a proposal to mount uncompleted ground effect vehicle (GEV, also known as "ekranoplan") Spasatel as a monument in the city park on the bank of the Volga River.

The mayor firstly voiced this idea few days ago visiting Volga Shipyard in Nizhny Novgorod. Project 09037 search-and-rescue GEV Spasatel has been staying in one of the yard's workshops for many years. The vessel was built on the basis of Project 903 "flying warship" Lun which was the world's only missile-carrying ekranoplan.

"We're about to ask for defense ministry's assistance in establishing an open-air museum or monument in Nizhny Novgorod. That would be a brilliant example of solicitous attitude to history. In that way we could preserve samples of outstanding achievements done by Nizhny Novgorod scientists", posted Kondrashov on his blog. "So, I'm asking for your opinion, dear citizens. Should we mount the monument? That won't cost much", he added.

Construction of search-and-rescue GEV (serial number S-33) was kicked off at Volga Shipyard in 1988. As of Jan 2002, completeness of the Project 09037 ekranoplan was 95.7%. Since that time, financing of the project was cut off and future of Spasatel as well as missile-carrying GEV Lun was obscure.

Perhaps, in the nearest time defense ministry would decide to dismantle Lun located in Kaspiysk (Dagestan, Russia), since defense budget provides no funds for the vessel's maintenance. Public group from Nizhny Novgorod has prepared and addressed a letter to the city administration proposing to preserve Lun as a museum making it the symbol of Nizhny Novgorod.

Lun and Spasatel were created by famous designer and native of Nizhny Novgorod Rostislav Alekseyev, who invented and designed hydrofoil vessels and ekranoplans.

Although missile-carrying GEV Lun had successfully passed trials late 80's, the military waived the project.