The Tupolev Gullwing was made by the Russian military to be an
amphibious boat/sled used to pick up cosmonauts downed in
Siberia after their spaceflights..."What packs 365 horsepower,
incorporates a pair of gullwing
doors, and can transport a 630-pound payload at more than 90 mph
across the Siberian tundra? It could only be the Tupolev N007,
one of the oddest and most remarkable pieces of formerly secret
Soviet machinery to be flushed out by the blossoming of a
Western market economy.

Though background information is sometimes contradictory, the
Tupolev N007 appears to have been developed back in 1961 by
Andrei Tupolev, the father of Soviet aviation, as a rescue
vehicle for cosmonauts who fell back to earth on the wastelands
of the western U.S.S.R. Small enough to be carried in the belly
of a Soviet cargo helicopter, the N007 could cross ice, snow,
lakes and swamps with impunity--just the vehicle to lift the
spirits of any cosmonaut stranded in a hostile, trackless
territory.

http://tinyurl.com/25wxyry

Dale Callaway Via Reeves Callaway


Interesting air boat. Unfortunately, the journalists on the webpage throw in too
much imagination. There is nothing in the design that would indicate "ground
effect" or "hover" capability. There are no wings, therefore no ground effect
lift (look up ikranoplan). I don't see a skirt, or indication of any ducted
fans, no "hover" capability.
It's a very cool vehicle just the same.
C. Smith