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

Thanks for the post, Dale. This is intriguing!

And, Craig: your instinct is right :)

When I saw the picture, it just strike me that I _should_ have seen this
thing before!

And, so it was. That thing is a Tupolev A-3, buoyant airsled, built for
arctic conditions. A couple of those was bought to Canada and Finland
for trials. Tupolev site states that production run was about 700.

There is no airdam or air-cushion effect. It is just a sled with prop on
it. And what comes to "N007" marking, "top secret" and cosmonauts... :D
that fella bought this for a couple of bucks, and seemed to get 186.000
USD from it on an auction recently :D Well Done!
A healthy dose of poetic license seems to go a long way! :D :D

Those type of crafts are used eg. here in Finnish archipelago at autumn
and spring, when sea is either just frosted or melted to pieces. Boats
are not useful then, and you cannot drive a car or snow tractor there
either. So the concept is similar to Florida swamp airboats, but these
ones are optimized for snow, ice and ice boulder conditions.
Here's a recent version of this concept:
http://www.airboats.fi/
(could be lighter and better with 2x13B-MSP with interlinking PSRU)


And here's the Tupolev site quote:
"In the 70-s- 80-s the A-3 airsleigh of the second generation was built
and operated successfully.
The main distinguishing feature of the machine is the housing made in
the shape of the boat-ski and aircraft engine of 350 HP. This provided
high amphibian characteristics of the airsleigh. During forty years more
than 700 machines were operated by communication workers, geologists and
frontier guards. The airsleighs were sold to Canada, Finland, Hungary."
http://www.tupolev.ru/English/Show.asp?SectionID=79

Cheers!
Petri in Finland