I’m not entirely convinced that we can call these things “planes” given the fact that they don’t actually fly.. To travel they rely on ground effect forces that allowed them to “fly” a few meters off the ground at serious speeds and while carrying enormous loads.

My favorite has always been the Caspian Monster. Everything about it just looks lean and fast. With 8 jet engines up front it actually reminds me of the jet trains and how they were pulled along the rails.

Designed to carry over 100 tons of cargo at speeds of 250 miles per hour, they were intended to be used on the Caspian and Black Seas as military transports. But what really amazes me is that as late as 1985 these things were still being funded. Originally 120 planes were planned, but in the end only 4 were operational (3 A-90 Orlyonok and 1 Lun-class) when funding was pulled..

In the early 1970s the Russians followed the American jet train research by sticking two Yak-40 turbo-jet engines to the lead car of an ER22 train. The SVL (high-speed laboratory car) was intended to be used on the Troika Express and during testing is was able to reach speeds of 180mph (250km/hr)..

Like it’s American counterpart it never really went any further than that.. We can only guess, but I suspect that the only more expensive than trying to fly over dirt would be trying to fly over dirt on rails.. Jet fuel costs, noise levels, and probably just the fact that this is plane old silly contributed to the closing of the programs in both countries..

It’s a real shame that when projects like this end there is no budget for storing them for later viewing.

I love weird tech, and it’s really hard to beat the weirdness that the cold war created here and in Russia.. I grew up at the tail end of the cold war that Ronald Reagan, all praise his name, helped bring to an end while I was still in high school.. Anyway, where was I?? Oh, right, jet powered trains.. Really, jet powered trains..

In 1966 New York Central converted a Rail Diesel Car in to a jet powered train by adding a pair of General Electric J47-19 turbojet engines.. Normally these engines sit under the wing tip of a Convair B-36D intercontinental bomber.

To help the train cut through the air better a large nose was added to the train. Apparently it was pretty fast too. It reached 184mph on it’s way to Ohio. Not too bad for a train in the 60s..

The jet trains don’t end here. I found a Russian version made just a few years later.. But more on that in a few days..