Efficiency of Ekranoplanes Application for Chemical Processing of Agricultural Fields

The paper analyzes the advantages of ekranoplanes compared to light aircraft in solving the problems of chemical processing of agricultural land. The history and development prospects of the WIG-craft technologies are described. The problems of improving the performance of ekranoplanes with intelligent means of automatic control are formulated and the effective trajectories of their flight for a gricultural field processing are recommended. It is shown that the ekranoplane’s maneuverability is worse than of an aircraft, because a large roll angle is unacceptable and turn is provided mainly due to the operation of the rudder, and not due to the ailerons as in an aircraft. Large ekranoplanes are more efficient in solving the transport problems, and small ones – in agriculture, and their development should be complementary. The ability of ekranoplanes to fly at extremely low a ltitudes using the ground effect with high aerodynamic quality and higher carrying capacity is their main advantage over small aircraft.