The A90 Orlyonok was designed with an intent that it could be used in an amphibious assault role.
It was the only one of the big ekranoplans with a limited amphibious capability. It had small wheel
on the bottom that were used as a beaching gear which it could use to leave the water, but only on
hard surfaces.
When it came to landing on and leaving a beach, things weren't so great as it had no ability to back
off of the beach, even with the big Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop mounted up on the fin.
These photos show the problems inherent to the type, landing wasn't so bad but in order to leave the
beach it had to use the forward blowing engines and swing about to leave the beach.
The results of that maneuver aren't pretty. The lower photo is a frame from a film of beach landing tests,
I'm quite sure that their Marines weren't impressed with the results.
The amount of spray, and no doubt noise, as it approaches the beach means that it would be not be in
any way stealthy and keeping separation between the craft in an assault would be critically important,
especially at night or in weather conditions that were already limiting visibility. Imagine the mess as
several machines are swinging about to leave the beach.
Image from:
High Speed Marine Craft: One Hundred Knots at Sea, Peter J. Mantle, 2015, Cambridge
University Press, NY
