The "float" plane: Why the Cold War Technology returns (video)

This is an scranoplan and it is in fashion, since China and the US are developing modern versions of a long -known vehicle for a possible military clash in the Pacific, New Scientist writes. In focus. Technology has appeared its Telegram channel.

Subscribe not to miss the latest and most intrusive news from the world of science! The scranoplan is a vehicle moving above the water surface using the screen effect (interaction with the air cushion formed between the wings and the surface) to maintain in the air. Scranoplasts combine the characteristics of both vessels and aircraft, and can develop high speed.

According to Malcolm Davis from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, scranoplasts are reminiscent of large aircraft, but rather similar to high -speed warships because they "fly" at an altitude of several meters above the ocean. The air cushion between the scranoplast and water can simultaneously maintain it and reduce aerodynamic resistance.

Scranoplasts are usually faster than ships, because they move almost at aircraft speed, but their advantage is that they are difficult to detect surface or air radars. Such hydroceters could secretly and quickly deliver goods or troops over long distances in the Indo-Pacific region, or cause sudden strikes with anti-ship missiles on enemy fleets, Davis says. This technology became known for the first time in the Cold War, when scientists with the USSR tried to create an scranoplan.

But because of the lack of funding and limited utility for the Soviet military, this project was not fully implemented, says Davis. The present interest in scrano plans emerged against the background of how China uses its growing military power to make territorial claims on Taiwan and the South Chinese Sea. China has begun to develop scranoplasts from the early 2000s, says Ben Lewis, an independent military analyst from Washington.

More recently, in June 2025, even photos of a hydrolycetic with four jet engines mounted on the wings appeared on Chinese social networks. The Department of Prospective Research Projects of the US Department of Defense (Darpa) financed the development of a similar hydro -lifetime under its Liberty Lifter program since 2022. But the program ended in June 2025. No scranoplan has been created. But the agency plans to involve private companies in the implementation of this project.

The American company Regent Craft is testing a fully electrical version of the Hydro -Linger, designed on the basis of scranoplan technology, for commercial use, which has aroused interest in the US Marine Corps. According to the American expert in the aerospace industry, Brendan Malani, modern scranoplanz can be an affordable and intelligent alternative to a more expensive traditional aircraft as technologies and methods of production develop.

But they will not be the basis of any armed forces and almost certainly will not survive in modern highly intensive fighting, the expert says. According to Lewis, such hydroceters can be very difficult to use in difficult conditions in the Taiwanese Strait and other waters of East Asia. But according to Davis, these vehicles can become part of China's military strategy to counteract the US naval forces and their allies, which can be deployed in support of Taiwan.

The possibility of conflict in the Pacific has increased the need to study new technologies that can provide additional advantage, says Lewis. Focus also wrote that the French fighter manufacturer presented a project of a new supersonic aircraft that would fly into space. As focus has already written, in a new study, scientists conducted an unusual experiment, they decided to find out what would be with a paper airplane if it is dumped from the ISS.