Sometimes I think the former Soviet Union would fund any crazy idea their scientists could conceive of. The latest example is the Lun Ekranoplan, an aircraft so large and bizarre that the US officials created a special drone just to monitor its testing says a new book on Area 51.
The Lun ekranoplan weighs 380 tons, has a 148-foot wingspan and can launch six anti-ship missiles from flight. Or rather, it could, before it was retired to a forlorn pier in southern Russia.
You have to hand it to the Russians, they take the phrase go big or go home to heart.