monstrous vehicle - part ship, part airplane - is on a beach by the caspian sea in the reblic of dagestanthe ekranoplan, or screen glider, was designed for military use - presumably against the west. aligadzhi abdulgalimov served as flight engineer on test flights for the wing ship, or ground-effect vehicle, as they're generically known. colloquially, this one is called the caspian sea monster. >> i operated the propulsion units from here. it's a great machine - just incredible. >> the first wing ship was designed in the 1960s. it was meant to guard russia s -- rusa's coastlines and fight enemy ships - while staying undetected by radar aerodynamic interaction with thisthe surface beneath. thwings crte just enough lift to carry the 380 -ton giant a w meters above the water. ♪ >> but it never saw genuine service. fourteen years after the caspian sea monster s launch, the soviet union collapsed. and test flights were ended. >> there are hardly words. we were so proud of our country at the time for developing such - let's call them products -- unlike what any other country in the world had! a