WIG craft, a new word in aviation

Moscow: Journalists accompanying Russia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to the Volga region reported from Nizhny Novgorod that a national shipbuilding strategy for the 2008-2015 period would be approved the following year.
Under this plan, Russia will develop and produce high-speed hovercraft and wing-in-ground (WIG) craft. These transport systems will also be used in the civilian sector.
However, experts have serious reasons to doubt that the unique, albeit extremely costly, WIG craft, which fly several meters above the water at a high speed, can be used to carry passengers. Moreover, it appears that their production will not be resumed in the near future for several reasons.
It is, however, a real sensation that Kremlin leaders are now focusing on the futuristic WIG craft, which were developed in the Soviet era and were likened to alien space ships only a few years ago.
Sergei Ivanov recently said in Nizhny Novgorod that WIG craft could also serve as commercial cargo-passenger transport systems, especially if such countries as India, China and insular South East Asian states joined this program.
29/09/06 RIA Novosti military commentator Viktor Litovkin/RIA Novosti, Russia

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