Caspian Sea Monster Ekranoplan Flight Video. Uploaded by WatchKomrade on Jul 31, 2009. These craft were originally developed by the Soviet Union as very high-speed military transports, and were based mostly on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The largest had max take-off weight over 544 tonnes. About 120 ekranoplans (A-90 Orlyonok class) were initially planned to enter military service in the Soviet Navy. After the collapse of the Soviet Union smaller ekranoplans for non-military use have been under development. The CHDB had already developed the eight-seat Volga-2 in 1985, and Technologies and Transport developed a smaller version by the name of Amphistar.