Beriev A-40

The Beriev A-40 Albatros, with the NATO reporting name Mermaid, is a Soviet and Russian jet-powered amphibious flying boat designed by Beriev for anti-submarine warfare. It was meant to replace the turboprop Be-12 amphibian and the land-based Ilyushin Il-38, but the project was suspended after one prototype was built and a second was 70 percent complete, because the Soviet Union broke up. The aircraft is an all-metal jet flying-boat patrol bomber with its engines above the wing roots, swept high wings with marked anhedral and balance floats under the wingtips. Its maiden flight in 1986 was unplanned, when a high-speed taxi test became a takeoff. The design was revived as the A-42 search and rescue version, and the Russian Navy announced an order for three in 2019, while its civil successor, the Be-200, has been marketed more successfully.