>>2069842>>2072765>>2072803The problem with ekranoplans is the same one as hydrofoils: it's too dependent on sea state. If the waves get too high, then the ekranoplan loses the ground effect cushion, which suddenly cuts lift, and causes it to smash into the water. Even the relatively placid Caspian Sea was too much for the Lun class and A-90s.
An LA-SF route would have them flying over open ocean known for waves. Even worse, those waves would be traveling west-east, while the craft flies south-north. As the wave peakes travel across the wing span in flight, they would cause moving lift peaks which would induce a rolling moment on the craft. It would be terrible to fly, let alone ride.
That's to say nothing of the danger of having aircraft flying at wavetop height along a famously foggy coast with heavy ship traffic. There's an extreme collision risk to be sorted out.
All of the ekranoplans problems could be solved, however, by having them fly at higher altitude, overland routes like anon points out here
>>2069694. Ekranoplans are just bad airplanes that only work in a vanishingly small niche.
