Ekranoplans were just frakking cool. They need a new esthetic, maybe 'Jetpunk'?
A U.S. Navy Lockheed P2V-3C Neptune launches with "Jet-assisted take-off (JATO)" from the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) on 2 July 1951.
The early interim solution for a nuclear-capable “carrier based” bomber until the AJ Savage was ready. Twelve P2V-3Cs were converted, and while there had been plans to make them able to land aboard the one aircraft with a tail hook suffered severe structural damage during the shore-based testing and training. Thus, after a nuclear strike they would either have to land ashore or ditch. The Neptunes has to be craned aboard and until launch were a major headache: when parked forward only the port catapult could be used. Only the Midways were large enough for the beast, and as all were needed in the Mediterranean for potential nuclear strikes non saw service in Korea (two CVLs and eight CVEs were recommissioned as combat carriers for the conflict, I’d need to brush up on the number of Essexes brought back as this overlaps with early refits).For a time the Neptunes and Savages served together as the latter had some serious teething troubles. For example, during FDR’s 1951 Mediterranean deployment six Savages and three Neptunes were ashore in Morocco just in case tensions heightened and they needed a nuclear strike. The Savages has too many problems to deploy aboard regularly and the Neptunes as mentioned caused problems, but they were nearby just in case, and there were many demonstration launches like this.