Experimental aircraft of the world. Secret and experimental aircraft of the past and future. Unique Proteus aircraft

Hypersonic experimental vehicle Falcon 2. This is, no less, the fastest aircraft ever created by the US military. Falcon 2 is an experimental rocket-propelled glider designed to travel at Mach 22. His idea is to create a vessel that can reach anywhere on the planet and deliver a bomb payload within one hour, and to achieve this goal, DARPA has developed this durable and lightweight glider. To date, testing is not going as well as we would like, but the program is still in the development stage.

X-51 Waverider. The X-51 Waverider, created by Boeing in collaboration with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, was designed to exceed Mach 6—far beyond the capabilities of any current combat aircraft. It is launched into the atmosphere from a B-52 bomber and then uses its hydrocarbon fuel engine to accelerate to hypersonic speeds. The final test of the Waverider will take place later this year.

RQ-3 Darkstar. Military drones are on everyone's lips these days, but the concept of unmanned combat aircraft is nothing new. Lockheed-Martin pioneered the industry in the 1990s with its project codenamed "DarkStar". It was a top-secret mission to create an unmanned surveillance drone with stealth capabilities, and although the project was abandoned in 1998, rumors persist that it was brought back for black ops and used in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Sukhoi SU-47. One of Russia's best combat aircraft is the Sukhoi SU-47, an experimental supersonic fighter with a forward-swept wing. The unique aerodynamics of the fuselage gives the SU-47 unprecedented maneuverability at speeds exceeding Mach 1. And although the fighter never went into mass production, Sukhoi made attempts to sell it on open market weapons.

Northrop XB-35. The art of aerodynamics is constantly evolving, and as scientists learn more about the interaction of an airplane with air currents and other factors, they improve the shape of their aircraft. One of the most important innovations in aircraft design came in the late forties with the development of the flying wing concept. With less drag, these vessels are more fuel efficient. The Air Force contracted Northrop to develop a bomber based on this concept, and the result was the stunning XB-35, which made many test flights before its propellers began to fail, derailing the project's development.

Boeing X-37B. When we exhaust all options for war on Earth, the conflict will inevitably move into space. This obvious conclusion is behind the development of the Boeing X-37B, a joint project between NASA and the Department of Defense. After launching into space via a disposable rocket booster, the X-37B detaches and can spend a month in Earth orbit before landing. All missions involving the X-37B are strictly classified, so no one knows exactly what it is doing there for so long.

Vought V-173. Dubbed the "Flying Pancake", the Vought V-173 was one of the most unusual experimental aircraft of World War II. With its round design and two giant propellers, it was designed to fly at speeds far below those of the day. The V-173 had incredible maneuverability and was incredibly durable—after one test flight, it flipped over and essentially landed upside down without suffering any serious damage. It was an extremely remarkable concept design, but unfortunately it didn't get enough practical applications, and the project was forgotten.

Tupolev TU-95LAL. The fission of the atom opened new horizons in the art of warfare, but the very capabilities of nuclear technology exceeded the simple destructive power of atomic bombs. We all know that nuclear energy revolutionized submarines, but the Soviet Union also tried to use it in airplanes. In 1961, the Tupolev TU-95LAL was launched, a bomber modified to use a small nuclear reactor as a fuel source. After forty test flights, the program was mothballed due to multiple safety concerns.

Ryan X-13 Vertijet. Vertical takeoff and landing haunted the minds of aircraft manufacturers throughout the 20th century. The fact that traditional aircraft require long takeoffs and runways seriously reduces their effectiveness on the battlefield. One of the smartest and most unique attempts to solve this problem was made in 1953, when Navy The United States contracted Ryan Aeronautical to create an aircraft that could take off vertically, switch to horizontal flight, and then land vertically. Only two X-13s were built before the project was shelved.

Aerocycle De Lackner HZ-1. Reconnaissance is one of the main tasks of air support, but using an entire aircraft for reconnaissance seems to be an irrational use of resources. Or at least that's what the creators of the De Lackner HZ-1, a single-seat flying platform controlled by tilting, thought. different sides. The Army acquired several units for testing, but they turned out to be more difficult to control than originally thought. Plus, the underbelly rotors tended to kick up rocks and dirt from the surface directly into the pilot's face if the flight was conducted at too low an altitude.

humanoid 10-07-2003 02:46

I saw the XB-70 Valkyrie on Discovery. Evil and beautiful. I know, we also had such ones, Sukhovsky and Myasishchevsky. Can someone tell me about them?

DENI 10-07-2003 03:03

T-4 ("100", Su-100)
In the 60s, when prototypes were already flying in the USA strategic bomber XB-70 Valkyrie and SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft, the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry issued OKB-156 to A.N. Tupolev, OKB-51 P.O. Sukhoi and OKB-115 A.S. Yakovlev tasked with developing, on a competitive basis, a supersonic missile-carrying bomber designed to intercept and destroy cruise missile carriers. Tupolev presented the project "135". Yakovlev proposed a design for the Yak-33 aircraft, which was a high-wing aircraft with a delta wing, classic tail and engines located under the wings. The main structural material was supposed to be heat-resistant steel. At the same time, two engine-building design bureaus offered their engines: S. Tumansky - R-15 (developed at that time for the MiG-25) and P. Kolesov - R-36-41 (this engine received preference). The X-45 guided anti-ship missile was created by the team of A. Bereznyak. The work of three aircraft design bureaus was carefully studied by institutes and discussed at the scientific and technical council of the ministry. The Yakovlev Design Bureau project was soon rejected. Further controversy centered on the choice of cruising speed. Two options were considered: within the range of 2000-2300 km/h (in this case the airframe can be made of aluminum alloys) or 3000-3200 km/h (but then made of steel and titanium). The second one was accepted - from the Sukhoi design bureau. In addition, the aircraft he proposed had great combat effectiveness and aerodynamic perfection.
In OKB P.O. Sukhoi first common types The aircraft, designated T-4, was completed in December 1961 by Alexander Polyakov. Soon, Oleg Samoilovich was appointed lead designer of the project, and in the spring of 1962, coordination of work on this topic was entrusted to chief designer Naum Chernyakov. By government decree, the design bureau and the S.A. Lavochkin plant were involved in the development of documentation and construction of the aircraft, where they even managed to manufacture the side compartments of the fuselage. However, later the plant switched to the missile theme of V. Chelomey and in return for construction they allocated the Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant (TMZ) and the Burevestnik Design Bureau as a branch of the Sukhoi Design Bureau to participate in the design of the aircraft.

Range and speed determined the weight of the aircraft. According to preliminary calculations, it should have weighed 100 tons. From this, perhaps, the second name of the T-4 arose - “Sotka”. As for the production and design process, it took almost 9 years. At first glance, this is a long time compared to the West. There, a similar process takes 5-7 years for similar T-4 aircraft. But the fact is that never before have so many new issues and problems been resolved in the USSR. After all, the novelty coefficient, or in American terminology the “degree of risk,” for the “hundredth” was close to 100%. When designing conventional aircraft, this value is usually half as much. This means, for example, the use of 50% absolutely reliable and proven parts, instruments, and methods in the design. For the “hundredth”, special heat-resistant alloys, non-metallic materials, special rubber, and plastics were again created. Perhaps there was not a single aircraft in the country that contained so many new products. Everything was explained by the need to ensure flight at a cruising speed of 3000 km/h and overcome the so-called thermal barrier with heating of the airframe structure to 300? C. The intended use of a wide range of speeds required careful development of the aerodynamic design. Therefore, more than twenty different aircraft layouts and many variants of individual elements - wing, fuselage, engine nacelles and their relative arrangement and combination - were studied in the TsAGI wind tunnels. The test results were verified in flights of a flying laboratory based on the Su-9 (“product 100L-1”).

The T-4 was made according to the “tailless” design with a delta wing of a thin 3% profile with a sharp leading edge. The use of the front empennage for balancing with small stability margins (2% at subsonic and 3-5% at supersonic) reduced the loss of quality due to balancing, increased the flight range by 7% and reduced the hinge moments on the controls. Small stability margins were ensured by a corresponding change in alignment due to fuel pumping in flight. The vertical tail provided a minimum amount of directional stability margin, and the required stability and controllability characteristics were provided by a fly-by-wire control system. In the longitudinal and lateral channels, control was carried out by zlevons.

All production of the T-4 was automated. 96% of welding work was also performed automatically. The material utilization rate was determined to be significantly higher than in the production of all previous aircraft. After all, they used corners and a sheet welded together. Therefore there was almost no waste. The complexity of manufacturing a “hundred” turned out to be the same as if it were made not from titanium, but from more easily processed aluminum alloys. Improvement of the alloys continued during testing.
The aircraft was equipped with a turbojet engine from the Rybinsk Engine Design Bureau ( chief designer P. Kolesov). All four engines were placed in a common engine nacelle with one channel for each pair. They were fed with air by a mixed compression air intake with a closed-loop software control system for the Mach number and the pressure ratio in the throat of the air intake and with a boundary layer drain system.

The fuel system was also made using fundamentally new pumping hydraulic turbine units. To ensure explosion protection of tanks from heating, a neutral gas system based on liquid nitrogen was used for the first time, emergency fuel drainage and high-temperature movable bellows-type pipeline connections were provided. By the way, about fuel. For the T-4, a new grade of thermostable fuel, RG-1 (naphthyl), was developed. The engines were controlled by an automatic fly-by-wire system. For working out power plant created a model with VD-19 engines and a mock-up of a power plant with 79R engines, with the help of which a set of studies was carried out at various stands at CIAM.

The T-4 aircraft was equipped with several complexes of radio-electronic equipment: navigation - based on an astro-inertial system with display on a tablet and multifunctional control panels; targeting - based on a forward-looking radar with a long detection range; reconnaissance, which included optical, infrared, radio sensors and the first used side-view radar. The integration and automation of on-board equipment control were so high that they made it possible to limit the aircraft crew to a pilot and a navigator - operator. Here it is impossible not to mention the highly effective air-to-ground missile developed in the design bureau specifically for the T-4 with a powder engine, a homing head at the final section and a ricocheting flight path that increased the range, which was then transferred to a specialized design bureau.

Due to high speeds and, as a result, heating of the aircraft structure to 300? We decided to practically abandon the lantern. All that was left of it was a round hatch at the top, on the cover of which a periscope was installed on the first machine, which the pilot used during takeoff and landing. In other modes, the flight was blind: using instruments. But this did not cause difficulties, since the car was easy to pilot, control, and had good stability. The in-flight alignment control system was ensured by a certain order of fuel pumping and generation.

Power for the aircraft control system and other systems was provided by a 2-channel hydraulic system using the new high-temperature fluid XC-2-1. For the first time, the pressure in the system rose to 280 atmospheres. Steel pipelines were soldered from VNS-2 material. Application high pressure in hydraulic systems provided low weight and comparatively small size boosters. Therefore, the “weaving” wing turned out to be clean, without sagging, which ensured low resistance to air flow. By the way, the hydraulic system pressure on the Su-27 is the same as on the T-4. A major step forward was the use of a 4-fold redundant automatic control system for the aircraft. For the first time in the country, the T-4 was equipped with an alternating current power supply system of stabilized frequency and a secondary direct current system on rectifier devices.

We also designed a new closed-type evaporative air conditioning system using fuel as the primary coolant to create the necessary temperature conditions in the pressurized cabin and equipment compartments. There were also many unconventional new solutions in the design of the landing devices: turning and tilting the main support trolley with one cylinder, two-chamber shock absorbers with an anti-overload valve, twin pneumatic tires, electric remote control of the front wheels, and so on.

Missile carrier T-4
In December 1965, the final, 33rd version of the aircraft was approved, and at the same time a government decree on the construction of the aircraft appeared. A five-year period was allotted for this. In 1966, preliminary design was completed and production of working drawings began. Their complete set for the first prototype aircraft ("product 101") and the aircraft for static tests ("product 100C") was released in 1968. In the same year, construction of the "101" aircraft began. In 1969, the assembly of the head and side parts of the fuselage with the center section was completed, and in 1970, the assembly of the aircraft components was completely completed. Almost simultaneously, in 1968, the airframe drawings for the second prototype aircraft ("product 102") were put into production, then in 1970 - the third prototype aircraft ("product 103"), and in 1971 - the fourth ("product 104" ). In the future there was also the construction of "105" and "106" experimental aircraft.

On August 22, 1972, chief pilot Hero of the Soviet Union V.S. Ilyushin, together with the honored navigator of the USSR A. Alferov, lifted the T-4 with tail number “101” into the air. The flight lasted 40 minutes. On the ninth test flight on August 6, 1973, the vehicle passed sound barrier, showing the number M=1.3. The last flight took place on January 22, 1974. The total flight time was 10 hours 20 minutes.

The first experimental aircraft "101" was subsequently planned to be used to test on-board systems, determine stability and controllability on maximum speeds flight and to determine performance characteristics. The "102" aircraft was planned to be used to test the navigation system, and the "103" aircraft was planned to be used for actual launches of guided missiles. On the "104" aircraft it was planned to work out the use of bombs, launch guided missiles, and also conduct a series of tests to evaluate the flight range. The "105" aircraft was intended to test radio-electronic equipment systems, and the "106" aircraft was intended to test the entire attack and reconnaissance complex as a whole.

After an 8-year stay in Zhukovsky, the plane was transported to the Monino Museum. Fragments of the "102" aircraft were exhibited in the MAI hangar, but were subsequently cut up and taken away for melting down. The same fate befell the partially assembled car "103".

At first, the military-industrial complex and MAP sang the praises of the T-4 aircraft; work on it was called a particularly priority, helping to solve our national problems. The Air Force's application for the construction of aircraft for the five-year period (1970-1975) provided for the construction of 250 T-4 aircraft at the Kazan Aircraft Plant. One day, Air Chief Marshal P. Kutakhov, getting out of the cockpit after inspecting the plane, exclaimed: “The present Russian miracle". The T-4 was capable of hitting ground and surface targets at a distance of up to 3000 km. Despite the wing with a fixed geometry, the T-4 was essentially a multi-mode aircraft. It was also effective as a reconnaissance aircraft. But all sorts of underwater reefs and rocks slowed down the pace of work on this, according to Academician G. Svishchev, was an epochal construction. The Su-11, Su-15 interceptors successfully went into production, the “sixes” began - the Su-24, and fate dealt tragically with the T-4. The proposal of A.N. was largely influential . Tupolev about the deep modernization of his Tu-22 aircraft, which was being built at the Kazan aircraft plant. It was about the new Tu-22M bomber (chief designer D. Markov). And the decree on the Tu-22M was the beginning of the end of the “hundredth”. At the Kazan aircraft plant they began to throw out equipment prepared for the serial construction of the T-4. At the same time, the Air Force issued a large order for front-line MiG-23 fighters. Then TMZ had to be released from the production of the T-4. With the government decree on the Tu-160, which had more than the T -4, flight range, we were finally done with the aircraft that would allow us to achieve high quality new level development of domestic aircraft.
T-4m
So, the Sukhoi Design Bureau, which specialized in “light” aircraft, developed a unique T-4 bomber. The use of titanium-steel structures ensured the further development of domestic supersonic aviation. And the money spent on manufacturing the aircraft was not in vain. Many technical achievements and ideas embodied in it were used in designs aircraft subsequent generations - Su-27, Su-24, etc. It is the EDSU, taken from the “weaving”, that is installed on the Su-27 fighter. And “Buran” would not have taken off if titanium alloys had not been mastered at Sotka.

The integrated on-board system of the T-4 made it possible to have autonomous information about the target situation and hit targets without entering the enemy’s air defense zone, which spoke of the operational-strategic advantages of the vehicle. The flight speed of the T-4 was such that it would have forced the enemy to incur huge costs for the development of means and the transformation of air defense systems.

The concept itself supersonic aircraft and its production technology would mark a new stage in the creation of aerospace vehicles with horizontal launch, capable of launching into orbit missile systems, having the same starting weight as traditional ones, but with a payload mass that is an order of magnitude higher. These facilities would provide reusability of the first stage, and also have the flexibility of airfield basing. It would be possible to solve more complex problems in space exploration: rescuing astronauts in orbit, maintaining domestic functional space constellations, and inspecting foreign spacecraft.

In 1963-64. The design bureau was working on a passenger version of the T-4, capable of carrying 64 passengers at supersonic speed.

The T-4 aircraft was designed as a single-mode aircraft, optimized for high-altitude flight at supersonic speeds. It could successfully hit enemy ships with high-speed cruise missiles without entering the long-range air defense zone of an aircraft carrier group. However, the improvement of ground-based air defense systems of the United States and other NATO countries no longer made it possible to hope to break through enemy lines head-on, relying only on speed and altitude. When the Central Research Institute of the Air Force made an assessment of the combat effectiveness of the "weaving" while working on the project, it became clear that even with the existing level of air defense of the "potential enemy" in the European theater of operations, out of 100 attack aircraft, after completing a combat mission, only 20-25 would be able to return to their airfields cars There was a need for a radical revision of the concept combat use promising bombers. The T-4 was designed as a medium-range bomber. However, the Air Force primarily needed a strategic aircraft capable of confidently hitting targets in the United States. As a result, new specifications for such an aircraft emerged, providing for the possibility of long-term flight at high subsonic speeds over a range of 14,000-18,000 km. To overcome the powerful Western European air defense with minimal losses, a multi-mode bomber was required, capable of flying for a long time at extremely low altitudes in terrain-following mode. After conducting a mock-up commission on the T-4 aircraft from January 17 to February 2, 1967, the military issued tactical and technical requirements for a multi-mode attack aircraft based on the Sotka. The Sukhoi Design Bureau began work on shaping the appearance of such a machine in April 1967. The new aircraft was named T-4M (in-production designation - “100 I”).
Design

Since the multi-mode machine was conceived as a deep modernization of the T-4 aircraft, it was decided to use avionics borrowed from the Sotka. At the same time, the airframe underwent radical changes, the most significant of which was the use of a variable sweep wing.
Placement of T-4M weapons
By increasing the size of the fuselage (in particular, its diameter was supposed to increase from 2.0 to 2.2 m), it was planned to significantly increase the capacity of the fuel tanks, which, in combination with new aerodynamics, ensured intercontinental range. The long flight also required the introduction of a second pilot into the crew, which caused a rearrangement of the cabin. Almost the entire 1967 was spent searching for the optimal configuration of the 100 I aircraft. Nine options were considered, but none of them fully satisfied the designers.
In the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, issued on November 28, 1967? 1098-378, in addition to consolidating the decision to begin construction of the T-4 aircraft, provided for “research, experimental work and preliminary design (advanced design) aimed at creating a strategic dual-mode missile-carrying aircraft with a flight range of 16,000 - 18,000 km and its possible use for reconnaissance purposes and anti-submarine warfare." The resolution made it possible to transfer work on the T-4M from initiative to priority.
"Bulletin of Aviation and Cosmonautics" ?3"99
JPEG 1000x664 75.8 KB, Scheme T-4M ("100 I")

In 1968, aerodynamic blowing of aircraft models "100 I" began in TsAGI wind tunnels. Studies of the aerodynamic elastic model were also carried out. These works revealed a very unpleasant defect associated with elastic deformation of the wing... To increase the aerodynamic quality at subsonic speed, it was necessary to design the rotating parts of the wing with a very high aspect ratio. However, in the folded position, the consoles were twisted so that their ends bent down and lost their load-bearing properties. Because of this, the aerodynamic focus of the aircraft shifted forward and the machine fell into a very high degree of instability. The fly-by-wire control system installed on the T-4 was unable to “pull” the plane back. The designers were faced with a problem that, at that level of technology, they could not solve, despite the persistent search for new layout options. On May 26, 1968, TTTs were approved for the development of a preliminary design of a strategic dual-mode aircraft, according to which the maximum payload increased to 45 tons. The increased combat load increased the size of the aircraft and the T-4M project did not correspond to the new TTTs. But the military was in no hurry to close the topic of the T-4M. During 1969, a record number of layouts were reviewed. The final layout? 13G was taken as the basis for supplementing the preliminary design of the T-4 aircraft. The supplement materials and the draft design itself were sent to the Ministry of Aviation Industry, the Ministry of Defense and industry institutes: TsAGI, CIAM, LII, VIAM and NIAT to obtain an opinion. But work on the “100 I” aircraft did not stop at the design bureau, because, as mentioned above, it was not possible to solve the problem of wing deformation. Even after the release of the expansion preliminary design The OKB workers were not satisfied with this work and the design idea moved on. The latest layouts already had big differences from the earlier ones and were approaching integral ones.
State
No conclusion was received on the addition to the preliminary design of the T-4M aircraft. The “shift” in the minds of the military towards changing the TTT actually “played into the hands” of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, since it made it possible to stop the development of the T-4M project, which had led designers to a dead end, and begin creating new car- T-4MS (“200”), having realized during its creation all the experience gained from working on the T-4 and T-4M aircraft.
Work on the "100 I" machine was finally completed in September 1970 with layout number 32. In total, designers from the department common projects L.I. Bondarenko, Yu.V. Vasilyev, Yu.V. Davydov and E. Shanin made 36 layout options over three years of work on the T-4M complex.

DENI 10-07-2003 03:05

Here are the pictures
T-4.

Valkyrie.

humanoid 10-07-2003 03:28

What about the T-4MS? And what did not satisfy the military? After all, the practice of the Arab-Israeli wars showed, using the example of the MiG-25RB, that it is almost impossible to shoot down an aircraft flying 25 km at 2.6-2.8 M.

DENI 10-07-2003 04:42

There is no range and not enough weapons. Moreover, at that time practice had not yet shown anything. And MiGs made flights over the promised land in the 70s, when the Tu-160 was already beginning to be developed

humanoid 10-07-2003 12:19

But the concept is fun: we fly, overtaking enemy missiles, and at the same time having the opportunity to throw a bomb 100 km by inertia.

Antti 10-07-2003 12:26

But the concept is fun: we fly, overtaking enemy missiles, and at the same time having the opportunity to throw a bomb 100 km by inertia.

humanoid 10-07-2003 12:44

quote: Originally posted by Antti:
The missile doesn't have to be traveling faster to shoot down a plane.

Antti 10-07-2003 02:00

quote: Originally posted by humanoid:
Originally posted by Antti:

Barrage?...

Calculation of the meeting point. Such crap, I guess, doesn’t maneuver as quickly as the MiG-15. Again, she needs to fly where she is told, and not dangle in the sky like a flower in an ice hole. Planes are shot down by slower missiles. Even in the 75th, such tasks were standard, as I remember. Three-point method, "K" method... oh! that was a long time ago...

However, my knowledge is not only not up-to-date, but also very fragmentary.

On October 21, 1923, the ANT-1 aircraft designed by Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev made its first flight. This machine was the first in a large family of the legendary OKB of the same name.SmartNews has compiled a list of the most unusual experimental aircraft of the USSR.

The first development of the OKB im. Tupolev made her first flight on October 21, 1923. ANT-1 was a single-seat experimental sports aircraft. When designing the ANT-1, lightweight and durable material, aluminum chain mail, was used for the first time, although the main materials still remained wood and fabric. The aircraft was powered by a 35 hp Anzani engine. After several test flights, the engine failed, after which the aircraft remained in the assembly shop until 1937. In the same year, the only copy of ANT-1 was destroyed.

This aircraft was also developed at the Tupolev Design Bureau and bore the second name ANT-22. MK-1 was an airplane-flying boat. It made its first flight in 1934. In accordance with the assignment, it was supposed to make a sea cruiser aircraft. It was planned to be used for naval reconnaissance in remote areas, escorting the fleet, and bombing enemy bases and fortified areas. The ANT-22 was to be used to solve all those tasks that were previously posed for reconnaissance aircraft, bombers and torpedo bombers being designed and also under construction. The two-boat design of the aircraft was chosen due to the fact that the flying boat was supposed to transport large-sized cargo, such as small submarines or semi-submersible torpedo boats.

The aircraft consisted of an all-metal structure, also used by the Tuploev Design Bureau in other aircraft designs (a power set made of steel tubular elements, a reinforcement set made of duralumin profiles), and had corrugated skin on the wings and tail. Boats with a maximum width of 2.5 m helped the aircraft develop seaworthiness and good lateral stability; this happened due to the so-called “rut” formed by the boats, 15 meters wide.

T-4

The T-4 Sotka aircraft is an attack and reconnaissance missile-carrying bomber designed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau. It was intended to destroy enemy aircraft carrier strike groups and conduct strategic reconnaissance. The prototype first flew on August 22, 1972. The plane was piloted by the leading test pilot of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, Vladimir Sergeevich Ilyushin. The initial tests were successful, the military was pleased and ordered Sukhoi a batch of 250 vehicles, which were planned to be built in the coming five-year period.

However, after 10 successful flights the project was closed. The only surviving copy is in the Central Museum of the Russian Air Force. In 1976, Dementyev issued an order to close “product 100” in order to concentrate forces and funds on the development of the Tu-160. The T-4 is interesting because after takeoff and raising the nose cone in working position(for supersonic flight) the crew did not have the ability to see the surrounding space at all, since, unlike the Tu-144, the nose cone was not glazed. The flight was carried out using instruments only. The aircraft's airframe was made using titanium alloys.

Video

T-4 "Sotka"

R-1

Beriev R-1 - experimental jet flying boat, naval reconnaissance aircraft. The R-1 became the first jet seaplane in the USSR. In May 1947, the Beriev Design Bureau began work on creating an experimental flying boat with turbojet engines. The initiator of the project was Beriev himself, his initiative was supported by the Commander-in-Chief of Naval Aviation Preobrazhensky and the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Kuznetsov. On June 12, 1948, the Soviet government issued a decree on the design of a jet flying boat. The project received the designation "P". According to the design specifications, the flying boat was to be used as a reconnaissance aircraft and bomber and reach a speed comparable to the main US sea-based fighters. On May 30, 1952, the P-1 made its first flight. During the protracted “fine-tuning”, it was decided to close the topic on the “P” aircraft.

MIG 1.44 MFI

The MiG 1.44 multirole front-line fighter is an experimental Russian prototype of a fifth-generation fighter. It was created as a counterweight to the American F-22 fighter and was superior to its American rival in a number of characteristics. On MiG 1.44 we received wide application stealth technology, so all the aircraft’s weapons were located in the internal compartment. The hull was covered with a special radar-absorbing coating; the fins of the 1.44 were designed with a special method of curved surfaces, which significantly reduced the aircraft's visibility to radar.

As of 2013, the only flightable copy is located at the Leningrad Institute named after. M. M. Gromov in Zhukovsky, abandoned in the open air. There is an opinion among a number of experts that some technologies and general types of the aircraft were transferred to China, although most likely, when creating their J-20, the Chinese used Project 1.46 drawings purchased from the Sukhoi Design Bureau.

SU-47

Su-47 "Berkut" is a project of a promising carrier-based fighter developed at the Design Bureau named after. Sukhoi. The fighter has a forward-swept wing; composite materials are widely used in the airframe design. The project developed first as a promising model of a fighter with a forward-swept wing for the USSR Air Force as part of an industry research program since 1983, but was closed in 1988. After this, the customer of the project was the USSR Navy. After the collapse of the USSR and the crisis in the country in the 1990s, government funding was removed from the project and it continued only thanks to own financing OKB "Sukhoi". The aircraft was presented to the public at the MAKS-1999 exhibition under the name S-37 "Berkut", and at MAKS-2001 it received the name Su-47 "Berkut". The first flying example of the Su-47 was built in 1997; it is now experimental. In 2011-2012, 2 prototypes were created on its basis. The Su-47 is often called, if not the fifth generation fighter itself, then its prototype. The Su-47 is testing some of the technologies used on the PAK FA, such as internal weapon bays.

Dmitry Sobolev

EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT OF RUSSIA

1912–1941

Preface

There are often statements that domestic aviation mainly followed the path of copying foreign aircraft, that we were constantly catching up with Western technology. This is wrong. The example of experimental aircraft of the 1910s - 1930s shows how many new and original designs were proposed by domestic inventors. Many of them were put into practice for the first time in the world. In Russia and the USSR, the first heavy multi-engine aircraft, the first “flying wing” aircraft were created, the first experiments were carried out on refueling fighters in flight, on attaching a fighter to a bomber in the air, on taking off aircraft from a dirt airfield using rocket boosters, on the use of tracked landing gear and hovercraft, a number of other priority works were carried out. Some experiments remained in history, while others later became widely used.

The study of the archives made it possible to significantly expand the information about our experimental aircraft, correct inaccuracies in publications on the history of aviation, and make previously unknown projects public.

Before moving on to the contents of the book, you should define the terms. There are experimental, development and production aircraft. An experimental aircraft is a device created to test new scientific and technical solutions in flight and is not intended for serial production. This could be a purpose-built aircraft or a modified production vehicle. In addition, it is logical to include experimental aircraft that have not reached the rank of production prototypes and that differ high level technical novelty.

In the first years of aviation, even before the start of mass production, all aircraft were experimental or experimental (the difference is determined by the degree of originality of the design). In Russia, they built many different winged machines, but the book will only talk about those that, firstly, could fly, and, secondly, contained progressive technical ideas that influenced the progress of aviation. I basically followed the same principle of selecting material in the future.

Before the First World War, annual military aircraft competitions served as an incentive for the development of domestic aviation. True, the designers did not receive government subsidies and created their cars using own funds or with the support of private enterprises, but they had a chance for government orders in the future.

During the war, the basis of the air fleet was French aircraft built here or purchased abroad. Only in 1917, the tsarist government allocated funds for the creation of a large research and production aviation center near Kherson, but due to revolutionary events it was not possible to build it.

In 1918, the Bolsheviks nationalized all aviation enterprises. During the years of the Civil War they fell into disrepair, and many experienced aviation specialists emigrated. Therefore, in the 1920s, they relied on foreign (primarily German) assistance in the creation of aviation. Experimental aircraft manufacturing hardly developed, and the aviation industry did not allocate money for it. A.N. Tupolev actually built the all-metal ANT-2 on the street using funds received from the Air Force, B.I. Cheranovsky made his first “flying wings” in the “Soaring Flight” glider circle using money public organization Aviakhim.

The most favorable era for experimental aircraft construction was the 1930s - the period of industrialization of the USSR. Convinced of the ineffectiveness of German assistance, the government decided to develop aviation on our own. Funding has been dramatically increased scientific research(from 280 thousand rubles in 1929 to 16 million in 1930), specialized research centers and educational institutes began operating. Inventive activity was actively developing: in 1931, the Invention Committee received 25,471 applications (in 1924 - 1835), of which about a thousand were in the field of aviation. Large companies were involved in the creation and testing of experimental aircraft. state organizations- TsAGI, VVA, Air Force Research Institute, Civil Air Fleet Research Institute, CIAM, aircraft factories No. 1, 22, 39, 156 and other enterprises. True, in most cases, factories tried to abandon the experimental theme, devoting all their efforts to fulfilling serial orders. Thus, the Bureau of Special Designs, which deals with stratospheric aircraft, was forced to move from the TsAGI experimental designs plant to the Moscow Aircraft Plant No. 39, then to the Smolensk Aircraft Plant aircraft repair plant No. 35 and, finally, to a small design bureau near Moscow. This slowed down the pace of work, affected the quality of products, and in the context of the rapid development of aircraft technology, many ideas quickly lost relevance.

The repressions of 1937 dealt a serious blow to aviation research. Many innovative designers were arrested; Among the heroes of the book are aircraft builders A.N. Tupolev, R.L. Bartini, K.A. Kalinin, creator of the country's first stratospheric aircraft V.A. Chizhevsky, rocket plane developer S.P. Korolev, specialists in automatic control aircraft G.V. Korenev and A.V. Nadashkevich.

However, the situation soon changed. A big war was approaching, urgent rearmament was required modern technology, no money was spared on aviation, and by 1940 many new design bureaus, new experimental and experimental aircraft appeared.

Aviation management initially supported these initiatives. The report for 1939 stated: “The main obstacle to the development of experimental work and, in particular, to obtaining positive results, is the lack of proper attention to this work by the NKAP and the Air Force. In the NKAP system, experimental devices, as a rule, lack a production base... and a number of facilities are provided with low-power bases and understaffed design teams...

Work on the construction of experimental devices where they are provided with a base is carried out in the third place and lasts for years (construction of BOK-7, BOK-11, repair of the 11-EA helicopter since 1937, etc.), for example, out of 10 objects, according to of the pilot construction plan, only 2 objects were submitted for testing with a great delay...

For the successful development of work on experimental devices and the best use of this work, it is necessary:

1. Provide production bases and design teams for all experimental facilities along with aircraft, including them in the pilot construction plan.

2. To provide experimental work, as the most labor-intensive and responsible, with highly qualified engineering and technical personnel and flight personnel.”

But already in March 1940, an order was issued to close many experimental topics and disband the small design bureaus involved in them. The reason was the successful testing of a new generation of combat aircraft (Yak-1, MiG-3, LaGG-3 fighters, Pe-2, Tu-2 bombers, Il-2 attack aircraft). Instead of spending money on “exotics,” it was decided to concentrate funds and effort on preparing the above machines for serial production. It was the right decision at the time. Thus ended the “golden age” of pre-war experimental aircraft construction.

In conclusion, I note that the vast majority of the authors of new ideas were very young. To the designer of the world's first multi-engine aircraft, I.I. Sikorsky was only 24 years old, at the same age he began creating the rocket plane S.P. Korolev. HELL. Nadiradze designed the hovercraft chassis at the age of 26; B.I. was 27. Cheranovsky and I.A. Merkulov, when the first tested the “flying wing” glider, and the second tested ramjet engines as flight accelerators. The authors of the automatic aircraft landing system R.G. Chachikyan and a monoplane with a variable area wing G.I. The Bakshaevs began implementing their ideas when they were 28 years old. Youth is a time of creation, and this must be remembered when forming the scientific and technological policy of our country.

I would like to express my gratitude to V.G. Karkashidze, L.A. Kutuzova, Yu.V. Makarov, M.A. Maslov, I.A. Morozov, G.F. Petrov, A.A. Simonov, O.N. Soldatova, N.V. Yakubovich for help in collecting materials for this book, and to CEO LLC "Rusavia" S.N. Baranov - for support in its publication.

The first aircraft with plywood wings

The first airplanes had a simple and lightweight design. The main material was wood, usually pine or ash, from which the power structure of the wing and fuselage was made. The motor mount, control system, chassis, attachment points and braces were made of metal. Varnished canvas was used to cover the wings and tail surfaces. This design was lightweight, but the aircraft turned out to be fragile and short-lived.

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