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secret Soviet
flying wings
By: Raul Colon
rcolonfrias@yahoo.com
PO Box 29754
Río Piedras, Puerto Rico 00929
Little is known about the
Soviet Union’s efforts to design, and eventually field an operational
flying wing bomber platform. Obtaining a complete picture of what happened
on the USSR during the early days of the Cold War is very difficult, but
what is now clear is that the Soviets were involved in testing designs for
a flying wing configuration bomber. They had two major attempts to achieve
this goal.
The first is the Chetverikov
RK1 Program. In the summer of 1947, the Voenno-Vozdushniye Sily, of the
Soviet Union Air Force issued a request order to the Chetverikov Design
Bureau to promptly commence working on a program for the research and
development of a flying wing bomber aircraft. A preliminary project design
and mock-up was approved for initial feasibility testing in December 1948.
The design proposed for this aircraft would not have been a thru flying
wing configuration, instead it would have been a test bed for new design
concepts. The RK1 was projected to be powered by two Rolls-Royce Nene
engines mounted in wing nacelles. The aircraft would have tip fins, a
feature seen on many British medium bombers of the time, a tricycle
undercarriage, and would have been manned by a three men crew. Maximum
bomb load weight was to be 4,409lb. The RK1 defensive armaments were to
consist of two ShVak guns mounted in a defensive tail-end turret. If
built, the RK1 would have been the Chetverikov Bureau’s first designed and
produced bomber aircraft, unfortunately for the bureau; the project was
cancelled before it left the drawing board.
It would be almost ten years before the next significant Soviet effort was
made into producing a flying wing bomber design. This new program was
specifically designed to produce an operational service aircraft, not a
test bed, but a research laboratory such as the RK1. The new effort was
led by Aleksandr Moskalyov of the renowned Leningrad Red Banner
Engineering Academy (LKVVIA), again as a request of the VVS. The design
parameters for this revolutionary design were impressive. It would have
been able to take-off with a maximum weight of 1,102,290lb, of which
approximately 33,069lb would be dedicated for a nuclear or conventional
payload. Speeds would need to be in the Mach 2 to Mach 4 regions with an
estimated operational ceiling of 114,830ft. Work commenced for the
aircraft program, by now designated DSB-LK, in 1957 and by late 1959, vast
amounts of research material were collected by the LKVVIA. With the
collected data, engineers at LKVVIA started the process of airframe
evaluation to be applied to the programs parameters. Many configurations
were evaluated. These included conventional wings, a canard system with
swept wings, tailless, delta, and flying wings platforms. All to be
powered by either afterburning turbojets or a combination power system
that would employ turbo and ram jet engines.
Preliminary testing on the
DSB-LK design established a more realistic operational parameter for the
flying wing concept. Maximum take-off weight would now be 660,000lbs. The
DSB-LS were to fly at Mach 4.4, with a top service ceiling of 114,830ft.
Studies were conducted into the possibility of replacing parts of the
usual D23 alloy airframe with titanium alloys in order to increase the
speed of the aircraft. The power configuration to be implemented on the
design was to consist between six to ten turbojet engines. A ramjet
configuration was also discussed. Defensive measures for the DSB-LK
aircraft was provided as four air-to-air missiles with a range of 6.2
miles, augmented by two cannon bettes, and Electronic Counter Measure
system. The aircraft would also be able to carry the new Rubin-1 radar
system.
After an extensive research phase, preliminary conclusions indicated that
with current available technology, the development of the DSB-LK bomber
was feasible. After preliminary conclusions were reached, the program
moved to the advance design phase. With the assistance of the
Tsentrahl’nyy Aero-I Ghidrodinameecheskiy Institoot, Central State
Aerodynamics and Hydrodynamic Institute and the Myasishchev Design Bureau;
the DBS-LK program moved to the final concept configuration stage. The
final revised configuration for the DSB-LK was a cranked delta wing, swept
72 degrees inboard and 42 degrees outboard. A bicycle undercarriage of
four wheels on the front leg and eight on the double rear section was
implemented to the design. Six massive VK15m engines, generating 34,830lb
of thrust, boxed in sets of three; was the ultimate choose for the plane’s
power plant. Its crew was to consist of a pilot, co-pilot, and
navigator/electronic officer; housed on a small cabin in the nose of the
airframe. Its internal bomb bay, located at the centre of the fuselage,
would have been able to carry up to 11,023lb of ordinance of various
types. Operational range for the bomber was established at an impressive
10,441 miles, with a serviceable ceiling of 114,830ft.
Budgetary constrains and the need to allocate more funds to the USSR’s
main deterrent force, its ICBM platform derailed the DSB-LK program.
Eventually, the VVS terminated the program in the fall of 1960. Although
the program did not make it out of the drawing board, valuable research
information was collected by the designers. Data that would eventually
find its way into the most advanced Soviet bomber programs such as the
Tu-22M Backfire.
References
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