Bartini A-57
| Bartini A-57 | |
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| Type: | bomber |
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The Bartini A-57 was a Soviet bomber project of the 1950s. The aim of the project led by Robert Bartini was to carry out take-offs and landings on the water. The Bartini A-57 was not built.
history
In 1953, Pawel Zybin began developing the jet-propelled cruise missile RSS for strategic long-range bombers. Several projects for heavy supersonic bombers emerged in the mid-1950s. Of course, the revolutionary-thinking Robert Bartini was able to stay away from the competition and in 1955 presented his concept of a tailless supersonic flying boat bomber with swept wings, on which he had been working since 1952. It was typical for aircraft projects at the time that these were only based on the basic calculation, while the final choice of the aircraft configuration was only determined after wind tunnel experiments. A brilliant mathematician like Bartini was would do an enormous amount of calculations. The result was connection-sweep (S-shaped) “self-balancing” wings with a variable wing profile cross-section. Sergei Pavlovich Korolev later helped to check these calculations in a wind tunnel.
The engineering of the aircraft is also very high for the 1990s. It was practically impossible to draw a line marking the border crossing of the wings and fuselage. Five turbojet engines with afterburner were installed between the two inwardly inclined vertical stabilizers, which produce up to 130,000 kg of thrust. The aircraft has no landing gear. Retractable skis were planned for landing on water (or ice). For the take-off from land, a drop-off 'landing gear car' was provided. All maintenance work on the aircraft was possible from the top of the aircraft, so that service and refueling on the open sea were not a problem. The flying boat concept allowed the omission of large, expensive (and vulnerable in wartime) airfields and concrete runways. In connection with tank submarines (like the Tupolev '504'), the A-57 could be used anywhere in the world. A complete set of marine systems was planned. In April 1957, Bartini was delegated by SibNIA ( Novosibirsk ) to the OKBS MAL (Moscow). The ZIAM and ZAGI teams joined the project. Take-off and landing on the water surface were examined in detail as well as continuous operation in the “ship” regime. The expert group, including Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev (a competitor!) Came to a positive conclusion for the A-57 and submitted it to the government, but no 'top-down' decision followed. Between 1952 and 1961, RL Bartini presented several projects based on the A-57 (all supersonic flying boats) that differed in size and function. However, the designs were too futuristic and did not materialize.
technology
The A-57 was equipped with a lift engine (similar to that of a vertical take-off aircraft) to help it lift off the surface of the sea. It was intended that the aircraft would be refueled by submarines . The bomber had a long, slender delta wing ("Bartini" wing). Wind tunnel tests were conducted but the project was terminated in 1957 before production could begin; possibly because the Soviet government assumed after the start of Sputnik 1 that the new ICBMs would make bombers unnecessary. So it was decided that the Tu-95 would be sufficient as a bomber and that the A-57 project was too expensive and such an aircraft was not needed.
The planned navigation and avionics equipment was state of the art for the mid-1950s: SVR-1 radar system, "Rosa" and "Wenik" ("Rose" and "Broom"), active jammers, TRS-45 radar, decoys -Werfer, navigation system "Weter" ("Wind"), communication system "Planet" and hydro gyro for communication with submarines. In addition to the RSS missile, the A-57 has an internal bomb bay in which atomic bombs weighing up to 3000 kg could be accommodated. It is astonishing that a crew of three people was found to be sufficient to operate this abundance of equipment on long-lasting missions.
Planned versions
- R57-AL: long-range reconnaissance aircraft
- A-57: supersonic bombers
- A-55 medium-range bombers
See also
literature
- Jefim Gordon , Sergei Komissarow: Unflown Wings . Soviet / Russian unrealized aircraft projects 1925–2010. Ian Allen Publishing, Birmingham 2013, ISBN 978-1-906537-34-0 , pp. 444-446 (English, 640 pages).