Tupolev ANT-20
| Tupolev ANT-20 / ANT-20bis | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Type: | Passenger plane |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: |
ZAGI (ANT-20) |
| First flight: |
June 17, 1934 |
| Commissioning: |
1934 |
| Production time: |
1933 to 1934 |
| Number of pieces: |
2 |
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The eight-engine Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorki ( Russian Туполев АНТ-20 Максим Горький ) was a Soviet passenger aircraft of the 1930s. When it appeared in 1934, it was the world's largest and heaviest land plane.
history
The idea of building a large airplane on the occasion of Maxim Gorky's 40th anniversary as a writer was submitted by journalist Mikhail Kolzov in October 1932 and approved by Josef Stalin . In order to secure the necessary funding, an association was founded in the same month under the chairmanship of Koltsov. This “All Union Committee for the Construction of the Propaganda Airplane Maxim Gorky” comprised around 70 well-known personalities from science and art. With the help of the daily Pravda and the state broadcaster, calls for donations were made for the project. By January 1933, six million rubles could be made available for the construction in this way, and the committee began the planning phase under the head of the ZAGI Nikolai Kharlamov. It was planned to use the Maxim Gorki as the flagship of the propaganda squad of the same name.
The construction of the machine, mostly just called "MG", began on July 4, 1933 and was carried out by the ZAGI, which was the only facility in the Soviet Union with experience in the construction of large aircraft, in the factory for special designs (SOK, No. 156) near Moscow . The basis was the heavy ANT-16 bomber from 1933 or its further development ANT-20 with M-34 engines, which remained only a project and whose plans were immediately used by Andrei Tupolev for the construction. In contrast to the ANT-16, the MG had a modified wing with an enlarged wingspan of nine meters. The fuselage was also lengthened by half a meter and received a new tail unit. On March 31, 1934, the ANT-20 was completed. The aircraft was then dismantled for transport and taken to Moscow- Chodynka airfield , where the final assembly took place. From April 17th, the ZAGI chief pilot Michael Gromow carried out the first taxiing tests. The star wheel broke twice and had to be reworked and reinforced. The state acceptance, which was then carried out on April 24, dragged on for almost three months due to the removal of defects.
Finally, Gromow and co-pilot Nikolai Schurow were able to take off on June 17, 1934 with the Maxim Gorki (registration number: SSSR-L759 ) for the first flight and complete it in 35 minutes without any problems. Just two days later, the MG, accompanied by two I-5 fighters, took part in the parade in honor of the rescued passengers of the steamer Cheliuskin , which sank in the polar sea , and dropped leaflets over Red Square from a height of 150 meters. In autumn 1934, the state testing could be completed. During the tests, Gromow and Schurow set two mass / height records when they reached a height of 5,000 meters with 10,000 and 15,000 kilograms of payload, respectively. However, since the Soviet Union was not yet a member of the FAI at that time , the world records were not recognized. During the winter period, the ANT-20 was parked in a hangar at the Chodynka airfield, but due to the size of the aircraft, the rear wall had to be broken through and the stern had to be covered outdoors. The flights began again at the end of April 1935. Maxim Gorky then took part in the annual May Day Air Parade , where she led a group of TB-3 bombers.
On May 18, 1935, she was rammed in the air by an I-5 escort fighter of the pilot Nikolai Blagin , who illegally flew a loop during a demonstration over Moscow , and crashed on the grounds of the Sokol settlement . A total of 50 people (on the plane and on the ground) were killed. A day later, the commission of inquiry came to the conclusion that the pilot of the I-5 had acted negligently and was therefore solely to blame. However, it can be assumed that Blagin was forced from a higher authority to fly risky maneuvers in order to give the foreign representatives present an impressive presentation of the capabilities of Soviet aviation.
ANT-20bis (PS-124)
Immediately after the “Maxim Gorki” crashed, the construction of three more machines was planned. To finance it, a new fund was set up, which, after fundraising across the country, amounted to 63 million rubles, after which the planned number was increased to 16. In 1936 Boris Saukke began construction work under the direction of Vladimir Petlyakov . After Saukke's and Petlyakov's arrest in the wake of the Great Terror , his deputy Iossif Neswal took over the management. The construction of the first aircraft, known as the ANT-20bis or PS-124 , was carried out in the aircraft factory No. 124 “ Sergo Ordzhonikidze ” in Kazan, which was built just a few years earlier . The aircraft had a modified fuselage and wings compared to the first ANT-20, the tail unit had also been redesigned and the two engines on the fuselage could be omitted by using more powerful AM-34FRNW engines. Although the ANT-20bis (registration number: SSSR-L760 ) was a little heavier than its predecessor, it reached a maximum speed of 30 km / h higher. The designation PS-124 stands for “Passaschirski Samoljot” (passenger aircraft) of plant no. 124.
For the date of the first flight there are very different information. The flight tests are said to have been carried out as early as 1938 by Michael Gromow , chief test pilot at ZAGI . Other sources cite May 15, 1939 as the day of the first flight, carried out by the test pilot of the Scientific Experimental Institute of the Civil Air Fleet ( NII GWF), Eduard Schwarz. On August 12, 1939, the aircraft went to Aeroflot and began its service on the Moscow - Mineralnye Vody route , but was presented to the public at the Tushino air parade on August 18 by Gromov and N. I. Novikov. In December 1940 it was subordinated to the "Special Task Force". There, the two inner AM-34 engines were replaced by more powerful M-35 engines. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet War, the machine flew the Tashkent - Tschardshou - Urgensch route and the Tashkent- Kuibyshev route from November 1941 . On December 14, 1942, on the flight from Tschardshou to Tashkent, the ANT-20bis began a constant descent at 5000 meters and finally fell to the ground at an angle of 80 °. All ten members of the crew and 26 passengers were killed. An inadvertently adjusted trim of the elevator was determined to be the likely cause of the accident. At this point in time, the construction of further ANT-20s was no longer relevant, as there was no need for aircraft of this size. Instead, the routes were served by smaller but faster twin-engine aircraft.
construction
The ANT-20 consisted of a tubular steel frame with corrugated iron planking. On the leading edge of the cantilevered wing there were three AM-34FRN engines with 671 kW (900 PS) each. As with the ANT-16, the other two were attached to a structure above the fuselage in tandem. The ANT-20 was designed as a middle-wing aircraft. The three-part wing, measuring 63 meters, had three spars and was cantilevered, but the tail unit was braced. The landing gear was not retractable, the main wheels had a streamlined fairing and were not connected by an axle.
The aircraft was unique at that time, for example it was equipped with a cinema, a photo laboratory, a printing press, an electrical station and several offices. In addition, up to 72 passengers could be transported.
A special feature of the ANT-20 was the printing machine in its on-board printing plant. Although web offset printing was only invented in 1914 by the German Caspar Hermann in Leipzig, it was already a fully-fledged small web offset printing machine with a paper roll unwinding device placed on the frame, two offset printing units arranged below on both sides for front and back printing, as well as a paper cross cutter with delivery below right.
It was designed and built in 1932 by the German Paul Fuchs in the Jakoda printing machine factory in Rybinsk on the Volga. Since it was not allowed to exceed a total weight of 700 kg, its frame and all essential parts were made of cast aluminum. Due to the unstable position of the aircraft in the air and the requirement to be able to print in flight, the dampening system had to be adapted accordingly: Instead of an open dampening solution tub, a slotted aluminum tube with a sponge was used. The dampening solution was thus delivered to the dampening rollers via this sponge and the dampening solution was locked in to prevent it from leaking. The web offset printing machine printed without any problems even when the aircraft was at an extreme angle.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | ANT-20 | ANT-20bis |
|---|---|---|
| span | 63.00 m | 64.00 m |
| length | 33.00 m | 34.10 m |
| height | 10.60 m | 7.00 m |
| Wing area | 486 m² | |
| Wing extension | 8.2 | k. A. |
| Empty mass | 31,950 kg | 31,200 kg |
| Payload | 10,050 kg | 12,800 kg |
| Takeoff mass | 42,000 kg | 44,000 kg |
| Wing loading | 86.4 kg / m² | 90.5 kg / m² |
| Power load | 7.0 kg / hp | 7.3 kg / hp |
| Drive type | liquid-cooled 12-cylinder V-engines | |
| Number / type | eight AM-34FRN | six AM-34FRNW |
| power | 671 kW (900 PS) each | 895 kW (1,200 PS) each |
| Top speed | 245 km / h | 275 km / h |
| Cruising speed | 190 km / h | 225 km / h |
| Landing speed | 100 km / h | |
| Climb performance | 4.8 m / s | k. A. |
| Summit height | 4,500 m | 5,500 m |
| Range | 1,200 km | 900 km |
| Take-off / landing runway | 400 m / 400 m | 500 m / 500 m |
| Crew / passengers | 8/72 | 9/64 |
Others
The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was on a study trip in Moscow at the time of the crash of the ANT-20 and, according to his own statement, had taken part in a sightseeing flight by plane the day before. An article he wrote about the event appeared in the Paris-Soir newspaper in May 1935 .
literature
- Juri Albert, Ulrich Unger: Catastrophe over Moscow - The end of "Maxim Gorki" . In: Fliegerrevue extra . No. 31 . Möller, 2010.
- Heinz A. F. Schmidt: Soviet planes . Transpress, Berlin 1971, p. 68/69 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl-Heinz Eyermann , Wolfgang Sellenthin: The air parades of the USSR. Central Board of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship, 1967, p. 34.
- ↑ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The tragic end of "Maxim Gorki". In: Giving life a meaning. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1962, pp. 44–47.