In our time, there is hardly a single person left who does not know about jet aircraft and has not flown them. But few people know what a difficult path engineers from all over the world had to go through to achieve such results. There are even fewer who know exactly what modern jet engines are. aircraft how they work. Jet aircraft are advanced, powerful passenger or military craft powered by a jet engine. The main feature of a jet aircraft is its incredible speed, which favorably distinguishes the propulsion mechanism from the obsolete propeller.

On English language the word "jet" sounds like "jet". Hearing it, thoughts immediately appear related to any reaction, and this is not fuel oxidation at all, because such a movement system is acceptable for cars with carburetors. As for airliners and military aircraft, the principle of their operation is somewhat reminiscent of a rocket takeoff: the physical body reacts to a powerful jet of gas ejected, as a result of which it moves in the opposite direction. This is the basic principle of jet aircraft. Also, an important role in the performance of the mechanism that sets such a large machine in motion is played by aerodynamic properties, wing profile, type of engine (pulsating, direct-flow, liquid, etc.), scheme.

The first attempts to create a jet aircraft

The search for a more powerful and faster engine for the military, and later civil aircraft began back in 1910. Rocket studies of past centuries were taken as the basis, which described in detail the use of powder boosters that can significantly reduce the length of the afterburner and takeoff run. The chief designer was the Romanian engineer Henri Coanda, who created an aircraft powered by a piston engine.

What distinguished the first jet aircraft of 1910 from the standard models of those times? The main difference was the presence of a vane compressor responsible for setting the aircraft in motion. The Coanda airplane was the first, but very unsuccessful attempt to create a jet-powered aircraft. During further tests, the apparatus burned down, which confirmed the inoperability of the design.

Subsequent studies revealed possible reasons failures:

1. Poor engine position. Due to the fact that it was located in front of the structure, the danger to the life of the pilot was very high, since the exhaust gases simply would not allow a person to breathe normally and would cause suffocation;
2. The released flame fell directly on the tail section of the aircraft, which could lead to the ignition of this zone, a fire and the fall of the aircraft.

Despite the complete fiasco, Henri Coanda claimed that it was he who owned the first successful ideas regarding a jet engine for aircraft. In fact, the first successful models were created immediately before the start of the Second World War, in the 30-40s of the XX century. Having worked on the bugs, engineers from Germany, the USA, England, the USSR created aircraft that did not threaten the life of the pilot in any way, and the structure itself was made of heat-resistant steel, thanks to which the body was reliably protected from any damage.

Additional useful information. The pioneer of the jet engine can rightly be called an engineer from England–Frank Whittle, who proposed the first ideas and received his patent on them at the end XIX century.

The beginning of the creation of aircraft in the USSR

For the first time, the development of a jet engine in Russia was discussed at the beginning of the 20th century. The theory of creating powerful airplanes capable of developing supersonic speed put forward by the famous Russian scientist K.E. Tsiolkovsky. The talented designer A.M. Lyulka managed to bring this idea to life. It was he who designed the first Soviet jet aircraft powered by a turbojet engine.

The engineer said that this design can develop an unprecedented speed for those times up to 900 km / h. Despite the fantastic nature of the proposal and the inexperience of the young designer, the engineers of the USSR took up the project. The first airplane was almost ready, but in 1941 hostilities began, the entire design team, including Arkhip Mikhailovich, were forced to start work on tank engines. The very same bureau with all aviation developments was taken deep into the USSR.

Fortunately, A.M. Lyulka was not the only engineer who dreamed of creating an aircraft with a jet aircraft engine. New ideas about creating a fighter-interceptor, the flight of which would be provided by a liquid-type engine, were proposed by the designers A.Ya. Bereznyak and A.M. Isaev, working in the Bolkhovitinov Engineering Bureau. The project was approved, so the developers soon began to work on the creation of the BI-1 fighter, which, despite the war, was built. The first tests on a rocket fighter began on May 15, 1942, at the helm was a brave and courageous test pilot E.Ya.Bakhchivandzhi. The tests were a success, but continued for another year. Having demonstrated a maximum speed of 800 km / h, the aircraft became uncontrollable and crashed. It happened at the end of 1943. The pilot failed to survive, and the tests were stopped. At this time, the countries of the Third Reich were actively engaged in developments and took into the air more than one air-jet ship, so the USSR lost a lot on the air front and turned out to be completely unprepared.

Germany - the country of the first jet vehicles

First jet aircraft were developed by German engineers. The design and production was carried out secretly in camouflaged factories located in deep forest thickets, so this discovery came as a kind of surprise to the world. Hitler dreamed of becoming a world ruler, so he connected the best German designers to create the most powerful weapons, including high-speed jets. There were, of course, both failures and successful projects.

The most successful of these was the first German jet aircraft "Messer-schmitt Me-262" (Messerschmitt-262), which was also called "Sturmvogel".

This aircraft was the first in the world to successfully pass all the tests, take to the air freely and then began to be mass-produced. Great "crusher of the enemies of the Third Reich "had the following features:

• The device had two turbojet engines;
• A radar was located in the nose of the airliner;
• The maximum speed of the aircraft reached 900 km / h, while the instructions indicated that it was extremely undesirable to bring the ships to such speeds, since control over the control was lost, and the car began to make steep dives in the air.

Thanks to all these indicators and design features, the first Messerschmitt-262 jet aircraft acted as an effective means of fighting against Allied aircraft, high-altitude B-17s, nicknamed "flying fortresses". Sturmofogels were faster, so they were "free hunting" for Soviet aircraft, which were equipped with piston engines.

Interesting fact. Adolf Hitler was so fanatical in his desire for world domination that he reduced the effectiveness of the Messer-schmitt Me-262 aircraft with his own hands. The fact is that the design was originally designed as a fighter, but at the direction of the ruler of Germany, it was converted into a bomber, because of this, the engine power was not fully disclosed.

This course of action did not suit the Soviet authorities at all, so they began to work on the creation of new aircraft models that could compete with German devices. The most talented engineers A.I. Mikoyan and P.O. Sukhoi set to work. The main idea was to add an additional K.V. Kholshchevnikov piston engine, which would give the fighter acceleration at the right time. The engine was not very powerful, so it worked for no more than 5 minutes, because of this, its function was to accelerate, and not constantly work throughout the entire flight.

The new creations of the Russian aircraft industry could not help resolve the war. Despite this superpower german planes"Me-262" did not help Hitler turn the course of military events in his favor. Soviet pilots demonstrated their skill and victory over the enemy even with conventional piston ships. In the post-war period, Russian designers created the following jet aircraft of the USSR , which later became the prototypes of modern airliners:

• The I-250, better known as the legendary MiG-13, is a fighter developed by A.I. Mikoyan. The first flight was made in March 1945, at that time the car showed a record high speed, which reached 820 km / h;

• A little later, namely in April 1945, for the first time, a jet aircraft rose into the sky, rising and supporting the flight due to the air-jet motor-compressor and piston engine, which was located in the tail section of the structure, P.O. Sukhoi "Su-5". The speed indicators were not lower than those of its predecessor and exceeded 800 km / h;
• The innovation of engineering and aircraft construction in 1945 was the liquid-jet engine "RD-1". For the first time it was used in the model aircraft designer P. O. Sukhoi - "Su-7", which was also equipped with a piston engine that performs the main pushing, driving function. G. Komarov became a tester of the new aircraft. During the first test, it was possible to note that the additional motor increased the average speed by 115 km / h - this was a great achievement. Despite the good result, the RD-1 engine became a real problem for Soviet aircraft manufacturers. Similar aircraft equipped with this model of a liquid-jet engine, the Yak-3 and La-7R, which engineers S.A. Lavochkin and A.S. Yakovlev worked on, crashed during the test due to constantly emerging failure of the motor;
• After the end of the war and the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union got German aircraft with JUMO-004 and BMW-003 jet engines as trophies. Then the designers realized that they really were a few steps behind. Among engineers, the motors were called "RD-10" and "RD-20", on their basis the first aircraft jet engines were created, on which A.M. Lyulka, A.A. Mikulin, V.Ya. Klimov worked. At the same time, P.O. Sukhoi was developing a powerful twin-engine aircraft equipped with two RD-10 type engines located directly under the wings of the aircraft. The jet fighter-interceptor was named "SU-9". The disadvantage of this arrangement of motors can be considered a strong drag during flight. The advantages are excellent access to the engines, thanks to which it was easy to get close to the mechanism and fix the breakdown. The design feature of this model of the aircraft was the presence of starting powder accelerators for takeoff, braking parachutes for landing, guided air-to-air missiles and a booster-amplifier, which facilitates the control process and increases the maneuverability of the device. The first flight of the Su-9 was carried out in November 1946, but the matter never came to serial production;

• In April 1946, an air parade took place in the city of Tushino. It presented new aircraft from the aviation design bureaus of Mikoyan and Yakovlev. Jet aircraft "MiG-9" and "Yak-15" were immediately put into production.

In fact, Sukhoi "lost" to competitors. Although it’s hard to call it a loss, because his fighter model was recognized, and during this time he was able to practically finish work on a new, more modern project- "SU-11", which has become a true legend in the history of aircraft construction and the prototype of modern powerful airliners.

interesting f Act. In fact, the SU-9 jet plane was hard call it a simple fighter. TO the designers among themselves called it "heavy", because the cannon and bomb armament of the aircraft was at a fairly high level. It is generally accepted that it was the SU-9 that was the prototype of modern fighter-bombers. For all the time, approximately 1,100 pieces of equipment were manufactured, while it was not exported. More than once the legendary "Dry Ninth" was used to intercept reconnaissance aircraft in the air. aircraft. IN This first happened in 1960, when air space The USSR was invaded by airplanes LockheedU-2.

First world prototypes

Not only Germans and Soviet designers were engaged in the development, testing of new airliners and their production. Engineers from the USA, Italy, Japan, Great Britain also created many successful projects, which cannot be ignored. Among the first developments with various types engines include:

• "Ne-178" - a German aircraft with a turbojet power plant, which took off in August 1939;
• "GlosterE. 28/39 "- an aircraft originally from the UK with a turbojet type engine, first took to the skies in 1941;
• "Ne-176" - a fighter, created in Germany using a rocket engine, made its first flight in July 1939;
• "BI-2" - the first Soviet aircraft, which was set in motion by means of a rocket power plant;
• "Campini N.1" - a jet aircraft, created in Italy, which became the first attempt by Italian designers to move away from the piston analogue. But something went wrong in the mechanism, so the liner could not boast of high speed (only 375 km / h). The launch was made in August 1940;
• "Oka" with a Tsu-11 engine - a Japanese fighter-bomb, the so-called disposable aircraft with a kamikaze pilot on board;
• BellP-59 is an American airliner with two rocket-type jet engines. Production became serial after the first flight in the air in 1942 and long tests;

• "GlosterMeteor" - an air-jet fighter, made in Great Britain in 1943; played a significant role during the Second World War, and after its completion he performed the task of intercepting German V-1 cruise missiles;
• "LockheedF-80" - a jet aircraft manufactured in the USA using an AllisonJ type engine. These aircraft participated in the Japanese-Korean War more than once;
• "B-45 Tornado" - a prototype of modern American bombers "B-52", created in 1947;
• "MiG-15" - a follower of the recognized jet fighter "MiG-9", which actively participated in the Korean military conflict, was produced in December 1947;
• Tu-144 is the first Soviet supersonic air-jet passenger aircraft, which became famous for a series of accidents and was discontinued. A total of 16 copies were released.

This list is endless, every year airliners are improving, because designers from all over the world are working to create a new generation of aircraft capable of flying at the speed of sound.

Some interesting facts

Now there are liners that can accommodate a large number of passengers and cargo, which are of enormous size and unimaginable speed of over 3000 km/h, equipped with modern combat equipment. But there are some truly amazing designs; jet aircraft-record holders include:

1. The Airbus A380 is the most spacious aircraft capable of accommodating 853 passengers on board, which is ensured by a two-deck design. He is also one of the most luxurious and expensive airliners of our time. Emirates Airline offers customers numerous amenities, including a Turkish bath, VIP suites and cabins, bedrooms, bars and an elevator. But such options are not available in all devices, it all depends on the airline.

1. "Boeing 747" - for more than 35 years it was considered the most passenger-capacity double-decker airliner and could accommodate 524 passengers;
2. "AN-225 Mriya" - a cargo aircraft that boasts a payload capacity of 250 tons;
3. The LockheedSR-71 is a jet aircraft that reaches a speed of 3529 km / h during the flight.

Video

Thanks to modern innovative developments passengers can get from one point of the world to another in just a few hours, fragile goods that require prompt transportation are quickly delivered, reliable military base. Aviation research does not stand still, because jet aircraft are the basis of the rapidly developing modern aviation. Now several Western and Russian manned, passenger, unmanned airliners with jet engines are being designed, the release of which is scheduled for the next few years. Russian innovative developments of the future include the 5th generation PAK FA T-50 fighter, the first copies of which will be delivered to the troops presumably in late 2017 or early 2018 after testing a new jet engine.

In our era, it is hardly possible to surprise someone with technological innovations. Moreover, now, when the momentum of the development of technology has gained such speed, which in past eras was simply not dreamed of. The same applies to aircraft. Now with turbojet engines it's a common thing. And once people could not even dream of such a thing.

The world's first passenger jet aircraft appeared only in the middle of the last century, when the development of aviation continued actively. Of course, in connection with the Second World War, special attention was paid primarily to the military, so after it ended, engineers and inventors turned their attention to passenger liners.

First, let's define what kind of aircraft it is? This is an aircraft whose engine is jet.

The principle of its operation is to use a mixture of air taken from the atmosphere and products of fuel oxidation with oxygen that are in the air. Due to the oxidation reaction, the working fluid heats up and, expanding, is ejected from the engine very quickly, while producing jet thrust.

First models

Aircraft, which then became prototypes for passenger liners, were developed then in Germany, or rather in the Third Reich, and in Great Britain. The pioneers in this area are the Germans.

Heinkel He 178- is considered the first aircraft with a jet engine. It was first tested on August 27, 1939. The aircraft showed quite encouraging results, but the higher leadership in the face of the Reich Ministry of Aviation considered that this technology was not interesting. And the main direction then was precisely military aviation equipment.

The British were also not far behind the Germans. And in 1941 the world saw the Gloster E.28/39. The engine designer was Frank Whittle.

Gloster E.28/39.

It was these prototypes that showed everyone which way aviation would go in the future.

The first jet passenger aircraft

The first jet aircraft for passengers is considered to be created by the British, "Comet-1". He was tested July 27, 1949. He had 4 turbojet engines, and the salon was calculated for 32 passengers. In addition, it was installed 2 accelerators for hydrogen peroxide. It was used on routes to Europe and Africa. For example, Johannesburg with stops along the way. The total flight time was 23.5 hours.

Later, "Kometa-2" and "Kometa-3" were developed, but they did not live up to expectations and were discontinued due to metal fatigue and insufficient strength of the fuselage. And yet, some modifications are still used to design RAF fighters.

Six years later, the USSR introduced the TU-104. The first Soviet jet passenger aircraft. The first time he took to the air June 15, 1955 A.N. Tupolev took as the basis of his project bomber with jet engines TU-16. He simply increased the fuselage, lowered the wing under it, and placed 100 seats for passengers. Since 1956 it was put into mass production.

For the next two years, he was the only jet aircraft in the world., which was used to transport civilians. He had 2 turbojet engines. Its maximum speed reached 950 km / h, and he could fly up to 2700 km.

It also introduced such novelties for the USSR, like meals on board, beautifully dressed stewardesses and fit pilots.

Nevertheless, for 4 years of its operation, there were 37 accidents involving this aircraft. This is the largest number of accidents among all Russian aircraft. It is not surprising that N.S. Khrushchev refused to even approach him. Despite the fact that it was removed from production, it was still used until 1979 for flights.

In 1958 on passenger lines came out . He could take on board from 90 to 180 passengers. Engines of different power were installed on different models. The aircraft was intended for routes of medium and long distances. However, there were much more accidents with it than with TU-104.

SE.210 Caravelle 1.

A breakthrough in world aviation was the creation of the French SE.210 Caravelle 1. He started flying in 1959, mainly in the colonies of France, in Africa. He also had 2 turbojet engines, but Rolls-Royce, in the tail of the aircraft. This helped to achieve the fact that both aerodynamics improved, and noise in the cabin was minimized, and the reliability of the air intakes was increased.

And the ladder was also made in a different way than other aircraft of that time - in the form of a descending part of the fuselage. In the cabin, too, innovations were carried out: portholes have become larger, and the passageway has been widened. It was used on routes only of medium range.

A total of 12 aircraft of this type were produced, but still he could not stand the competition with Boeing, and further production was stopped.

In any business there are pioneers: what is completely familiar today was once a novelty. Probably, few people can remember flying on an airplane, from the windows of which one could see air propeller(however, in Europe, regional airlines often use turboprop aircraft). Turbojet engines rule the world today - nothing better, apparently, on this moment have not been invented, and hydrogen and nuclear aircraft do not yet fly. Almost 80 years have passed since the appearance of the first efficient motor of this type.

The German engineer Ernst Heinkel is behind the embodiment of the idea, but to whom it belongs is another question. As often happens, the idea was thought out by another person (who eventually remained in the shadows), then, thanks to the money and resources of big business, it was possible to bring it to life.

Ernst Heinkel engineer

Heinkel was born in Germany in January 1888. In his youth, he had nothing to do with aviation, which then took only the first serious steps. The German enthusiastically studied mechanical engineering in Stuttgart, worked as an apprentice turner in a foundry and followed the development of zeppelins. The catastrophe with one of these aircraft in 1908. Then the experimental LZ 4, already participating in a series of test flights, was destroyed by fire during a landing to repair a broken engine. "The future is in airplanes"- Heinkel decided for himself.

By 1911, Ernst, then 23 years old, had built his first airplane. As the test flight showed, engineering skills required further improvement - the young man was injured and moved away from them for a long time. Someone would have given up, but that era was remembered by enthusiastic people. Rather, history remembers only such. Beginning in 1914, the German worked in large aircraft manufacturing companies, engaged in the design of aircraft. He is sometimes credited with developing the popular Albatros B.II biplane, but many historians deny this information.

Shortly after the end of the First World War, in 1921, Heinkel took the post of chief designer of the Caspar-Werke company, reorganized after a long pause. However, very soon the engineer leaves her due to disputes with the founder of the company, Karl Kaspar, regarding the rights to the design of manufactured aircraft. Surely Ernst highly valued his own experience and professionalism, so in 1922 the Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke company appeared.

The company was looking for ways to circumvent the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed serious restrictions on Germany in terms of the production of equipment. At a certain point, Heinkel received serious support from the Japanese government. The fact is that Japan was at the same time a major customer of Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke and was a member of a special commission that checked whether the company complied with the agreements enshrined in the Treaty of Versailles. It is alleged that this allowed Ernst to prepare in advance for the upcoming inspections, and then continue to work as if nothing had happened (the Japanese warned ahead of time about the events).

In the 30s, Heinkel's company was no longer "one of", but was ranked among the industry leaders. The firm naturally attracted the attention of the Chancellor, who soon usurped power. "In 1933 I joined the party, but I was never a Nazi"- so Ernst wrote much later. By the way, in 1948 he was arrested for collaborating with the Nazi regime, but then acquitted due to his connections with the conspirators who planned to overthrow Hitler.

Heinkel He 178

Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke has been actively investing in the development and research of new types of engines. Therefore, when a young engineer Hans von Ohain came to Heinkel, the head of the enterprise gladly took advantage of the technology patented by this man (von Ohain registered a jet engine in 1935). It is worth noting that shortly before this, regardless of Hans, Sir Frank Whittle received a patent for a turbojet engine, but the British aircraft took off later - he received government support after it became known about the successful tests of the He 178.

Von Ohain visited Heinkel with a proposal to build a workable aircraft using his engine. The implementation of the project took several years, as it was decided to improve the design, making the system more powerful and efficient.

Heinrich Hertel, Karl Schwerzler and Siegfried Günther had a hand in the creation of the world's first operating turbojet aircraft. The latter, after the Second World War, took part in the development Soviet fighter MiG-15. Work on the He 178 was carried out without government support; the company's own funds were used to create the concept and prototypes.

First flight

The He 178 made its first takeoff attempt on 24 August 1939. Rather, it was a trial "jump" over the strip. And a few days later, on August 27, Captain Erich Warzitz made a full-fledged flight (a couple of months before that, he had lifted a jet He 176 into the air).

According to available data, the maximum speed of an aircraft with a metal fuselage and wooden wings, on board of which there was a single pilot, was slightly less than 500 km / h (according to other information - about 600 km / h), flight range reached 200 km.

The first solo flight ended without too much pathos and sharp turns. Everything was spoiled by a bird that got into the engine: a flameout occurred, but Varzits was able to land the car safely. The plane was also demonstrated to representatives of the Ministry of Aviation. The flight lasted only 10 minutes, and it was pointless to take the He 178 into service in that condition. So considered in a special commission.

The decision not to support the Heinkel project was probably influenced by the development of the BMW 003 and Junkers Jumo 004 engines with state support. The additional cargo was seen as superfluous, and the outbreak of the war was to end soon (there was such an opinion). The engineer nevertheless decided to continue the work, which led to the appearance of the world's first fighter with a turbojet engine - the He 280.

Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke continued to develop engines, which, in general, was the promise of aircraft of this type. On March 30, 1941, the He 280 made its debut flight, but again failed to meet the commission's requests. It didn't help that he used kerosene instead of burning high-octane fuel like "classic" aircraft. Over and over again, Heinkel made attempts to prove the superiority of his designs over competitors' aircraft. In speed racing, the He 280 outperformed the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, but in vain. Only in 1942, after a demonstration battle between these two aircraft, did the Ministry of Aviation recognize the prospects of the He 280 - it turned out to be more maneuverable and faster.

As a result, Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke received an order for 20 test copies and 300 production samples of He 280. However, Ernst had to solve problems with the HeS 8 engines, which were replaced by more advanced but complex HeS 011. This negatively affected the execution of the order, and the engineer was forced to use the Junkers Jumo 004 imposed on him. Heavy and huge motors nullified everything positive sides He 280. As a result, the jet Messerschmitt Me 262 came out the winner in this competitive struggle, while only nine copies of the Heinkel aircraft were produced. He lose. And around the same time, his property was nationalized. In fact, this means that the engineer was detained and demanded to transfer control of the enterprise to Hermann Goering, who was later recognized as a war criminal. After that, Ernst went to Vienna, where he founded new company.

Some time later, while participating in the competition of Nazi Germany Jägernotprogramm, Heinkel presented his "dream fighter" - He 162 Salamander. Today, such a program would be called a "prototype competition" - few of the participants could go beyond the design stage. The presented planes are solid retro-futurism by today's standards. Ernst's brainchild looked a match for him, but one of the prototypes was able to accelerate to an incredible 900 km / h. That could make him the most fast plane Second World War...

In the early 50s of the last century, Ernst Heinkel founded a new company that produced bicycles, mopeds and sidecars - aircraft construction in Germany was banned for some time. In 1955, restrictions were eased, and the company began assembling aircraft on orders from abroad (including one of the modifications of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter for the United States). The creator of the world's first turbojet aircraft died in 1958.

Short list of sources: World War II Database, Aerospaceweb.org, EDN, Scientists and Friends.

The responsibility for the preservation of Russia in one of the most difficult times in the last thousand years, history placed on Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.

And he honorably coped with this duty, preserving the country and all the peoples living on its territory, making Russia a country of advanced science and great culture. He did this with the least possible loss of people and material assets.

The most influential world forces failed in Lenin and Stalin's times to crush the Soviet state and exterminate the peoples of the USSR. In Russia, many of the interventionists of the Western countries, their mercenaries, including the White armies, the enemies of Russia inside the country and the hordes of troops of Europe united by Hitler, found their graves.

This is what the West cannot forgive either Stalin, or the Russian people, or itself.

The era of the 1930s, wartime and post-war times attracts with the grandeur of accomplishments, the heroism of millions of people, the greatness of the state called the Soviet Union.

In the post-war period, the life of the peoples of the USSR was saved thanks to huge achievements in the field of armaments. For all the time of its previous existence, Russia has never had such powerful, victorious Armed Forces, which from the end of 1942 outnumbered the armed forces of any country in the world and remained the strongest in the world until the last day of the existence of the Soviet Union.

Since 1985, our army and our military industry, destroyed by the traitor M. S. Gorbachev, had such a margin of safety that in 1991, until the destruction of the USSR, it remained the strongest. And today we are alive thanks to the fact that under Gorbachev and Yeltsin we did not have time to destroy all nuclear weapons, all missiles, aircraft, guns and tanks, all weapons factories.

Unfortunately, few understand that the security of the peoples of Russia fully corresponds to the state of its Armed Forces. But the leaders of the Soviet Union understood this well.

The USSR did not doubt for a moment that only thanks to a well-armed, strong army, our country is free, independent and calm for the life and future of its children.

Few people can imagine the power of our post-war army. It was an army of many millions, working like a well-oiled mechanism, which was able to defeat any enemy. But an army cannot successfully defend its country if it is not equipped with weapons equal to or superior in combat qualities to those of the enemy.

The Soviet leadership understood this, thought about the future of the country and, despite the enormous costs associated with the introduction of hostilities with the enemy that attacked us, allocated funds to create a new generation of weapons. And not thanks to our intelligence, but thanks to the work of Soviet scientists and engineers before the war, during and after the war, new types of weapons were created in the USSR.

Our intelligence, in my opinion, was notable for its insufficient capabilities to provide reliable information. Before the war, she “caught German ducks” and named one after another the wrong dates for the attack on the USSR and became so bogged down in disinformation that she lost the trust of the Soviet government.

Intelligence did not indicate the direction of the main attacks of the German troops in 1941, but claimed that half of the German troops were intended to attack England, looked at the transfer of Manstein's army from Sevastopol to Leningrad, three times underestimated the number of German troops surrounded near Stalingrad, could not determine which front near Kursk in 1943, the main blow will be delivered by the enemy.

Even in 1945, when our troops, fighting for every house, advanced to the Reichstag, intelligence did not know that there was a bunker at Hitler's headquarters nearby in the Imperial Chancellery and therefore our troops were not sent specifically to capture the Imperial Chancellery and Hitler was neither alive nor dead did not take.

And it is not at all accidental that a person who gravitates more towards the West than towards Russia wrote about the presence of secret representatives of the USSR in the highest echelons of power in Nazi Germany, for example, Stirlitz.

The myth of the omnipotence of Soviet intelligence was inflated by the West with the aim of accusing the Soviet Union that it did not design new military equipment, atomic weapons, but stole the developments of Western countries, and especially the developments of Germany and the United States.

These myths were and are being invented to discredit Soviet science, our scientists, designers, engineers, workers, leaders of the country, scientific teams and industrial enterprises. Without these myths, the United States would have to admit that the Russians in science and production are much more capable than the rich Western countries, and the socialist system is more effective than the capitalist one.

In fact, Soviet designers and scientists already during the war were working on the creation of a fundamentally new military equipment. One of the types of such equipment was aircraft with turbojet engines or, as they were called, jet aircraft.

The Yakovlev Design Bureau took as a basis the design of the famous, lightest and most maneuverable fighter of the Second World War - the Yak-3. On April 24, 1946, the first flight of the first jet fighter Yak-15 in our country, designed by OKB A. S. Yakovlev, took place. On the same day, April 24, 1946, the Soviet jet fighter designed by the Design Bureau of A. I. Mikoyan and M. I. Gurevich MiG-9 made its first flight. Both flights were successful.

April 24 was the birthday of Soviet jet aviation. But almost no one in the country knows about this significant day, because our media hide the achievements of our ancestors from posterity. On August 18, 1946, on the Day of the USSR Air Force, both aircraft were demonstrated at the parade in Tushino.

By November 7, 1946, about 30 aircraft were prepared for the air parade over Red Square, but due to weather conditions, the air parade was canceled and only on May 1, 1947, the country's first jet planes flew over Red Square for the first time. The rustling whistle of flying aircraft was enthusiastically greeted by thousands of Muscovites and guests of the capital.

The USSR did not lag behind in the creation of jet bomber aircraft. In February-April 1949, it passed state tests, and the Il-28 front-line bomber, designed by S. V. Ilyushin Design Bureau, was put into mass production.

The symbol of the post-war Soviet aviation was the MiG-15 jet fighter, taken into the air at the end of 1947. Already in 1948, mass production of this remarkable machine began, surpassing all types of US fighters.

To the US threat of using atomic bombs against the USSR, Stalin, who has excellent air defense systems and the MiG-15 fighter, had reason to say that american planes will not reach the cities of the Soviet Union. The ability of our Air Force to protect the peaceful labor of the Soviet people was shown by the war in Korea unleashed by the United States on June 25, 1950.

The Soviet MiG-17 fighter was publicly demonstrated at the air parade in Tushino on June 20, 1953, but it was also created under Stalin. He became the first aircraft in the USSR to reach the speed of sound in horizontal flight.

When creating the aircraft, the testers again encountered the formidable phenomenon of flutter of an unprecedented variety and the reverse action of the ailerons at speeds close to sound. Only the highest flying skills of test pilot Sedov saved the plane, since in a second the plane was in flutter, no more than a third of the rudders remained. Our talented engineers uncovered the causes and eliminated all problems.

Due to its high flight performance, reliability and unpretentiousness in operation, the MiG-17 was recognized as one of the best fighters of its time, especially after participating in battles in Egypt in 1956.

Tests of the remarkable MiG-19 fighter began in 1952 under Stalin. The aircraft reached in flight almost one and a half speed of sound and a fantastic rate of climb - in 1.1 minutes it took off to 10 kilometers in height. At that time, not a single aircraft in the world had such a rate of climb.

Having such a machine, equipped with guns, missiles and bombs, our children could sleep peacefully, as the plane was able to instantly intercept and destroy any enemy machine. The MiG-19 was noticeably superior to its foreign contemporaries: F-100, Super Saber, Starfighter.

I would especially like to note one more aircraft - the two-seat loitering interceptor OKB A. S. Yakovlev Yakovlev Yak-25, also tested during the life of I. V. Stalin on July 19, 1952 and demonstrated to the public in July 1955 of the year at an aviation festival in Tushino and May 1, 1956 over Red Square and in Tushino.

This aircraft with two AM-5A engines of 2600 kgf each designed by A. A. Mikulin was intended for long patrols away from the base. It was equipped with excellent flight and navigation and radar systems, which made it possible to intercept enemy targets in all weather conditions and at a wide range of altitudes.

This aircraft, together with ground-based air defense systems, closed the possibility of an attack on us by the United States from the north through the North Pole. It was indispensable for workers in the Far North with a small number of airfields. In total, 480 Yak-25 aircraft were produced, mainly with a powerful Sokol radar. And despite the fact that there was no replacement for him, N. S. Khrushchev, having arranged a pogrom of Soviet aviation, did not spare the irreplaceable Yak-25 and in 1963 removed it from service.

It is impossible not to recall another unique machine - the attack aircraft of the Design Bureau of S. V. Ilyushin Il-40, which took off in 1953. But N. S. Khrushchev in 1956 decided to abolish attack aviation, and the country was left without a wonderful aircraft, especially needed by the infantry.

In the mid-1950s, the Sukhoi Design Bureau resumed its work. In September 1955, the first flight of the SU-7 aircraft took place, and in 1956, for the first time in the USSR, the SU-7 aircraft reached a speed twice the speed of sound. Sukhoi's machines were heavier than Yakovlev's and occupied a middle position between a front-line bomber and a fighter. And it was such a machine that turned out to be the country's Air Force needed.

In April 1959, the SU-7B aircraft (modified SU-7) took off, capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons and bombing from low altitudes. In the late 1980s, the SU-7B of all modifications were decommissioned by M. S. Gorbachev.

Such a decision can be called sabotage, because airplanes can fly and have been flying all over the world for decades. Even the aircraft of the 1950s have normal flight performance and with periodic repairs, equipment and weapons upgrades, they can serve for a long time to protect the country. Destroying planes, as Khrushchev destroyed out of his own stupidity and Gorbachev and Yeltsin to please the United States, is a crime.

N. S. Khrushchev did not allow the production of bombers - flying boats designed in 1952 and subsequent years by R. L. Bartini.

Perhaps in this case Khrushchev is right, but at least one project needs to be mentioned.

The unique A-57 seaplane designed by Bartini is flat, like a triangle cut out of a board, which has a part of the fuselage under water, and from above it is flat and rises slightly above the water. Therefore, it is difficult to see it on the surface of the ocean. Its speed is 2500 km / h, flight range 12-14 thousand kilometers, take-off weight 320000 kg, armament - one thermonuclear bomb "244 N" weighing 3000 kg.

He could reach the United States and return back, especially with the nuclear power plant proposed in 1961. It gives the impression of a project of the future.

And jet seaplanes designed by G. M. Beriev Design Bureau are a reality embodied in metal. For the first time, the R-1 jet gyroplane weighing 20,000 kg took off from the water at the end of May 1952, that is, also during the life of I.V. Stalin.

Even the United States recognized the P-1 as the world's first jet-powered flying boat. On its basis, the Design Bureau of G. M. Beriev in 1953 began to develop a more advanced seaplane, and on June 20, 1956, a jet seaplane BE-10 weighing 48,500 kg took off from the surface of the water. It set 12 world records, including speed - 912 km / h and height of 14,962 meters without load and 11,997 meters with load. It is indeed a flying ship.

But the most expensive and difficult to design and manufacture were, of course, bombers. The Soviet aviation industry produced very beautiful aircraft. In my opinion, the most beautiful planes in the world. But each of the types of aircraft produced in the 1950s has its own beauty. The beauty of the bombers is special, memorable forever, because behind this beauty one can see formidable power. And the most beautiful are the planes designed in the first half of the 1950s.

In my opinion, the most powerful aircraft of the 1950s is the strategic bomber 3M Design Bureau of the chief designer V. M. Myasishchev. This aircraft was shown very well at the beginning of the 1974 feature film Sky with Me. On January 20, 1953, during the life of Stalin, the M-4 aircraft (the prototype of the 3M aircraft) was taken into the air. Subsequently, all M-4 aircraft were converted into tanker aircraft for refueling aircraft in the air.

On March 26, 1956, flight tests of the 3M bomber began. The maximum takeoff weight of the 3M aircraft was 193 tons without external tanks and 202 tons with the PTB. The flight range with one in-flight refueling was over 15,000 km with a flight duration of 20 hours. It was indeed an intercontinental aircraft capable of taking off from airfields in the territory of the USSR and attacking targets in the United States.

On the 3M aircraft and its modifications, 19 world records for the height and speed of flight with a load were set. The 3M was in service with long-range aviation until 1985 and then was destroyed in accordance with the Soviet-American agreement on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons.

And this handsome man was killed by M. S. Gorbachev. The 3M aircraft was the great strategic bomber of the great continental power. It is huge, squat, with huge wings descending to the very ground, connected into a single monolith, striving for flight, striking in its size and power. Today's stripped-down Russia, unlike the USSR and the USA, does not produce any strategic bombers, and does not design new ones.

It should be noted that when, in connection with the creation of the Energia-Buran system, the question arose of air transportation of the system's units to the assembly site at Baikonur, they remembered 3M. Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev redesigned the aircraft and named it VM-T.

In just two years, the Myasishchev Design Bureau created an aircraft similar to the Boeing B-52, which was a US national program. Aircraft VM-T "Atlant", 3M converted into cargo in 1980, performed more than 150 flights for the transportation of goods of the Energia-Buran system.

The second great aircraft of the great Soviet power of the 1950s is the Tu-95 strategic bomber. The bomber, designated "95", was intended to destroy important stationary targets with cruise missiles and bomb weapons day and night, in any weather conditions and anywhere in the world.

The first copy of the Tu-95 strategic bomber designed by the Design Bureau of A. N. Tupolev also flew under the control of the country by I. V. Stalin on November 12, 1952. Turboprop (TVD) engines were installed on the aircraft, which are characterized by lower fuel consumption, but due to propellers and lower speed.

This aircraft met all the requirements for strategic missile-carrying bombers. Its flight range was 15,400 km, maximum flight speed - 882 km / h, maximum take-off weight - 172 tons.

And in conclusion of the topic about the bombers of the 1950s, one more most famous long-range bomber TU-16 should be told. The Tu-16 aircraft designed by A. N. Tupolev Design Bureau was taken into the air on April 27, 1952, that is, under Stalin.

Already in 1953, mass production of this complex machine began, and the first bombers began to enter the combat units of the country's Air Force. On May 1, 1953, nine TU-16s passed over Red Square.

The Tu-16 occupied a middle position between a strategic and front-line bomber and was used very widely as a carrier of bombs, nuclear weapons, anti-ship missiles, as well as a reconnaissance aircraft, patrol, anti-submarine aircraft and for many other military purposes.

The USSR, due to the size of the territory of the state, really needed such an aircraft with a flight range of 5,800 km and a maximum take-off weight of 79 tons. In 1993, under the rule of Yeltsin, the TU-16 aircraft was decommissioned by the Russian Air Force and Navy. We have become even more defenseless against the threat from the West and the East. But in China, the TU-16 aircraft, called the H-6, is in service at the present time. I must say that over the past 25 years, Russia has not produced a single class 3M, TU-95 and TU-16 aircraft.

Pay attention to the timing of testing, fine-tuning and the start of serial production of the most complex jet aircraft in Stalin's time. The quality of design and the timing of the release of machines are amazing. In the production of aircraft, we reached perfection under Stalin. No country in the world has achieved any of our results in the design and manufacture of aviation equipment.

We had exactly as many types of aviation equipment as needed to ensure the country's security. And if you remove at least one type of these aircraft, then a gap will appear in the air defense of the country, which means that the security of the citizens of the USSR will decrease.

In addition, by creating jet strategic aviation, we made US territory vulnerable and put an end to American permissiveness in the world, as well as the possibility of implementing the plan for the destruction of the Soviet Union, that is, we disrupted the possibility of fulfilling Western countries conspiracy against Russia.

It is impossible not to notice the fact that the manufacture of the vast majority of aircraft was laid down under I.V. Stalin (Stalin died on March 5, 1953) and N.S. Khrushchev enjoyed the fruits of his labors after the aircraft were designed, tested, brought up, launched in mass production and under the rule of Khrushchev began to enter in large quantities in the Air Force, Navy, Air Defense Forces.

The flight crew, soldiers, sailors and officers praised Khrushchev for the new excellent jet aircraft technology, with which you can defeat any enemy, and the true organizer of the triumph of the Soviet military aviation In the 1950s, I. V. Stalin was not named.

Most of the inhabitants of the country, of course, did not understand that it was not the mind and will of Khrushchev, but the mind and will of I.V. Stalin and L.P. Beria that these mighty defenders of the Motherland's sky were born. Designers, engineers, workers, heads of sites, enterprises and many other Soviet people were not glorified either, with the mind and work of which the country ensured its security. The people did not know their heroes.

It must be said that information about Soviet military aviation is not only hidden by liberal revisionists, but is also presented to our youth in an obviously distorted form. And few people in our country know about such an outstanding aircraft as the strategic bomber 3M Design Bureau of V. M. Myasishchev.

After the war in civil aviation there were still aircraft of pre-war models: LI-2, R-2, PO-2 and others. But funds were gradually allocated for the production of new passenger aircraft.

Were designed and put into mass production passenger planes An-2, Il-12, Il-14 with piston engines that meet the new requirements for civil aviation.

The An-2 aircraft was not only a passenger aircraft for local airlines, but also the best agricultural aircraft in the world. If it had been produced not by the USSR, but by the USA, then even today it would cultivate agricultural land in most countries of the world. It is no longer produced in Russia, like other domestic civil aviation aircraft, but the remaining aircraft still continue to process the fields of the country. Every year there are fewer and fewer of these cars left.

The Il-12 and Il-14 passenger aircraft differed from the Li-2 in their large maximum takeoff weight, comfort, nose wheel and the embodiment in their design of many achievements in the field of piston aircraft engineering.

The Soviet aviation industry also began to produce Mi-1, Mi-4, Ka-15 piston helicopters.

In 1955, Il-12, Li-2, An-2 aircraft and Mi-4 helicopters were even used in the Soviet Antarctic expedition. But, of course, for the development of civil aviation in the post-war period, a sufficient amount Money was not singled out, since the most important issue of the post-war period was the issue of preserving the state and people and protecting them from an external aggressor, and for this, military aviation was not inferior to the enemy.

Leonid Petrovich Maslovsky

It's always hard to be first, but it's interesting

On the morning of March 27, 1943, the first Soviet jet fighter "BI-1" took off from the airfield of the Koltsovo Air Force Research Institute in Sverdlovsk region. Passed the seventh test flight to achieve maximum speed. Having reached a two-kilometer altitude and gaining a speed of about 800 km / h, the aircraft unexpectedly went into a dive at the 78th second after running out of fuel and collided with the ground. An experienced test pilot G. Ya. Bakhchivandzhi, who was sitting at the helm, died. This catastrophe became an important stage in the development of aircraft with liquid rocket engines in the USSR, but although work on them continued until the end of the 1940s, this direction in the development of aviation turned out to be a dead end. Nevertheless, these first, although not very successful steps had a serious impact on the entire subsequent history of the post-war development of the Soviet aircraft and rocket industry.

“The era of propeller-driven airplanes should be followed by the era of jet airplanes…” – these words of the founder of jet technology K.E. By this time, it became clear that a further significant increase in aircraft flight speed due to an increase in the power of piston engines and a more perfect aerodynamic shape was practically impossible. Airplanes had to be equipped with engines whose power could not be increased without an excessive increase in engine mass. So, in order to increase the speed of a fighter flight from 650 to 1000 km / h, it was necessary to increase the power of the piston engine by 6 (!) Times.

It was obvious that the piston engine was to be replaced by a jet engine, which, having smaller transverse dimensions, would allow reaching high speeds, giving more thrust per unit weight.

Jet engines are divided into two main classes: air-jet engines, which use the energy of oxidation of fuel with oxygen from the air taken from the atmosphere, and rocket engines, containing all the components of the working fluid on board and capable of operating in any environment, including airless. The first type includes turbojet (TRD), pulsed air-jet (PUVRD) and ramjet (ramjet), and the second - liquid-propellant rocket (LRE) and solid-propellant rocket (TTRD) engines.

The first samples of jet technology appeared in countries where the traditions in the development of science and technology and the level aviation industry were extremely high. This is, first of all, Germany, the USA, as well as England, Italy. In 1930, the project of the first turbojet engine was patented by the Englishman Frank Whittle, then the first working model of the engine was assembled in 1935 in Germany by Hans von Ohain, and in 1937 the Frenchman Rene Leduc received a government order to create a ramjet engine.

In the USSR, however, practical work on "reactive" topics was carried out mainly in the direction of liquid rocket engines. V. P. Glushko was the founder of rocket engine building in the USSR. In 1930, then an employee of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) in Leningrad, which at that time was the only design bureau in the world for the development of solid-propellant rockets, he created the first domestic LRE ORM-1. And in Moscow in 1931-1933. scientist and designer of the Jet Propulsion Study Group (GIRD) F. L. Zander developed the OR-1 and OR-2 rocket engines.

A new powerful impetus to the development of jet technology in the USSR was given by the appointment of M. N. Tukhachevsky in 1931 to the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and Chief of Armaments of the Red Army. It was he who insisted on the adoption in 1932 of the decision of the Council of People's Commissars "On the development of steam turbine and jet engines, as well as jet-powered aircraft ...". The work that began after that at the Kharkov Aviation Institute made it possible only by 1941 to create a working model of the first Soviet turbojet engine designed by A. M. Lyulka and contributed to the launch on August 17, 1933 of the first liquid rocket in the USSR GIRD-09, which reached a height of 400 m.

But the lack of more tangible results prompted Tukhachevsky in September 1933 to merge the GDL and GIRD into a single Jet Research Institute (RNII), headed by a Leningrader, military engineer 1st rank I. T. Kleimenov. The future chief designer of the space program, Muscovite S.P. Korolev, was appointed his deputy, who two years later in 1935 was appointed head of the department of rocket aircraft. And although the RNII was subordinate to the ammunition department of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry and its main topic was the development of rocket shells (the future Katyusha), Korolev managed, together with Glushko, to calculate the most advantageous design schemes of devices, types of engines and control systems, types of fuel and materials. As a result, by 1938, his department had developed an experimental system of guided missile weapons, including projects of long-range liquid cruise missiles "212" and ballistic "204" with gyroscopic control, aircraft missiles for firing at air and ground targets, anti-aircraft solid-propellant missiles with guidance by light and radio beam.

In an effort to get the support of the military leadership in the development of the high-altitude rocket plane "218", Korolev substantiated the concept of a missile fighter-interceptor capable of reaching great heights in a few minutes and attacking aircraft that had broken through to the protected object.

But on June 30, 1939, the German pilot Erich Warzitz took off the world's first jet aircraft with a rocket engine designed by Helmut Walter "Heinkel" He-176, reaching a speed of 700 km / h, and two months later the world's first jet aircraft with a turbojet engine "Heinkel" He-178, equipped with a Hans von Ohain engine, "HeS-3 B" with a thrust of 510 kg and a speed of 750 km / h.

In May 1941, the British Gloucester Pioneer E.28 / 29 made its first flight with the Whittle W-1 turbojet engine designed by Frank Whittle.

Thus, Nazi Germany became the leader in the jet race, which, in addition to aviation programs, began to implement a rocket program under the leadership of Wernher von Braun at the secret training ground in Peenemünde.

In 1938, the RNII was renamed NII-3, now the "royal" rocket plane "218-1" began to be designated "RP-318-1". New leading designers engineers A. Shcherbakov, A. Pallo replaced the LRE ORM-65 V. P. Glushko with a nitrogen-acid-kerosene engine "RDA-1-150" designed by L. S. Dushkin.

And now, after almost a year of testing, in February 1940, the first flight of the RP-318-1 took place in tow behind the R 5 aircraft. Test pilot? P. Fedorov at an altitude of 2800 m unhooked the tow rope and started the rocket engine. A small cloud from an incendiary squib appeared behind the rocket plane, then brown smoke, then a fiery stream about a meter long. "RP-318-1", having developed a maximum speed of only 165 km / h, switched to flight with a climb.

This modest achievement nevertheless allowed the USSR to join the pre-war "jet club" of the leading aviation powers.

The successes of the German designers did not go unnoticed by the Soviet leadership. In July 1940, the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution that determined the creation of the first domestic aircraft with jet engines. The resolution, in particular, provided for the resolution of issues "on the use of high-power jet engines for high-speed stratospheric flights."

Massive Luftwaffe raids on British cities and the lack of a sufficient number of radar stations in the Soviet Union revealed the need to create a fighter-interceptor to cover especially important objects, on the project of which young engineers A. Ya. Bereznyak and A. M. Isaev began to work in the spring of 1941 from the Design Bureau of the designer V. F. Bolkhovitinov. The concept of their Dushkin-powered missile interceptor or "close-range fighter" was based on Korolev's proposal put forward as early as 1938.

When an enemy aircraft appeared, the “close fighter” had to take off quickly and, having a high rate of climb and speed, catch up and destroy the enemy in the first attack, then after running out of fuel, using the altitude and speed reserve, plan for landing.

The project was distinguished by its extraordinary simplicity and low cost - the entire structure had to be made of solid wood from plywood. The engine frame, pilot protection and landing gear were made of metal, which were removed under the influence of compressed air.

With the outbreak of war, Bolkhovitinov involved all the design bureaus to work on the aircraft. In July 1941, a draft design with an explanatory note was sent to Stalin, and in August the State Defense Committee decided to urgently build an interceptor, which was needed by the Moscow air defense units. According to the order of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry, 35 days were allotted for the manufacture of the machine.

The aircraft, which received the name "BI" (near fighter or, as the journalists later interpreted, "Bereznyak - Isaev"), was built almost without detailed working drawings, drawing its full-size parts on plywood. The fuselage skin was glued on a blank of veneer, then attached to the frame. The keel was made integral with the fuselage, like the thin wooden wing of the coffered structure, and covered with fabric. There was even a wooden carriage for two 20-mm ShVAK cannons with 90 rounds of ammunition. LRE D-1 A-1100 was installed in the rear fuselage. The engine consumed 6 kg of kerosene and acid per second. The total fuel supply on board the aircraft, equal to 705 kg, ensured the operation of the engine for almost 2 minutes. The estimated takeoff weight of the aircraft "BI" was 1650 kg with an empty weight of 805 kg.

In order to reduce the time of creating an interceptor at the request of the Deputy People's Commissar of the aviation industry for pilot aircraft construction A. S. Yakovlev, the airframe of the BI aircraft was studied in a full-scale wind tunnel of TsAGI, and at the airfield, test pilot B. N. Kudrin began jogging and approaching in tow . The development of the power plant had to be pretty tricky, since nitric acid corroded tanks and wiring and had a harmful effect on humans.

However, all work was interrupted due to the evacuation of the design bureau to the Urals in the village of Belimbay in October 1941. There, in order to debug the operation of the LRE systems, a ground stand was mounted - the BI fuselage with a combustion chamber, tanks and pipelines. By the spring of 1942, the ground test program was completed.

Flight tests of the unique fighter were entrusted to Captain Bakhchivandzhi, who made 65 sorties at the front and shot down 5 German aircraft. He previously mastered the management of systems at the stand.

The morning of May 15, 1942 entered the history of Russian cosmonautics and aviation forever, with the takeoff from the ground of the first Soviet aircraft with a liquid propellant engine. The flight, which lasted 3 minutes 9 seconds at a speed of 400 km/h and a rate of climb of 23 m/s, made a strong impression on all those present. Here is how Bolkhovitinov recalled it in 1962: “For us, standing on the ground, this takeoff was unusual. Unusually quickly picking up speed, the plane took off from the ground in 10 seconds and disappeared from sight in 30 seconds. Only the flames of the engine told where he was. Several minutes passed like that. I will not hide, my hamstrings were shaking.

Members of the state commission noted in an official act that "the takeoff and flight of the BI-1 aircraft with a rocket engine, first used as the main engine of the aircraft, proved the possibility of practical flight on a new principle, which opens up a new direction in the development of aviation." The test pilot noted that the flight on the BI aircraft, in comparison with conventional types of aircraft, was exceptionally pleasant, and the aircraft was superior to other fighters in terms of ease of control.

A day after the tests, a solemn meeting and rally was arranged in Bilimbay. A poster hung over the presidium table: "Greetings to Captain Bakhchivandzhi, the pilot who flew into the new!"

The decision of the State Defense Committee to build a series of 20 BIVS aircraft soon followed, where, in addition to two cannons, a bomb cassette was installed in front of the cockpit, which housed ten small anti-aircraft bombs weighing 2.5 kg each.

In total, 7 test flights were made on the BI fighter, each of which recorded the best flight performance of the aircraft. The flights took place without flight accidents, only minor damage to the landing gear occurred during landings.

But on March 27, 1943, when accelerating to a speed of 800 km / h at an altitude of 2000 m, the third prototype spontaneously went into a dive and crashed into the ground near the airfield. The commission investigating the circumstances of the crash and the death of test pilot Bakhchivandzhi was unable to establish the reasons for the aircraft's nose-dive, noting that the phenomena that occur at flight speeds of the order of 800-1000 km / h have not yet been studied.

The disaster hit the reputation of the Bolkhovitinov Design Bureau painfully - all the unfinished BI-VS interceptors were destroyed. And although later in 1943-1944. a modification of the BI-7 was designed with ramjet engines at the ends of the wing, and in January 1945 pilot B.N. Kudrin completed the last two flights on the BI-1, all work on the aircraft was stopped.

The concept of a rocket fighter was most successfully implemented in Germany, where since January 1939 in the special “Department L” of the Messerschmitt company, where Professor A. Lippisch and his employees moved from the German Glider Institute, work was underway on the “X project” - “ object" interceptor "Me-163" "Komet" with a rocket engine operating on a mixture of hydrazine, methanol and water. It was an unconventional “tailless” aircraft, which, for the sake of maximum weight reduction, took off from a special trolley and landed on a ski that was pulled out of the fuselage. The test pilot Ditmar performed the first flight at maximum thrust in August 1941, and already in October, for the first time in history, the mark of 1000 km / h was overcome. It took more than two years of testing and refinement before the "Me-163" was put into production. It became the first LRE aircraft to take part in combat since May 1944. Although more than 300 interceptors were produced by February 1945, no more than 80 combat-ready aircraft were in service.

The combat use of the Me-163 fighters showed the inconsistency of the missile interceptor concept. Due to the high speed of approach, the German pilots did not have time to aim accurately, and the limited fuel supply (only for 8 minutes of flight) did not make it possible for a second attack. After running out of fuel on planning, the interceptors became easy prey for American fighters - Mustangs and Thunderbolts. Before the end of hostilities in Europe, the Me-163 shot down 9 enemy aircraft, while losing 14 vehicles. However, losses from accidents and catastrophes were three times higher than combat losses. The unreliability and short range of the Me-163 contributed to the fact that the leadership of the Luftwaffe launched other Me-262 and Non-162 jet fighters into mass production.

Messerschmitt Me.262 (German Messerschmitt Me.262 "Schwalbe" - "swallow")

The leadership of the Soviet aircraft industry in 1941-1943. was focused on the gross output of the maximum number of combat aircraft and the improvement of serial samples and was not interested in the development of promising work on jet technology. Thus, the BI-1 disaster put an end to other projects of Soviet missile interceptors: Andrey Kostikov's 302, Roberto Bartini's R-114 and Korolev's RP.

But information from Germany and the Allied countries became the reason that in February 1944 the State Defense Committee, in its resolution, pointed out the intolerable situation with the development of jet technology in the country. At the same time, all developments in this regard were now concentrated in the newly organized Research Institute of Jet Aviation, of which Bolkhovitinov was appointed deputy head. At this institute, groups of jet engine designers previously working at various enterprises were assembled, headed by M. M. Bondaryuk, V. P. Glushko, L. S. Dushkin, A. M. Isaev, A. M. Lyulka.

In May 1944, the State Defense Committee adopted another resolution that outlined a broad program for the construction of jet aircraft. This document provided for the creation of modifications of the Yak-3, La-7 and Su-6 with an accelerating rocket engine, the construction of "purely rocket" aircraft in the Yakovlev and Polikarpov Design Bureau, an experimental Lavochkin aircraft with a turbojet engine, as well as fighters with air-jet motor-compressor engines in the Mikoyan Design Bureau and Sukhoi. For this purpose, the Su-7 fighter was created at the Sukhoi design bureau, in which, together with a piston engine, the liquid-jet RD-1 developed by Glushko worked.

Flights on the Su-7 began in 1945. When the RD-1 was turned on, the aircraft's speed increased by an average of 115 km / h, but the tests had to be stopped due to the frequent failure of the jet engine. A similar situation developed in the design bureaus of Lavochkin and Yakovlev. On one of the prototype La-7 R aircraft, the accelerator exploded in flight, the test pilot miraculously managed to escape. When testing the Yak-3 RD, test pilot Viktor Rastorguev managed to reach a speed of 782 km / h, but during the flight the plane exploded, the pilot died. The frequent accidents led to the fact that the testing of aircraft with the "RD-1" was stopped.

One of the most interesting projects rocket-powered interceptors was the project of the supersonic (!) RM-1 or SAM-29 fighter, developed at the end of 1944 by the undeservedly forgotten aircraft designer A. S. Moskalev. The aircraft was carried out according to the triangular “flying wing” scheme with oval leading edges, and during its development, the pre-war experience in creating the Sigma and Strela aircraft was used. The RM-1 project was supposed to have the following characteristics: crew - 1 person, power point- “RD2 MZV” with a thrust of 1590 kgf, a wing span of 8.1 m and its area of ​​28.0 m2, takeoff weight of 1600 kg, maximum speed of 2200 km / h (and this is in 1945!). TsAGI believed that the construction and flight testing of the RM-1 was one of the most promising areas in the future development of Soviet aviation.

In November 1945, the order to build the RM-1 was signed by Minister A.I. Shakhurin, but in January 1946 the order to build the RM-1 was canceled by Yakovlev. Similar Cheranovsky BICH-26 (Che-24) supersonic project a fighter based on a "flying wing" with a rudder and a variable sweep wing was also canceled.

Post-war acquaintance with German trophies revealed a significant lag in the development of the domestic jet aircraft industry. To bridge the gap, it was decided to use the German JUMO-004 and BMW-003 engines, and then create their own based on them. These engines were named "RD-10" and "RD-20".

In 1945, simultaneously with the task of building a MiG-9 fighter with two RD-20s, the Mikoyan Design Bureau was tasked with developing an experimental fighter-interceptor with an RD-2 M-3 V liquid-propellant rocket engine and a speed of 1000 km / h. The aircraft, which received the designation I-270 ("Zh"), was soon built, but its further tests did not show the advantages of a rocket fighter over an aircraft with a turbojet engine, and work on this topic was closed. In the future, liquid-propellant jet engines in aviation began to be used only on experimental and experimental aircraft or as aircraft boosters.

“... It is terrible to remember how little I knew and understood then. Today they say: "discoverers", "pioneers". And we walked in the dark and stuffed hefty cones. No special literature, no methodology, no well-established experiment. Stone Age jet aircraft. We were both complete mugs! .. ”- this is how Alexei Isaev recalled the creation of BI-1. Yes, indeed, due to their colossal fuel consumption, aircraft with liquid-propellant rocket engines did not take root in aviation, forever giving way to turbojet ones. But having taken their first steps in aviation, rocket engines have firmly taken their place in rocket science.

In the USSR during the war years, a breakthrough in this respect was the creation of the BI-1 fighter, and here the special merit of Bolkhovitinov, who took under his wing and managed to attract to work such future luminaries of Soviet rocket science and astronautics as: Vasily Mishin, First Deputy Chief designer Korolev, Nikolai Pilyugin, Boris Chertok - chief designers of control systems for many combat missiles and carriers, Konstantin Bushuev - head of the Soyuz - Apollo project, Alexander Bereznyak - designer of cruise missiles, Alexei Isaev - developer of liquid propellant rocket engines for submarine and space missiles devices, Arkhip Lyulka - the author and the first developer of domestic turbojet engines.

I-270 (according to NATO classification - Type 11) - an experienced Mikoyan Design Bureau fighter with a rocket engine.

Received a clue and the mystery of the death of Bakhchivandzhi. In 1943, the high-speed wind tunnel T-106 was put into operation at TsAGI. It immediately began to conduct extensive studies of aircraft models and their elements at high subsonic speeds. A model aircraft "BI" was also tested to identify the causes of the disaster. According to the test results, it became clear that the "BI" crashed due to the peculiarities of the flow around the straight wing and tail at transonic speeds and the resulting phenomenon of dragging the aircraft into a dive, which the pilot could not overcome. The BI-1 disaster on March 27, 1943 was the first that allowed Soviet aircraft designers to solve the problem of the “wave crisis” by installing a swept wing on the MiG-15 fighter. 30 years later, in 1973, Bakhchivandzhi was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Yuri Gagarin spoke of him this way:

"... Without the flights of Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, it would probably not have happened on April 12, 1961." Who could have known that exactly 25 years later, on March 27, 1968, like Bakhchivandzhi at the age of 34, Gagarin would also die in a plane crash. They were really united by the main thing - they were the first.