The tragedy of the "Russian Miracle". The history of the aircraft "weaving" (T-4)

In the history of Soviet aviation, the T-4 occupies a special place. It was an ambitious and expensive project of an airplane, which was to become a dangerous opponent of American ocean carriers. The creation of the T-4 was marked by a long fierce struggle between the domestic design bureaus. Becoming an important milestone in the arms race between the USSR and the United States, the aircraft never got into mass production, remaining an experimental model. From the T-4 refused because of excessive costlyness and technological complexity.

Prerequisites for appearance

The plane "weaving" (T-4) became a Soviet argument in the fight against American nuclear aircraft carriers. In the late 1950's it became clear that the USSR had nothing to oppose the US in the field of the navy and strategic aviation. The most serious headache for the Navy was nuclear submarines, which were covered by aircraft carriers. The combination of such ships had an impenetrable defense.

The only thing that could hit an American aircraft carrier is a super-high-speed missile with a nuclear charge. But it was not possible to get it by ship because of the fact that he constantly maneuvered. In the aggregate of these reasons, the leadership of the Soviet Army came to the conclusion that it is time to undertake the implementation of the project for a new super-high-speed aircraft. They became "weaving" (T-4). The aircraft had a design name "product 100", because of which he received his nickname.

Competition

The thunderstorm of aircraft carriers was to receive 100 tons of take-off weight and 3,000 kilometers per hour of cruising speed. With such characteristics (and a ceiling of 24 kilometers), the aircraft became inaccessible to American radar stations, and consequently, anti-aircraft missiles. The State Committee for Aviation Equipment wanted that the weaving (T-4) was invulnerable to interceptor fighters.

Several design bureaus participated in the competition for the project of a prospective aircraft. All the specialists expected that T-4s will be taken to Tupolev Design Bureau, and the remaining design bureaus will participate only for the appearance of competition. However, in the design office of Sukhoi for the project took with unexpected enthusiasm. The working group of specialists at the initial stage was headed by Oleg Samoilovich.

Project of Sukhoi Design Bureau

In the summer of 1961, a scientific council was held. The goal is to define a design bureau that will finally take up the T-4 bomber. Sotka was in the hands of Sukhoi Design Bureau. The Tupolev project was crushed due to the fact that the proposed aircraft was too heavy for the tasks assigned to it.

Alexander Yakovlev also spoke with his brainchild Yak-35. In the course of his speech, he spoke against Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev, criticizing his decision to make a plane from aluminum. As a result neither that nor other competition won. The machine of Pavel Sukhoi seemed more appropriate to the State Committee.

Engine

The plane "weaving" (T-4) was unique in many respects. First of all, its engines were distinguished by their characteristics. Given the specifics of the machine, they had to work properly in unusual conditions of rarefied air, high temperatures and use unconventional fuel. Initially it was planned that the T-4 ("sotka") missile carrier would receive three different engines, but at the last moment the designers stopped at one - RD36-41. On its development worked in the Rybinsk OKB.

This model most resembled another Soviet engine - VD-7, which appeared in the 1950s. RD36-41 equipped with an afterburner, a two-stage turbine with chillers and an 11-stage compressor. All this allowed us to use the aircraft at the highest temperatures. The engine was made almost ten years. This unique device later became the basis for other models that played a big role in Soviet aviation. They were equipped with Tu-144 aircraft, M-17 reconnaissance aircraft, as well as Spiral orbital planes.

Armament

No less important than the engines, for the aircraft was his armament. The bomber received X-33 hypersonic missiles. At first they were also developed in Sukhoi Design Bureau. However, during the design, the missiles were transferred to the Dubna OKB. Armament received the most modern at that time characteristics. Autonomous missiles could move to the target at a speed of 7 times the speed of sound. Once in the area of defeat, the projectile itself calculated the aircraft carrier and attacked it.

The terms of reference were unprecedented. For its implementation, the missiles received their own radar stations, as well as navigation systems, consisting of digital computers. The control of the projectile was, in its complexity, comparable to the complexity of controlling the aircraft itself.

Other Features

What else is new and unique for the T-4? "Sotka" is a plane, the cockpit of which was equipped with the most modern indicators of tactical and navigational situation. At the disposal of the crew were television screens, to which airborne radars broadcast their data. The resulting picture covered almost the entire globe.

The crew of the car consisted of the navigator-operator and the pilot. People were placed in the cabin, which was divided into two compartments by a transverse leaky partition. The layout of the T-4 cabin was different in several ways. There was no usual lantern. In supersonic cruise flight, the survey was carried out using a periscope, as well as side and top windows. The crew worked in the spacesuits in the event of a freelance depressurization.

Original solutions

The most important tragedy of the "Russian Miracle" (T-4, "weaving") is that this project was hacked, despite the fact that it embodied the most fantastic and ambitious ideas of aircraft designers. For example, such a solution was the use of the deflected nose of the fuselage. Experts agreed to this option because the protruding lamp in the pilot's cabin at a huge speed of 3 thousand kilometers per hour became a source of colossal resistance.

The staff of the design bureau had to fight hard for their own bold idea. Against the deflected bow was the military. To convince them it was possible only thanks to the huge enthusiasm of test pilot Vladimir Ilyushin.

Construction of experimental machines

The test and assembly of the chassis, as well as the development of design documentation, were commissioned by the bureau under the guidance of Igor Berezhny. The creation of the aircraft took place in a very compressed time, so the main developments were carried out directly in the Sukhoi Design Bureau. During the design of the machine, specialists had to solve the problems associated with the defect of the turn-and-turn system. Before the tests began, an additional check of the modernized chassis was carried out.

The first experimental car was called "101". The lateral part of its fuselage was assembled in 1969. The designers conducted pressure testing and checking the tightness of the cabins and instrument compartments. It took another two years to assemble various systems, as well as to refine aircraft engines.

Testing

The first prototype T-4 ("weaving") appeared in the spring of 1972. On the flight tests in his cabin sat the pilot Vladimir Ilyushin and navigator Nikolai Alferov. The check of the new aircraft was constantly postponed because of summer fires. Burned forests and peat bogs caused zero visibility in the sky above the aerodrome. Therefore, the tests began only in late 1972. The first nine flights showed that the aircraft has good control, and the pilot did not need too much attention to complex technical details. The take-off angle was easily maintained, and the separation from the earth proceeded smoothly. The intensity of the overclocking was good enough.

For designers it was important to check how imperceptibly the sound barrier would be passed . The car overcame it calmly, that exactly the instruments were fixed. In addition, trouble-free operation was demonstrated by a new remote control. Minor faults also appeared: hydraulic system failures, jamming of the chassis, small cracks in steel tanks with fuel, etc. But nevertheless, in general, the machine met all the requirements set before it.

Supersonic bomber T-4 ("weaving") made a very favorable impression on the military. The army ordered 250 vehicles, which it was planned to prepare for the five-year period 1975-1980. It was a record large lot for such an expensive and modern machine.

Unclear future

The experimental lot, intended for testing, was built at the Tushino Machine-Building Plant. However, its capacity was not enough to produce the aircraft serially. Only one enterprise of the country could cope with such an order. It was the Kazan Aviation Plant, which at the same time was the main production base for Tupolev's design bureau. The appearance of T-4 meant that the OKB was losing the enterprise. Tupolev and his patron Pyotr Dementyev (Minister of Aviation Industry) did their best to prevent this.

As a result, Dry was literally squeezed out of Kazan. The pretext for this was the release of a new modification of the Tu-22. Then the designer decided to release at least part of the aircraft in the same Tushino. In high offices for a long time argued about the future of the model of the aircraft T-4 ("weaving"). Of the paper signed by the Minister of Defense Andrei Grechko in 1974, it followed that all tests of the experimental model should be suspended. This decision was lobbied by Peter Dementiev. He persuaded the Minister of Defense to close the program and start the production of the wings for the MiG-23 machine at the Tushino plant.

End of the project

September 15, 1975, the aircraft designer Pavel Sukhoi died. T-4 ("weaving") was his brainchild in every sense of the word. Until the last day of his life, the head of the KB has not received a clear answer from the officials about the future of the project. Already after his death, in January 1976, the Ministry of Aviation Industry issued an order according to which the program "products 100" was finally closed. In the same document, Pyotr Dementyev stressed that the termination of work on the T-4 is done in order to concentrate the means and forces on the creation of the Tu-160 model.

The experimental sample, which was used during the flight tests, was sent to the Monino Museum for permanent parking. In addition to being one of the most ambitious projects of Soviet aviation, time showed that the T-4 was very expensive (about 1.3 billion rubles).