Another one is the Pegas.

http://www.schofields-flying-club.co...s/oct06/TP.jpg

It was a plane operated (or planned to be) by the Night Witches,a group of women pilots that used to fly on night raids at german bases.

This photo actually shows a scale model, used to present the project to the Army authorities. Besides, it is heavily retouched.

However, this project really existed and the test glider really did fly and yes, the tank was equipped with dual controls. The glider controls were removable.

As Oleg pointed out, this project proved to be impractical for many reasons and with the war start it was abandoned as many other "advanced research" projects, conducted for the Red Army.

As for Pegas - it has nothing to do with women regiments. The plane was proposed during the worse period of war for the USSR (in the end of 1941), as extremely cheap and fast to build attack (antitank) aircraft with very simple design, built from a cheap materials, such as pleawood and sheet steel. It was also supposed to be very simple to fly. Supposedly, it had to be built and thrown into battle in huge quantities, wrecking havoc on German tank spearheads, while LW simply wouldn't have enough fighters to protect their ground forces.
However, when the first prototype was built, it appeared to be very tricky and dangerous to fly, with very poor performance due to heavy weight and weak engines (M-11, same as used on U-2). Besides, by the time of second prototype maiden flight, the situation for the USSR become less distressing, production of "normal" aircraft started to rise and thus, the project was also abandoned.

I thought so at first too, but what you're seeing is the forward gun station - it juts forward a bit, not up.

Didn't know that was a model Saqson, lol! :grin: I feel silly now.

Another Soviet wonder, ANT-25:

http://www.belarusguide.com/images/p...oj__ANT-25.jpg

http://dictatorshipoftheair.com/wp-c...7/08/ant25.jpg

The furthest if flew was from Moscow to San Diego I believe. It had enough fuel to make it to Panama or Brazil, but was not cleared to pass into Mexican airspace. Had it been allowed, the distance record would probably stand until Rutan's Voyager :)

Kalinin K-7:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5...lerairplan.jpg

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6...erairplani.jpg

It was this family of designs that led to Kalinin's demise. The planes suffered from flutter in the tail surfaces, and two crashed killing all on board each time. He was accused of sabotage under Stalin's purges, but the fact was that in the 30's no one knew about flutter.

Another "Tank-plane" concept:

http://englishrussia.com/images/tracked_plain/2.jpg

Another Zveno concept:

http://wexforce.com/wp-content/uploa...olet-zvena.jpg

V-12:

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviatio.../3/0197393.jpg

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question...comparison.jpg

The list goes on... :grin:

I think I may have spoken in jest and too hastly.

This man has obviously a vison of what he was tryiing to achieve. He was skilled and was using the science and technology that was available at the time and trying to achieve a goal through his designs.

Unfortunately at this stage of aviation (and even now) design was more educated guess work and trial and error than an exact science.

Maybe if Kalinin had been living in a different part of the world he would not have been dealt with so harshly?

Cheers and thanks for enlighntening me of some of the more obscure aspects of aviation.


Ta!

Got to be one brave SOB to test-fly a tank

This has the makings of another cr@p plane thread :D Does anyone remeber that thread on SimHQ back in the day?

I heard they train you on bricks first.

To literally fly as a brick?

Weird lookin designs for sure....Kalinan seriously got arrested for designing that firebird thing? Looks awkwardly cool =P

As for the flying tank it woulda been impervious to everything in the air? anything smaller then like a 30mm to the side or rear the hull would be untouched -D kewl