Early Soviet Jet Fighters: The 1940s and Early 1950s (Red Star №4)

146 Pages·2002·128.43 MB·English

by  Yefim Gordon

RED STA,R VOLUME 4
E a r l y S o v i e t
.,"
d e t F i g h t e r s
The 19405 and Early 19505
Yefim Gordon
Original translation by Dmitriy and Sergey Komissarov
Midland Publishing
-
EarlySovietJetFighters Contents
©2002YefimGordon
ISBN1857801393
©2002MidlandPublishing
Designconceptandlayout
Introduction 3
PublishedbyMidland Publishing byPolygonPressLtd.(Moscow,Russia)
_ 4WatlingDrive,Hinckley,LE103EY,England Colourartwork©ValentinVetlitskiy
1. TheFirstMikoyanJet 7
--I:01455254490 Fax:[phone]
E-mail:[email protected] Thisbookisillustratedwithphotosfromthe 2. TheJet'Tadpoles'of
archivesofYefimGordon,HelmutWalther, AleksandrYakovlev 47
MidlandPublishingisanimprintof RSKMiG,theSukhoiOKB,theYakovlevOKB 3. Yak-19andYak·25- Yakovlev's
IanAllanPublishingLtd andtheRussianAviationResearchTrust LastStraight-wingFighters 89
4. Lavochkin'sFirstJets 101
Worldwidedistribution(exceptNorthAmerica): PrintedinEnglandby
MidlandCountiesPublications IanAllanPrintingLtd 5. Sukhoi'sEarlyTwinjets 115
4WatlingDrive,Hinckley,LE103EY,England RiverdeneBusinessPark,MoleseyRoad, 6. Alekseyev'sEndeavour,.,......... 121
Telephone:[phone] Fax:[phone] Hersham,Surrey,KT124RG
Colourdrawings , '... ,133
E-mail:[email protected]
www.midlandcountiessuperstore.com Allrightsreserved. Nopartofthis
publicationmaybereproduced,
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SpecialtyPressPublishers&WholesalersInc. inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,
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Tel:[phone] Fax:[phone] orotherwise,withoutthewritten
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Titlepage:TheYak-25of1947wasthelaststraight-wingjetaircraftdevelopedbytheYakovlevdesignbureau.Itneverenteredproduction,beingoutperformed
bythesweptwingMiG·15.
Below:The1-302(FP) representedoneofthemanyattemptstoimprovetheMikoyanOKS'sfirstjet,theMiG-9.Theoffsetpositionofthe37·mmcannonwasan
attempttocuretheengines'tendencytoflameoutwhenthecannonswerefired.
2
Introduction
f
BytheendoftheSecondWorld WartheUSA
and GreatBritain had developed practicaljet
fighters,eveniftheycameabittoolatetotake
part in the action. Germany achieved even
greater success, using jet fighters opera
tionally in the closing stages ofthe war. The
Soviet Union had fallen behind in this area,
whichisduetotheSovietgovernment'sscant
attention to jet aircraft development and the
lackofindigenousjetengines.True, asearly
as 1939the design bureau led by NikolayN.
Polikarpov (OKB-51) had begun working on
mixed-power fighters; the lead was quickly
followed byotherdesign bureauxheaded by
AleksandrS.Yakovlev(OKB-115),SemyonA.
Lavochkin (OKB-301), Artyom I. Mikoyan Above:TheLavochkinLa-7Requippedwithaliquid-fuelrocketboosterintheaftfuselagewasoneofthe
(OKB-155), Pavel O. Sukhoi (OKB-134) and precursorsofthejetera.
Semyon M. Alekseyev (OKB-21). (OKB =
opytno-konstrooktorskoye byuro - experi
mental design bureau; the number is acode
allocatedforsecurityreasons.)Thesefighters
employedramjetsorliquid-fuelrocketmotors
to give them a performance boost as
J
required, but for various reasons none of
them achieved productionandservice.
Several rocket-powered fighters were
brought out as well, including the BI devel
oped by A. Ya. Bereznyak and A. M. Isayev,
the'302' designed byA. G. Kostikovand the
Mikoyan 1-270 (aka izdeliye Zh). (Izdeliye
(product) suchandsuchwasacommonway
ofcodingSovietmilitaryhardware).However,
thedangersassoCiatedwiththerocketmotor TheLa-9Rwasanothertestedandfailedapproachtotheproblem,featuringunderwingramjetboosters.
running on corrosive and/or toxic fuels and
oxidisers, coupled with the motor's limited andfeaturing amUlti-stageaxialcompressor. Jet aircraft and jet engine development
operation time, meant this was not a viable ByAugust 1941 the RD-1 prototypewas75% became a prioritytask for the Soviet aircraft
powerplantforahigh-speed aircraft. completeandSKB-1 wasworkingonaneven industry after the war. Huge resources were
Earlyresearch anddevelopmentworkon more powerful engine, the 600-kgp (1,322-lb committed to this task; still, all the money in
turbojet engines in the USSR dates back to st) M-18; unfortunately, the outbreak of the theworldcan'tbuyyoutime,andtheresearch
thelate1930s. In1938ArkhipM. Lyul'kaand warcausedallworktobeputon hold. anddevelopmenteffortwascertainlygoingto
a group of engineers who shared his ideas In early 1942 the Council of People's be a lengthy one, which meant the service
cameupwiththeprojectofthe RTD-1 turbo Commissars, oneoftheSoviet Union'shigh entryofthefirstSovietjetswouldoccurrather
jetratedat400kgp (881 Ibst).Approvingthe est government bodies, considered several laterthandesired.Therefore,tospeed upthe
project,thePeople'sCommissariatofAircraft jetfighter projects, including MikhailI. Good work the Soviet government chose to make
Industry(NKAP- Narodnyykomissariahtavi kov'sproposaltore-enginetheLaGG-3fight useofGermany'sexperienceinthisfield.
atsionnoy promyshlennosti) allocated funds er with an RD-1 turbojet. Concurrentlythejet In 1945the Soviet Union came into pos
formanufacturingaprototypeengine; mean enginedevelopmentprogrammewasdusted sessionofmanymaterialspertainingtojetair
while, Luyl'kawastransferredtoLeningradto offinaccordancewithlosifV. Stalin'sperson craft development. The rich war booty
continue his work on jet engines at SKB-1 al orders. In reality, however, the work really included complete aircraft and jet engines.
(Special Design Bureau - spetsiahl'noye gotunderwayin1944whenLyul'kawasputin Many of these aircraft underwent rigorous
konstrooktorskoye byuro). The RTD-1 chargeofthegasturbineengineR&Dsection testing at the Red Banner State Research
evolved into the RD-1 (reaktivnyy dVigatel' atanewly-establishedinstitutespecialisingin InstituteoftheSovietAirForce (GKNilWS
jet engine) delivering 500 kgp (1,102 Ib st) propulsion research. Gosoodarstvennyy krasnoznamyonnyy na-
3
becausetheyhadreachedproductionstatus;
therefore, it was decided to urgently launch
productionoftheseenginesintheUSSR.
On28thApril 1945thePeople'sCommis
sarofAircraftIndustryissued an ordertothe
effect that Chief Designer Vladimir Yakovle
vich Klimov, whose engine design bureau
had beenevacuatedfrom Rybinsk(Yaroslavl'
Region)toUfaduringthewar,shouldprepare
a set of detail drawings of the Jumo 004B,
whereupon the reverse-engineered turbojet
was to enter production at the Ufa aero
enginefactory No. 26asthe RD-10. Klimov's
closestaide NikolayD. Kuznetsovwasputin
charge of the actual copying job. Another
NKAPorderissuedon 13thJune1945tasked
ChiefDesigneroftheKazan' aero-enginefac
toryNo.16Kolosovwithsimilarlycopyingthe
BMW003Aand launching production ofthis
engineastheRD-20.Thedecisiontobuildthe
Aboveandbelow:twoviewsoftheLavochkin'126'fighteraftertheadditionoframjetboosters.
RD-10and RD-20wasconfirmedbytheState
Defence Committee's directive of 20th July
1945 titled 'On studying and mastering pro
duction of German jet aircraft designs'. Pro
ductionofbothmodelsgotunderwayin1946.
Still, despitethe high priority attached in
the immediate post-war months to copying
and producing the German engines, it was
clearthatprogressinthefieldofSovietengine
design could only be attained by relying on
own resources and indigenousmodels.
Back in the autumn of 1944 Lyul'ka's
designteam had begun testing the S-18tur
bojet, a further development of the pre-war
RD-1;theSstoodforstendovyy,meaningthat
theSovietUnion'sfirstoperationaljetengine
wasintendedforbenchtrialsandwasnotyet
flight-cleared.Atthisstagethe designershad
their first acquaintance with engine surge at
highrpm;thesurgewasbadenoughtowreck
ooch-no-issledovatel'skiy institoot Voyenno thesetestsand examinationswerecirculated the engine completely. Still, changes intro
vozdooshnykh sil) and the Flight Research to various organizations within the NKAP ducedintothedesigncuredtheproblemand
Institute (L11 - Lyotno-issledovatel'skiy insti framework, including design bureaux. The theS-18successfullycompleteditstrials.The
toot); they were also carefully studied atthe same procedure applied to the captured latter included comparative tests with the
Central Aero- & Hydrodynamics Institute engines. The Junkers Jumo 004B and BMW Jumo 004B, showing that the Soviet engine
namedafterNikolayYeo Zhukovskiy (TsAGI 003Aturbojets rated at 900 kgp (1,984 Ib st) hadnotonlyhigherthrust(1,250kgp/2,755Ib
Tsentrahl'nyy aero- i ghidrodinamicheskiy and800kgp (1,7631bst) respectivelywereof st) but a lower dry weight and specific fuel
institoot). The detailed reports filed after special interest to the Soviet engineers consumption. Theseencouraging results led
tothedecisiontodevelopaflight-clearedver
sion designatedTR-1 (toorboreaktivnyy[dvi
gate!'] - turbojet engine) and manufacture a
small trials batch. To this end a new design
bureau, OKB-165, was established, with
ArkhipM. Lyul'kaasChiefDesigner.
On2ndApril19461.V.Stalin,Chairmanof
the Council of People's Commissars, held a
briefing on the prospects of Soviet aviation,
includingjetaircraftdevelopment. Oneofthe
items on the agenda was the possibility of
copyingthe MesserschmittMe262A-1afight
er, an exampleofwhich had been evaluated
byGKNilWSinAugust-November1945,and
putting itinto production atoneofthe Soviet
The'120R',another'rocketrider'derivativeoftheLa-?,seenduringmanufacturer'sflighttests. aircraftfactories. Initsdaythe Me262hadan
4
impressivetop speed of850 km/h (459 kts),
heavy armament comprising four 30-mm
(1.18calibre)cannonsandwasgenerallywell
designed. However,theideawasrejectedfor
variousreasons.
By then several Soviet design bureaux
had anumberofhigh-speed aircraft projects
inthe making; manyofthem fell forthe 'Ger
man' layout with two turbojet engines under
a
oronthe wings la Me262 (which, inciden
tally,wasalsoemployedbytheBritishGloster
Meteor).Forinstance,PavelO.Sukhoi'sOKB
used itforthe izdeliye Kfighter, the Mikoyan
OKB developed a Me 262 look-alike desig
nated 1-260, while the Lavochkin OKB came
up with the '160' fighter (the first fighter to
Ab~ve:ThisYak-7BwasconvertedintilaresearchaircraftwithtwoMerkoolovDM-4Sramjetboosters.
have this designation) and the Alekseyev
OKB with the 1-21 designed along similar
lines. A notable exception was the Yakovlev
OKBbecauseA.S.Yakovlevcordiallydisliked
heavy fighters, preferring lightweight single
enginedmachines. (LaterYakovlevdidresort
tothetwin-enginedlayout,butthatwasinthe
early 1950swhen theYakovlev OKBbrought
out the Yak-120 (Yak-25) twinjet interceptor
which liesoutsidethescopeofthisbook.)
As an insurance policy in case one OKB
failedtoachievethedesiredresults,theSovi
etgovernmentusuallyissuedageneraloper
ationalrequirement(GOR)foranewaircraftto Above:TheYak-3RDexperimentalmixed-powerfighter.Therocketmotorinstallationinthetailisnot
several design bureaux at once in a single obviousinthisview,asthenozzleisclosedbyapointedfairing.
Council of People's Commissars (orCouncil
of Ministers) directive. This was followed by
an NKAP (or MAP, Ministerstvo aviatsionnoy
t.
promyshlennosti- Ministry ofAircraft Indus
try)ordertothesameeffect.Thiswasalsothe
case with the new jetfighters. Initially all the
abovementioned OKBs designed their fight
ersaroundSovietcopiesoftheJumo004Bor
BMW003Aengines;laterthemorepromising
indigenousTR-1 cameintothepicture.
It should be noted that in the early post
war years the Soviet defence industry enter
prises continued to operate pretty much in
wartime conditions, working like scalded
cats. In particular, the Powers That Be
imposed extremely tight development and Above:TheSukhoiSU-5fighterfeatureda'pseudo-turbojetengine'inthetailwithanengine-driven
productionschedulesonthedesign bureaux compressor.Itnevergotpasttheprototypestage.
and production factories tasked with devel
oping ?nd manufacturing new military hard
ware. Thescheduleswere closely monitored
notonly bythe ministryto which the respec
tive OKB orfactory belonged butalso bythe
notoriousKGB.'Missingthetrain'couldmean
swiftandseverereprisalnotonlyfortheOKB
head and actual project leaders but also for
high-rankingstatesmenwhohadresponsibil
ity for the programme. Nevertheless, even
though the commencement of large-scale
R&D on jet aircraft had been ordered as far
backasMay1944,nobreakhroughhadbeen
achieved byearly1946.Forinstance,theair
craftindustryfailedtocomplywiththeorders
tobuild pre-production batchesofjetfighters Anothermixed-poweraircraftfromSukhoi,theSU-7Rwithaliquid-fuelrocketmotorinthetail.
5
in time forthe traditional Augustflypast held
at Moscow's Tushino airfield; only two jets,
the MiG-9 and Yak-15, participated inthefly
past on that occasion. This was all the more
aggravating becausejetfighters had been in
production in GreatBritain since 1944and in
the USA since early 1945. Unfortunately the
Soviet aero-engine factories encountered
major difficulties when mastering production
ofjetengines; henceinearly1946jetengines
wereproducedinextremelylimitednumbers,
sufferingfromlowreliabilityandhavingatime
between overhauls (TBO) of only 25 hours.
As was customary in the Soviet Union in
Above:Close-upoftheYak-3R'sGlooshkoRD-1-KhZrocketmotorwiththecowlingremoved. thosedays,someonehadtopayforthis, and
scapegoatswere quicklyfound. In February
March 1946 People's Commissar of Aircraft
Industry A. I. Shakhoorin, Soviet Air Force
C-in-C Air Marshal A. A. Novikov, the Air
Force's ChiefEngineerA. K. Repin and Main
Acquisitions Department chief N. P. Selez
nyov and many others were removed from
office, arrested and mostlyexecuted.
The early post-war years presaged the
ColdWarera,andtheSovietleadersattached
considerable importance notonlyto promot
ing the nation's scientific, technological and
military achievements but also to flexing the
Soviet Union's military musclesforthe world
tosee.Thisexplainswhythegovernmentwas
soeagertoseenewtypesdisplayedatTushi
Above:TheBIrocket-poweredinterceptordesignedbyBereznyakandIsayev.
no, regardlessofthefactthatsomeoftheair
craft had not yet completed their trials - or,
worse, did not meet the Air Force's require
ments. Thus, the grand show at Tushino on
3rd August 1947featured awhole formation
ofjetfighter prototypes: theYak-19, theYak
15U, the Yak-23, three Lavochkin designs
the'150',the'156'andthe'160',plustheMiG
9,theSu-9andtheSu-11.
Sometimes the initial production aircraft
selected for the flypast lacked armament or
importantequipmentitems.Thiswasnotcon
sidered important; the world had to see the
new aircraft at all costs. Behold the achieve
ments of socialism! Feel the power of the
Above:The'4302'rocket-poweredinterceptormakesaninterestingcomparisonwiththeBI.Likethelatter Sovietwarmachine!Fearye!Still,despitethis
type,itremainedanexperimentalaircraft.
air of ostentation, the achievements and the
powerweretherebeyondalldoubt;theSovi
et Union's progress in aircraft and aero
enginetechnologies was indeed impressive,
especially considering the ravages of the
four-yearwar. Itjusthappenedthat, because
ofurgentneed, somethingswhich could not
bedeveloped in-countryquicklyenough had
tobecopied;andcopiedtheywere- andwith
reasonablyhighqualityatthat.
Thus by the end ofthe 1940sthe Soviet
Union had notonly caught up with the West
as far as jet aviation was concerned but
gainedaleadincertainareas.ThefirstSoviet
jetfightersdealtwith inthisbookwereinstru
mental in reachingthisgoal.
TheMikoyan1-250mixed-powerfighteremployedthesamepowerplantastheSu-5.
6
-.....~------------_._------_._---
Chapter1
The first Mikoyan jet
As already noted in the introduction, at the
end of the Great Patriotic War the State
Defence Committeegeared scientificorgani
sations and experimental design bureauxto
thesolutionoftasksassociatedwiththepost
wartechnical progress in the field of military
aviation; anumberofOKBsweretasked with
developingjet-powered aircraft.
In 1944-45the 1-250 mixed-powerfighter
(manufacturer's designation izdeliye N) was
builtandtested byOKB-155 underthe direc
tion of Artyom Ivanovich Mikoyan and his
closestassociateMikhaillosifovichGurevich.
ItfeaturedaVRDK'pseudo-turbojetengine'in
thetail,theaxialcompressorbeingdrivenvia
an extension shaft by a Klimov VK-107R 12
cylinder liquid-cooled piston engine which
alsodroveavariable-pitchpropeller.Thiswas
followed bythe 1-270(izdeliye Zh) interceptor
poweredbyatwin-chamberliquid-fuel rocket
motor. The formerfighter was built in limited
numbers, while the 1-270 was purely a
research aircraft; however, bythe end ofthe
OKB-155testpilotAlekseyN.Grinchik(secondfrom right)withmembersoftheMikoyanOKB'sflighttest
war it became clear that the bet should be
facilitystaffbesidetheill-fatedfirstprototype1-300(F-1).NotetheMikoyanOKBlogoonthenose.
placedonturbojetengines.
In February 1945theCouncil ofPeople's It should be noted that throughout the The idea of copying (or 'reproducing in
Commissarsissued adirectiverequiring sev year of 1945 the Soviet government was basiclayout')theMe262wasconsiderednot
eral design bureaux to develop, build and extremely concerned over the very slow only in the top echelon but also in virtually
submit for testing single-seat jet fighters. In tempoofjetaircraftdevelopmentand service every'fighter'OKB.TheGermanfighter'slay
particular, the OKB of Plant No. 155 was introduction. Hardlyamonth passed without out with the engines in underwing nacelles
tasked with developing a single-seat fighter a new directive being issued by the State was not ignored by OKB-155 either.
withtwo'BMW003typejetengines' (sic) and Defence Committee and the Government; Responding to the specific operational
aweapons complement comprising one 57 ever more stringent time limits were set and requirement issued by the government, in
mm (2.24 calibre) or 37-mm (1.45 calibre) tasks were redefined, butto noavail- try as May 1945the designers started work on the
cannon and two 23-mm (.90 calibre) can they would, the Mikoyan OKB engineers 1-260twin-enginedfighter projectwhich bore
nons.Thefactthatthespecificationcalled for could notgettheworkto gofaster. TheState anextraordinary resemblancetothe Me262.
so potentarmamentwas dueto thefighter's Defence Committee's directive of 20th july The aircraftfeatured a battery of heavy can
intended main role of combatting heavy 1945 titled 'On studying and mastering pro nons installed in the fuselage nose and was
bombers. duction of German jet aircraft designs' powered byturbojetenginesmounted under
Another directive in which specifications demanded that the aircraft industry (and, thewings. The projectwas completed bythe
fortheaircraftwere laid down more precisely notably, aircraft design bureaux) unfailingly end ofthe year. However, the designers did
followed on9thApril.According tothis docu fulfilthetasksassignedtothem. Onceagain, notdeem this layoutto bethe optimum one.
ment the twin-engined fighter designed by morepreciselyformulatedtasksweregivento Wishing to reduce drag and achieve the
OKB-155 was to have a maximum speed of the 'fighter makers' concerning the develop fullest possible use of the engines' thrust,
900 km/h (486.48 kts) at sea level and 910 mentofjetfighters intendedtousetwotypes they decided to place the powerplant in the
km/h (491.89 kts) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft), of German engines that were being put in forwardfuselage,withtheenginesexhausting
climbing to this altitude within four minutes; series production. (As noted in the introduc undertherearfuselage. InJune 1945,barely
maximum range was specified as 820 km tory section, by mid-1945 Government deci amonthafterthecommencementofworkon
(509 miles).Thefighterwasto bearmedwith sions had been taken and appropriate the 1-260, the OKB-155 initiated work on the
one57-mm (or37-mm) cannon and apairof directives issued by NKAP requiring series alternative project of the 1-300 fighter which
23-mmcannons.Threeprototypesweretobe production of the Junkers Jumo 004B and also bore the in-house designation 'izdeliye
completed, the first of which was to enter BMW003jetenginesto belaunched atSovi F'. It was envisaged that the first prototype
flighttestby15thMarch 1946. etaero-enginefactories.) would becompleted bymid-October.
7
Above:Finalassemblyofthefirst1-300(F-1)attheMikoyanOKS'sexperimentalshop(MMZNo.155).Notethesolidmainwheeldiscs.Thenoseofanother1-300
isvisibleontheright.
Thishead-onviewoftheF-1 ~howstoadvantagethenarrowtrackoftheundercarriage.
8
Above:AlekseyGrinchikclimbsintothecockpitoftheF-1.Theoriginalsolidmainwheelshavebeenreplacedwithspokedones.NotethattheMiGlogoiscarried
ontheportsideonly.
Asideviewofthefirstprototype.The1-300wasarathercorpulentfighter.
9