The first Soviet aircraft. invisible city

I have heard a lot about the open-air aviation museum in Monino for a long time. How many times have I been to Moscow, but there was not enough time to get into it. IN summer vacation, heading to St. Petersburg, they specially took a ticket back so that there would be time in Moscow to visit such a legendary place ... Many of my LJ-friends published posts from the museum ... But seeing with your own eyes is completely different ... Having reached by train to Monino, on the way, we accidentally (or maybe not) met colleagues, as well as one of the museum leaders (!), Who helped us figure out where to go ... When we got there, we bought an entrance ticket and went with the family to the exhibition ... The next day expected day open doors co free entry and admission to the planes, but alas, we had a plane to Tyumen that night, so all the photos were taken outside ...
Since there are a lot of exhibits, and in order not to tire me, I will break my reports into parts:
- Civil Aviation
- Military transport and combat aviation
- Helicopters
- Experimental liners
- Historical exposition in the pavilion.

Some of the planes and helicopters were seen by me earlier, from the fact that for the first time I especially want to note the Tu144, Tu-95, Tu-22, Mi-12, Mi-10 ....

The Central Museum of the Air Force was established on November 28, 1958, and opened to visitors on February 23, 1960. The museum has a rich exposition of helicopters and aircraft, both civil and military, as well as weapons, tools, uniforms, artwork. The exhibits are located in the open air, in two hangars and six halls. In 1956, the aviation division in Monino was disbanded. The premises of the division were transferred to the organization of the museum. Airplanes and helicopters, both operated and experimental, were gradually transferred to the museum. The museum has a restoration workshop, which restores and maintains exhibits in good condition. The A. N. Tupolev Design Bureau and the O. K. Antonov Design Bureau help the museum in repairing aircraft. They send their specialists in order to give the aircraft the proper look. More than 150,000 people visit the Air Force Museum every year.

Let's look at the civilian liners presented in the exposition ..
Tu-114 - USSR-L5611 - Russia (USSR) - MAP /1957/
On November 15, 1957, the crew, led by lead test pilot A.P. Yakimov made the first flight on it. On September 15, 1959, L5611 flew to Washington with a party and government delegation headed by N.S. Khrushchev. On October 29, the same L5611 with another delegation on board completed a flight on the Moscow-Beijing route. The very first experimental aircraft CCCP-L5611 spent its entire life at the LII airfield in the city of Zhukovsky, stopped flying in 1968, spent a long time at the back of the airfield, and in the late 70s was transported to the Air Force Museum in the city of Monino near Moscow, where it is located and still. We will return to the "tupolevs"

Yak-40K - CCCP-87490 - Aeroflot - MGA USSR /1971/
Exhibited at Le Bourget 1975 (exhibition code 365). Converted into a prototype convertible Yak-40K.

Yak-42 - CCCP-42302 - Russia (USSR) - MAP /1976/
MAP → Design Bureau Yakovlev (MMZ Speed)

Behind Yak-42 are Tu-124 - CCCP-45025 - Aeroflot - MGA USSR /1963/
Salon for 56 passengers. In the spring of 2002, it was set on fire, partially burned out. The roof has been restored.

Next Tu-104AK - Airborne: 46 (formerly USSR-42390) - Russia (USSR) - Air Force / 1958 /
In 1967 it was converted into Tu-104AK. Received onboard - 46-red. Documented transferred to the Ministry of Defense in military unit 21215. The last flight was made on 16.1.79 in Monino. In total, according to the test program, there were completely 2313 flights with zero gravity. Tu-104 (according to NATO codification: Camel - "Camel") - the first Soviet and third jet passenger aircraft in the world - after the De Havilland Comet and Avro Jetliner. In the period from 1956 to 1958, due to the suspension of Comet flights, the Tu-104 was at that time the only jet airliner in operation in the world. Interestingly, this side 46 red and 48 red were used to train astronauts to simulate weightlessness.

and Il-18V USSR-75737 /1961/. The operator was the Northern Territorial Administration of Civil Aviation (Leningrad a/p Pulkovo). Registered February 15, 1961. First seen in Helsinki on 16 September 1972. Decommissioned in 1977. In July 1977, transferred to the Air Force Museum in Monino. On July 12, 1977, he made his last flight to Monino (the crew of the Leningrad Transport Administration of the Civil Aviation, headed by Honored Pilot of the USSR A. Fedotov). Made 13718 flights, flight time 34998 hours. In the 2000s, the cabin was destroyed by fire, the plane was saved by firefighters.

Tu-144S - CCCP-77106 - Russia (USSR) - MAP /1974/
Aircraft legend. The first Tu-144 used for regular postal and freight traffic. The first flight was made on March 4, 1975. December 26, 1975 - the first technical flight Moscow - Alma-Ata. The operator was the Tupolev Design Bureau. Tested from October 1975 to February 1980. Participated in the filming of the film "Mimino". Total flight time 582 hours 36 minutes, made 320 flights. February 29, 1980 arrived at the Air Force Museum in Monino, landed on a dirt airfield! and added to its exposure. In 1982, reinforced chassis were removed from it, still suitable for operation by the remaining Tu-144s and replaced with a chassis of a less advanced design. In 2005 it was damaged by vandals. In May 2009, it was restored and opened to the public. I am proud that the Tu-144 flew to my city, my father managed to fly, at one time, to Moscow on it ... Now I should visit the aviation museum in Ulyanovsk.

PZL M-15 - CCCP-15105 - Aeroflot - MGA USSR /1980/
Mielec M-15 is a jet agricultural aircraft designed and produced in Poland in the 1970s. by order of the USSR. It remains the only jet agricultural aircraft and the only jet biplane. For his very strange appearance and the howl of a jet engine, he received the nickname "Belphegor" after the demon Belphegor.

An-10A - CCCP-11213 - Aeroflot - MGA USSR /1960/
The operator was Komi UGA (Syktyvkar). He entered the 75th Aviation Detachment of the Civil Air Fleet on January 18, 1961. First seen at Pulkovo Airport in Leningrad on July 16, 1970. Not excluded from the Soviet register. In January 1976, transferred to the Air Force Museum in Monino. January 14, 1976 made the last flight to Monino. Flight time 16360 hours 55 minutes, of which 2271 hours 35 minutes after the last repair. Salon for 112 pass.

An-14A "Bee" - CCCP-81553 / 01 red - Aeroflot - MGA USSR / RF Air Force /1965/
The operator was SPiMVL (Northern Ways and Local Air Lines). March 18, 1967 entered the Smolensk JSC. In 1970 he was transferred to the USSR Air Force. The tail number 01 is red. In January 1977, transferred to the Air Force Museum in Monino. January 21, 1977 made the last flight to Monino (pilot Litvinchev). Flight time - 703 hours, of which 477 hours after repair, made 677 flights. The An-14 "Bee" (NATO codification: Clod - "Lump") was a Soviet light transport aircraft intended to replace the An-2, made its first flight in 1958 on March 14. It was a short takeoff and landing aircraft designed for operation from unprepared unpaved grounds.

Be-32 - CCCP-67209 - Russia (USSR) - MAP /1971/
Be-30/32 (according to NATO codification: Cuff - "Cuff") - Short-haul passenger aircraft.
Created in the Beriev Design Bureau. The first flight took place on June 8, 1968. Then the aircraft was successfully tested in various climatic conditions and received positive feedback from the flight and technical services. An experimental Be-30 aircraft was demonstrated in 1969 at the 28th International Salon in Le Bourget. A total of five Be-30 aircraft were built. In 1976, he took part in the competition for a regional aircraft along with the An-28 in a 14-seat layout.

An-24 - CCCP-46746 - Aeroflot - MGA USSR /1964/
An-24 USSR-46746 (serial number 47300903) was produced in 1964. The operator was the Ukrainian Territorial Administration of Civil Aviation. Registered August 12, 1964. On June 6, 1964, he entered the Lvov JSC, where he operated until 1979, making regular flights. Decommissioned in 1979. Flight time 27444 hours, made 24962 flights. The last flight from Lvov to Monino was made on May 24, 1979. In May 1979, it was transferred to the Air Force Museum in Monino.

Il-62 - CCCP-86670 - Aeroflot - MGA USSR /1967/
The operator was the Moscow Territorial Administration of Civil Aviation (airport Domodedovo). The first flight was made on September 28, 1967. In December 1967, he entered the aviation technical base of the Domodedovo United Aviation Squadron, where he began regular flights. First seen in Alma-Ata on October 17, 1968. Until May 1981, he made 4288 flights with a flight time of 14891 hours, carried almost half a million passengers. May 16, 1983 transferred to the Air Force Museum in Monino. The last flight was made on July 17, 1983 from Zhukovsky to Monino (crew: crew commander, Honored Test Pilot of the USSR S. G. Bliznyuk, test pilot V. Belousov, test navigator V. Yashin, radio operator I. Kondaurov, flight test engineer V. Gorovoy, lead engineer B. Gavrilov, flight director on the ground Eduard Ivanovich Kuznetsov). Became the 125th full-scale exhibit of the Air Force Museum. Decommissioned in 1983. IL-62 was mass-produced in 1966-1995. A total of 276 aircraft were produced. The last board was built in 2004 for the government of Sudan. Il-62 became the first Soviet jet aircraft capable of non-stop intercontinental flights. The aircraft set several world records for speed and range. For several decades, the Il-62 served as "board number 1" for transporting the leadership of the USSR. A third of all cars produced were exported to socialist countries, primarily to Cuba.

IL-86 - RA-86095 - Aeroflot - Russian Airlines /1988/
Four-engine wide-body passenger aircraft for medium-haul airlines, designed by Ilyushin Design Bureau. The first and most massive Soviet passenger wide-body aircraft. A total of 106 aircraft were produced. He flew in Sheremetyevsky JSC and Aeroflot.

On July 10, 1925, a group of six Soviet aircraft. She made a record flight on the route Moscow - Ulaanbaatar - Beijing, and two P-1 aircraft flew to Tokyo.

"illegitimate" "DE HEVILLAND"

The famous English aircraft designer Geoffrey de Havilland during the First World War designed a successful multi-purpose biplane DH.4. It was produced in large quantities and used at the front. The car was also interested in the Russian military department, which ordered 50 copies and acquired a license for it. Drawings and specifications were brought from England to Moscow in August 1917. However, the documentation set was incomplete. On September 30, 1918, the Red Air Fleet ordered the Moscow Dux plant (in the same year renamed the State Aviation Plant No. 1 or GAZ-1) to manufacture 70 aircraft with the available Italian FIAT A-12 engines of 260 hp. The first batch of machines was supposed to leave the shop in the middle of 1919, and the entire order had to be completed by May 1, 1920.

Initially, the DH.4 was powered by the English Siddle "Puma" engine of 230 hp. It was necessary to prepare the missing drawings of the airframe and adapt it to another engine. There were only 11 people in the technical bureau of the plant, so almost all the engineers of the enterprise were involved in the work. Supervised the design N.N. Polikarpov.

In July 1919, the first aircraft was indeed assembled. But he had many defects. The work of the enterprise by this time was practically paralyzed. Two revolutions in a row and a civil war caused devastation, famine and the collapse of the economy. There was a lack of fuel, metal and quality wood. Imports stopped. In addition, illiterate Soviet leaders initially placed the aviation industry in the lowest supply category. The workers fled to the countryside where they could feed their families.

Only in May 1920 was the first "de Havilland" able to be brought to mind. The first flight on it was made by the pilot Gorshkov on June 2. After 13 days, the second DH.4 took off. In total, by September 1921, 26 cars were built, and by the middle of 1923 their number had reached 60. Some of them were equipped with Italian FIAT engines with a power of 240 hp.

By the end of the First World War, a new aircraft, the DH.9, which was a further development of the DH.4, entered service with British aviation. The DH.9a variant with the American Liberty 12-cylinder engine had especially high data. In Russia, such machines appeared in 1919 along with British air units that arrived to help the White armies. They were used in the battles near Tsaritsyn and in the north. After the evacuation of the English invaders, the equipment was left to the Whites. During the offensive at the Northern Dvina, the Reds captured one "de Havilland". A valuable trophy was sent to Moscow; he was accompanied by mechanic Sergei Ilyushin, later a well-known aircraft designer.

After the end of the First World War in the countries of the Entente, a lot of no longer needed combat aircraft, engines, various equipment and equipment turned out to be in warehouses. All this was ready to sell, and very cheaply. The Soviet government took advantage of the situation and launched purchases in the West. In December 1921, they signed an agreement with the Aircraft Disposal Company for the supply of 40 DH.9s with Pumas. These aircraft began to arrive by sea through Petrograd from June 1922. Then they acquired several more batches of DH.9 and DH.9a with and without engines.

They were collected in different places. In particular, the mentioned GAZ-1 assembled the first car somewhere at the end of 1922; it was flown by the pilot Savin. In total, by the middle of 1923, 16 DH.9s were produced in Moscow. These aircraft were sometimes referred to in documents as "R-1 English".

But the assembly of aircraft purchased abroad was not limited. Back in the autumn of 1918, they planned to switch to the production of aircraft with Liberty engines. In fact, the development of a modification based on the DH.9a took up in May 1922. The available drawings of the DH.4 were compared with the samples of the DH.9a.

The military intended to get, if possible, an exact copy of the English biplane. But the designers of the plant, headed by N.N. Polikarpov believed that he was far from perfect. They took the initiative to create a modernized version. Management of the RKKVF to this idea great interest did not show, believing that the aircraft is still outdated, and is unlikely to be built in large quantities. Here they miscalculated - new car, called R-1, for almost 10 years was the most massive in Soviet aviation.

Of the parts complained about the lack of strength DH.9a. The designers made changes to the fuselage, wings, boar struts, motor mount, engine hood, radiator and chassis. A different wing profile was used. The capacity of gas tanks was increased by 20 liters - by one pood. The only thing that has remained completely unchanged is the tail unit.

The domestic version of the "de Havilland" received the designation P-1 ("scout - the first"). The RKKVF gave an order for this machine in January 1923. The assembly of the first "trial" R-1 began in February, rolled out to the airfield in April, and flew around in May. After that, the aircraft was operated for some time at the Central Airfield.

FIRST SERIES

The development of the production of new cars at the GAZ-1 was led by the famous aircraft designer D.P. Grigorovich, who was then the technical director of the enterprise. In general, the R-1 can be considered a joint brainchild of two designers - Polikarpov and Grigorovich (plus, of course, De Havilland).

The first two aircraft were solemnly handed over at the Central Airfield on June 23, 1923. These machines were made according to a model that was considered temporary, and closer to the original "de Havilland".

It was difficult with materials, they used what they could get. Both American spruce, left over from pre-revolutionary times, and Russian pine, both properly dried and half-baked, which was dried right at the factory, were used. The gradual replacement of wood forced to recalculate the aircraft for strength and even slightly change the design of the machine. Metal at first was also used pre-revolutionary; then it ended. From December 1923 small batches of it arrived irregularly. The steel was of poor quality, because of this, the axle of the wheels was made double: inside one pipe there was another, of a smaller diameter. The plant got away with it, as there were no technical specifications for materials.

The front of the R-1 with the radiator removed

I had to make my own radiators and bracing tapes. There were not enough wheels - they were rearranged from one car to another to try them on.

As a result, the productivity of the enterprise by January 1924 fell from 20 to six aircraft per month. Later, it ranged from eight to 14 cars. Fluctuations were explained by interruptions in the supply of components. Shops either stood idle, then carried out feverish overtime work. There was a constant shortage of Liberty engines. The plant could not hand over ready-made aircraft. Head of the Aircraft Department of Aviatrust K.V. Akashev reported that "factories were faced with the need to completely suspend the assembly of devices due to the loading of all free areas of workshops, warehouses, hangars and other finished products that could not be handed over to the customer due to the lack of motors." There were about 100 cars on GAZ-1 without engines, mostly R-1. The assembly, painting and wallpaper workshops were turned into warehouses. For the same purpose, a hangar at the Central Airfield was rented from Dobrolet. In June 1924, nine aircraft manufactured earlier were rolled out to the Central Airfield, and the assembly of the R-1 was stopped.

Their official surrender was carried out from August 15, 1924. 10 aircraft were handed over to the military (instead of 42 according to the plan), after which a UVVF telegram arrived demanding to stop acceptance: all aircraft were unarmed. The vehicles were equipped with only imported turrets without machine guns.

In June 1924, they completed the design of a variant of the machine, in which the frontal water radiator was replaced with the then fashionable cylindrical Lamblin. The project was considered at a meeting of the Scientific Committee (SC) at the UVVF. By this time, a prototype was already being built at the expense of the plant; On June 30, they tried to start the engine on it. Overheating started almost immediately. We decided that the performance of the water pump did not match the radiator. The pump was redone, then an enlarged radiator was installed. But it was not possible to bring the version with Lamblin to the required reliability. The P-1 retained to the very end the old-fashioned frontal radiator characteristic of the DH.9a. It can be added that on other aircraft where Lamblens were installed according to the project, such as TB-1 or R-3M5, cylindrical radiators “did not take root”.

P-1 No. 318 at the GAZ-10 plant in Taganrog, late 1925; no machine guns on the car

Delivery of the aircraft "Kolomensky worker", 1925. On the turret there is a single machine gun "Lewis" with a "photo shooter" (photo machine gun)

"FACTORIES RENT FLYING BOXES..."

By the middle of 1924, with the release of the R-1, there was practically a dead end. On the one hand, the air fleet needed new aircraft. On the other hand, no one knew what these very planes should have been. First, there were no motors. Domestic factories produced only their obsolete types, and even then in very small quantities. Delegations were sent abroad to negotiate with various firms in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain and the USA.

Secondly, since June 1923, customers demanded the installation of weapons on aircraft. But nothing like the one on the DH.9a was produced in Russia. The leadership of Aviatrest honestly admitted: "Factories hand over flying boxes that have a minimum combat value."

The situation with the engines cleared up only by the beginning of autumn 1924. Only in November (although the planned year began on July 1), 1924, the UVVF decided on orders for Aviatrust. Without putting all their eggs in one basket, they decided to purchase 40 cars with Liberty, the same number with French Lorraine-Dietrich engines and 90 with English Siddle Puma. The first two points were assigned to the Taganrog plant GAZ-10, and the last - to GAZ-1. But in practice, the situation with the supply of engines developed in such a way that aircraft with Liberty engines continued to build both enterprises.

These engines were bought in the USA and Great Britain. Approximately 20 units were received from America per month, from England - from 10 to 50. By July 1925, 106 engines were imported from overseas. They were cheap, but they were sent directly from warehouses, where they had lain for several years. In Moscow they had to be sorted out. The necessary spare parts were purchased in the USA and the Netherlands. Motors in England were sorted, adjusted and tested before shipment; they could be immediately put on planes.

The military themselves were partly to blame for the lack of weapons and equipment on the planes. The fact is that in the requirements for the supply there was no specific list of equipment for the machines. Moreover, there were no approved models of weapons and equipment.

Only on January 7, 1925, the UVVF approved an agreement with Aviatrest on the composition of weapons and equipment for aircraft of various types, including the P-1. In this document, for each machine there were lists of equipment, but without indicating types, systems or manufacturer. For example, "compass" or "watch".

As on the DH.9a, the R-1 was to be equipped with a stationary Vickers machine gun (in our country it was called the Vickers model 1924) on the outside from the left side. It was attached to metal shoes mounted on wooden brackets. Power machine gun - tape for 500 rounds. In warehouses there were "Vickers" of the English caliber of 7.69 mm and converted in Tula under the 7.62-mm cartridge for the Russian "Maxim". Since the machine gun fired through the propeller sweep disk, a synchronizer was required. On the R-1, several types were successively replaced.

The first in the spring of 1924 was the synchronizer D-1 (PUL-1), designed by engineer Savelyev on the basis of the design used on Russian-made Nieuport fighters. Compared to the "Newport" synchronizer, PUL-1 turned out to be much more complicated, since the R-1 engine was much further from the machine gun. They did PUL-1 in a big hurry - UVVF hurried. The synchronizer was made in a prototype and tested. It turned out well, but nothing more. The designer himself considered the synchronizer unfinished. The military PUL-1 was accepted as a temporary type and agreed to mass production. They made 210 (according to other sources - 249) copies, and they used up the entire pre-revolutionary stock of high-quality steel for this. PUL-1 was installed on the aircraft of both factories, but was soon recognized as unsuitable for combat conditions.

Machine gun mounts began to be mounted on aircraft from the end of the summer of 1924. Plant No. 1 also “retroactively” sent kits to the unit for finalizing the previously released P-1. So, in October of the same year, 25 sets were shipped to the 1st Light Bomber Squadron. Lenin. Their installation on aircraft was supervised by a factory mechanic.

But the temporary option did not last long. On August 21, 1925, Aviatrest announced a competition for the best synchronized machine gun mount for the R-1. In response, a number of designs emerged. D-2 (PUL-2) was made as a prototype back in March 1925, tested and rejected. D-3 (PUL-3) turned out to be more successful. It was original design, created specifically for the R-1. The prototype has passed lengthy tests in the dash. First, 8 hours of shooting (with breaks) in the presence of NK representatives, and then another 2 hours - for the commission of the military department. May 13, 1925 PUL-3 was approved as a standard type, and then released the first series of 30 copies. In June, they began to put them on the R-1. But, unlike the prototype, serial synchronizers malfunctioned. The reason lay in the low-quality steel used in their production. The designers identified defects and proposed an improved version, PUL-3bis. He passed the tests and October 15, 1925 was put into production. In total, several dozen PUL-3bis were released.

The original PUL-6 synchronizer designed by N.P. competed with PUL-3bis. Tryapitsin. It included about a third fewer parts and was lighter by 1.5 - 2 kg and easier to manufacture. This device was successfully tested and on October 29, 1925 it was accepted for production. The first PUL-6 appeared on the Moscow R-1 at the end of 1925. On January 1, 1926, the production of PUL-3bis was stopped, and the plant in Kovrov joined the production of PUL-6. From October 1 of the same year, they were put on all aircraft assembled in Moscow.

All the types of synchronizers mentioned above were purely mechanical. But on the GAZ-1 they experimented with other types. Engineer Savelyev designed the electropneumatic D-5 (PUL-5). It passed factory tests, but its reliability was considered insufficient and its cost excessive. The simple and reliable PUL-6 completely satisfied the customers.

When firing from a course machine gun, the pilot took aim. For this, the simplest sight of Vakhmistrov's design was placed in front of the cockpit visor - a ring and a front sight.

From the summer of 1925, instead of imported ones, Russian-made TOZ turrets from the Tula Arms Plant were mounted on the R-1 for one Lewis machine gun mod. 1924, copied from a French model. The plant handed over aircraft without machine guns and sights on turrets; they understaffed the machines already in combat units.

For a long time, the UVVS could not decide what the ammunition of the rear installation should be - six or eight disks of 47 rounds. And it depended on what the cassette rack would be on the plane, where they were put. Finally, we decided that six was enough.

In August 1925, for the first time, a modified TOZ turret with a fork for coaxial Lewis machine guns was installed on aircraft No. 2533, which was soon approved by the NK. The plant was taken in five to seven months to deploy mass production. In reality, turrets with twin machine guns began to be mounted in Moscow and Taganrog from October 1926. Ammunition of eight disks was supposed to be attached to the twin installation, later it was increased to ten.

The R-1 was to be used not only as a reconnaissance aircraft, but also as a light bomber. Previously, on Russian airplanes, bombs were simply folded into the cockpit of the letnab, and then dropped by hand, aiming at the eye. The de Havilland had bomb racks under the lower wing and fuselage; bombs were dropped by mechanical bomb releasers. At the same time, the letnab pulled the handle and, through a system of cables and blocks, opened the locks that released the bombs. Aiming was carried out by the same letnab using a simple device hung from the outside on board the aircraft. Similar equipment was planned for the R-1. It initially provided for bomb armament from the underwing beams D-3 (later renamed DER-3) and the ventral D-4 (DER-4). The beams allowed the suspension of bombs in tandem - lighter fragmentation in front, high-explosive ones in the back. The first batch of 30 sets of DER-3 on GAZ-1 was made at your own peril and risk, without the approval of the NK.

The reset was to be carried out by the SBR-5 or SBR-7 bomb releaser. Both of them, designed by engineer Gorelov, were variants of the English Browning mechanical ejectors captured as trophies during the Civil War. They allowed the dropping of bombs one at a time, in a series at a given interval, or in a volley. Later SBR-5 was rejected. An alternative was the Savelyev SBR-3 dropper, which was simpler, but provided only a single drop or salvo.

Checking on the layout of the bomb suspension using the BL-1 winch Suspension of small bombs under the R-1 wing

On June 11, 1925, a commission chaired by Vakhmistrov inspected and tested bomb weapons on one of the R-1s. This machine was specially intended for experiments with weapons, so it had three different bomb releasers at once: for the left wing - Savelyev, for the right - Gorelov and a single one (SBR-1) for the ventral suspension. UVVF did not approve the test report, disagreeing with the conclusions of the commission, however, on June 30, it ordered a small batch of several types of bomb racks and droppers.

By the summer of 1925, bombing sights existed only in prototypes. There were two types of them: Nikolsky (similar to the English "Vimperis") and the simplest Nadashkevich. Later, each of them was made in 25 copies for thorough testing. Preference was given to the simple sight of Nadashkevich, adopted as the AP-2. It was attached outside on the starboard side of the cabin of the letnab.

A complete set of bomb weapons, called Bombr-1, was first put on aircraft No. 2741 in September 1925; this car was tested in October at the training ground near Serpukhov, where the Air Combat School was located. The kit included DER-3bis, DER-4 and SBR-7. The tests were carried out by a commission headed by Nadashkevich. In all flights, the car was piloted by K. Artseulov, and members of the commission alternated in the rear cockpit - Nadashkevich, Dyakonov and Seleznev. The Bombr-1 set was officially approved on December 19, 1925.

The first 37 R-1s, manufactured in Moscow according to the 1925/26 plan, did not have bomb ejectors and wiring for them, and the bomb racks were inoperable due to the lack of a number of parts. The next nine vehicles also did not have time to receive bombers. There were no bomb sights. Everything missing was then sent by the plant to the unit "retroactively".

From September 1925, the UVVS refused to accept aircraft without a complete set of weapons. Further, all R-1s were completed with Bombr-1. Heavy (by the standards of that time) bombs of 16 and 48 kg were hung only on DER-4 for reasons of alignment. On DER-3bis, they tried to attach ammunition no heavier than 10 kg to both the front and rear locks. It was recommended that, if possible, the entire bomb load be carried under the wings. The range of the R-1 with bombs and a set of three machine guns was 275 - 300 km.

In January 1925, production of the R-1 also began to be mastered at the GAZ-10 Lebed plant in Taganrog. As in Moscow, the first six vehicles were released without weapons, then the UVVF allowed ten more of the same to be handed over. Later, in Taganrog, they introduced the same small arms and bomb weapons as on Moscow vehicles. First, synchronizers PUL-3bis were mounted, from the summer of 1926 - PUL-6.

The transition to the production of fully combat-ready R-1s was highly appreciated by the Revolutionary Military Council: "In the field of aircraft construction, the aircraft industry has finally entered the stage of mass production of combat reconnaissance aircraft R1-M5 ...".

The effectiveness of the R-1 as scouts and spotters could be improved by equipping them with radio communications and cameras. But special aviation radio stations in our country were only then being designed. I had to use the lightest of the available samples, intended for the cavalry. From the middle of 1925, aircraft were produced with the expectation that they could be equipped with the AK II radio station. This station weighed 34.5 kg and made it possible to maintain contact with another aircraft at a distance of 2 km, with the ground - at 25 km by telephone and 200 km - by telegraph. The antenna was exhaust - a cable with a weight, it was released with a winch from the cabin of the letnab through a hole in the floor. Electricity was provided by a generator with a windmill on the lower wing and a battery. The plant mounted radio counterweights of antennas and seat for a radio station, but there were no stations themselves.

In June 1925, the electrical and radio department of the Scientific Experimental Aerodrome (NOA) developed a project for installing a lighter AK-23 radio station (25 kg) on ​​the R-1. The transmitter was placed in a plywood box on a pine board laid on beams to which the seat of the letnab was attached. Later, some of the aircraft were indeed equipped with AK-23s.

For R-1, it was planned to install a Potte II camera in the FOT I installation, but the cameras themselves were not mounted at the factory. Moreover, the installation itself was not approved by the Air Force until the end of 1925. But combatant pilots were quite satisfied with an unapproved model - if only it worked.

The R-1 glider by the end of 1925 also underwent some changes. As early as the end of 1924, the supply situation began to improve somewhat. The aircraft began to use English chassis axles made of chromium-nickel steel. In 1925, for gluing wood, they began to use instead of domestic hide glue, they switched to a special imported one. Even some "bourgeois luxury" appeared - from the autumn of 1925, a soft pillow began to be placed on the pilot's seat.

The glazing of the pilot's visor was first made of celluloid, which quickly became cloudy and covered with cracks, impairing visibility. In 1925 they switched to triplex, but not for long. From thermal stresses, layered glass cracked, and factories returned to celluloid again. In the same year, they tried to install lighting for night flights on the P-1, but they soon refused - the country did not have the necessary components.

In general, aircraft builders had enough problems. In the autumn of 1925, pine wood of such poor quality was brought to GAZ-1 that factory inspectors immediately rejected about 60% of it. I had to go through all the bars, revealing at least some fit for business. Due to the lack of wood, UVVF allowed the use of previously rejected spars with deviations in the size of the shelves. But even this did not save the situation. By the end of the year, all stocks had dried up. During the last quarter of 1925, GAZ-1 made only one P-1 instead of 65 according to the plan.

Aviatrust, trying to rectify the situation, demanded to speed up the assembly of cars on the GAZ-10. During the same time, 47 R-1s were manufactured there against the planned 30, but the military accepted only 15 aircraft, and even those were conditional - the lack of various equipment and weapons prevented them. And the quality of the machines themselves left much to be desired. In August 1925, the Aviatrust commission checked the aircraft in the GAZ-10 workshops. The difference in the length of the inter-wing struts reached 13 mm, and the ailerons in the act are described as "crooked and bent".

Aircraft of the 5th and 6th series GAZ-10 with Liberty had an empty weight of 1315 - 1318 kg against 1300 kg according to the technical conditions, but the UVVF considered a deviation of 15-20 kg acceptable. The management of the enterprise constantly complained to Moscow about the lack of steel pipes and rolled metal, wire for braces. As a result, by April 1, 1926, 87 finished, but not handed over, cars accumulated in Taganrog. The plan for the year failed miserably.

M-5 - SOVIET "LIBERTY"

In 1925, another novelty appeared on the R-1 - Soviet M-5 engines, domestic copies of the Liberty. In 1922, the engineers of the Ikar plant (later renamed Plant No. 24), there were only six of them, dismantled several captured engines and removed sketches from the parts. The work was supervised by A.A. Bessonov. Unlike the original, the M-5 drawings were made in the metric system, not in inches. In May 1922, they began to manufacture the first sample of the engine. August 22 of the same year air fleet removed the order for FIAT engines from the factory and replaced it with an order for 100 Liberty. In December 1923, the M-5 sample passed state bench tests. The following year, the first small series of five pieces was made, but it was handed over only at the beginning of 1925 after the defects had been eliminated. Valves cracked, pistons burned, springs broke. The finishing of the motors took a considerable time.

The best M-5 made by Icarus was put on the P-1, on which the pilot Inshakov flew Moscow - Lipetsk - Kharkov - Kiev - Gomel - Smolensk - Moscow in January 1925.

The remaining engines of this series were recognized as unsuitable for combat aircraft, as well as the subsequent 15. Only in April 1925 was it possible to assemble the first full-fledged engines in Moscow.

It should be noted that the working conditions of engine builders were simply nightmarish. The machines had significant wear and tear. There were not enough cutting tools, and the domestic one was of very poor quality, and almost no imported ones were allocated. Workers ran to the market to find cutters or cutters. It was even worse with the measuring tool. Calibers were only heavily worn, left over from pre-revolutionary times. The gap in the main bearings was exposed to the eye! Not surprisingly, the marriage rate was very high. At Icarus, more than half of the cast pistons were immediately sent to scrap.

At the end of 1924, two options were considered: give the task of producing equally to the Moscow Icarus and the Leningrad Bolshevik plant (formerly Obukhovsky) or make parts in Leningrad, and conduct the final assembly in Moscow.

They chose the first one, but the Moscow enterprise, which had a small head start, received a larger order. On the Bolshevik, the production of the M-5 began at about the same time as on the Icarus, but already at the end of 1924 they were able to produce several suitable engines. Motors from Moscow and Leningrad were slightly different from each other, their parts were not interchangeable. Therefore, they were often designated M-5I ("Icarus") and M-5B ("Bolshevik"). The motors of the same plant also sometimes also differed from each other. The fact is that for the M-5I part of the crankshafts was purchased in the USA, from the Packard and Atlas firms. From there, of course, came the shafts for the Liberty, made with dimensions in inches. To use them, the mating parts also had to be made in the inch system. Such motors were called "half-metric".

R-1 aircraft with M-5 engine, 1925

And the rest of the M-5s were produced using imported components. Almost all aluminum in the country was imported from abroad. "Liberty" differed from all other aircraft engines by the ignition system of the so-called battery type - like in a car. In Russia, its release was never mastered. All M-5s were equipped with electrical equipment imported from the USA, and fuel fittings were also supplied from there.

Soviet engines turned out to be heavier than Liberty. For example, the M-5I weighed 424 kg - 29 kg more than the imported motor.

Domestic motors were intended to be installed on serial R-1s from October 1, 1925. But there were not enough M-5s for all machines. In 1925, only 50 of them were produced - 20 in Moscow and 30 in Leningrad. Therefore, the import of "Liberty" from the USA and Great Britain continued. Engines from England were sorted out and tested before shipment, so they could immediately be put on aircraft. A lot of old motors came from the USA, which had lain in warehouses for several years. They were sorted out in Moscow, regulated and tested. This was done by a special workshop at GAZ-1. But from America also arrived improved "Liberty" of the later series, which had a large resource.

In addition, the quality of domestic engines was rated lower than that of imported ones. So, when testing the R-1 of the 6th series in Taganrog in November 1926, they concluded that "the engines of the Ikar plant are very weak at altitude." In general, Leningrad engines were initially considered more reliable than Moscow ones. It was the M-5B that was put in April 1925 on the planes participating in the flight to Beijing and Tokyo. M-5I produced in 1925-26 had water leaks from shirts, oil knocking out, carburetor failures. The M-5B had about the same plus burnout of the pistons, but less often. Moscow engines worked on average 50 hours before the first overhaul, Leningrad ones - 55-60, but there were M-5Bs that worked more than 100 hours without breakdowns.

The PUL-9 synchronizer appeared on the planes. Its main difference was the drive not from the back of the crankshaft of the motor, but from an intermediate inclined shaft that transmitted rotation to the camshafts. This was due to the fact that later series Liberty began to arrive from the USA, in which the synchronizer drive gear was mounted precisely on an inclined shaft. The same decision was made for the M-5. In September 1926, the PUL-9 prototype passed flight tests. The new synchronizer was approved by the NK UVVS (RKKVF by this time was renamed the Red Army Air Force) on October 28, 1926. Depending on which engine was installed on the aircraft, the type of synchronizer was chosen.

Some of the machines were completed with PUL-6, and some with PUL-9. They completely switched to the latter somewhere by the end of 1926.

Until the autumn of 1926, imported Vickers was installed on the port side of all P-1s. On May 3, 1926, Aviatrust received a letter from the UVVS with a request to try to replace it with the domestic Maxim. On the same plane on which the PUL-9 was tested, they tested the Maxim-TOZ modified in Tula. Later, under the leadership of Nadashkevich, the infantry machine gun was converted to air cooling and the rate of fire was increased. The new model was later accepted into service as the PV-1. Military tests of new machine guns were carried out precisely on the P-1 in the 26th squadron in the North Caucasus. Since 1928, they began to put it on all aircraft, except for export ones.

The new machine gun was slightly heavier (about 3 kg), but it paid off with increased firepower. A set of Vickers with PUL-6 weighed 32 kg, PV-1 with PUL-9 - 34 kg.

In the fall of 1926, the English “5-linear” (12.7 mm) Vickers machine gun was tested on the R-1 on a Nelson-type installation. He stood on the port side, working with the same synchronizer PUL-9. But the heavy machine gun turned out to be too powerful for the R-1: the shooting caused deformation of the skin and spars of the aircraft.

Bomb weapons have also changed. In the first half of 1926, new bomb racks DER-6 (under the fuselage) and DER-7 (under the wing) were put up for testing. They, together with the SBR-8 blower, designed at the Fili plant by the master gunsmith Shcherbakov, were supposed to make up a new set of Bombr-2. The introduction of the Bombr-2 according to the plan was expected from September 1, 1927; that's pretty much how it worked out.

In Germany, they began to purchase Hertz FI 110 optical bombsights. It made it possible to significantly improve the accuracy of bombing compared to the primitive AP-2. The designers worked out the possibility of installing it on the R-1. In the stowed position, it was fastened with clamps to the side, and in the combat position it was placed vertically above the hole in the floor on a special heel. This heel in Moscow began to be mounted from the 10th series, from April 1927. The sights themselves were already installed in parts. There were few of them, since priority in their delivery was given to heavy aircraft. In 1928, the installation of "Hertz" on the R-1 was declared mandatory, but the situation has changed little - you can't put something that is not physically there.

On October 1, 1926, a rocket launcher was included in the package of the Moscow R-1, in Taganrog this happened on December 1.

All these innovations have led to an increase in weight and a deterioration in centering. In addition, the forced replacement of some semi-finished products with others that were available had an effect. So, the tanks were riveted from a sheet 0.8 mm thick instead of 0.7 mm, 6 mm cables were used instead of 5 mm. Domestic stretching tapes, which replaced imported ones, added 5.2 kg to the weight of the aircraft. The operation of aircraft on uneven airfields forced to strengthen the landing gear - racks, wheels and a crutch. In total, this gave more than 11 kg.

In April 1927, control tests of R-1 No. 3009 from the 11th GAZ-1 series were carried out at the Air Force Research Institute. Weighing showed an excess of 87 kg compared to the acceptance specifications. GAZ-10 cars were about 50 kg lighter, but due to less equipment (the tested R-1 had, for example, an AK-23 radio station) and the use of imported Liberty engines, which were lighter than the M-5. However, even on skis, the aircraft showed a speed higher than required. But the rate of climb above 2000 m has seriously fallen.

The centering shift caused a delay when exiting the spin. At maximum load, the machine generally became unstable. The chassis, even with reinforcements, was not strong enough for the weight. There were complaints about the deflection of the axles; it was simply dangerous to land in a side wind - the landing gear fell apart, and the plane nosed over. But the reason here was not a bad design, but the poor quality of the materials used.

I must say that the reliability of the R-1 in general then wished much better. Due to the poor quality of the metal, the ears of the stretch marks were stretched, the hoods were cracked. In winter, we encountered a breakage of rubber cords - ski shock absorbers.

Petrol pumps, powered by windmills (mounted in front of the canopy of the pilot's cabin), drove gasoline from the fuselage tanks to consumables located in the center section of the upper wing (the so-called "canopy"). The pumping speed depended only on the velocity head. From there, the fuel went into the carburetor by gravity. Surplus fuel on another line had to go back down to the fuselage tank. But with a poorly adjusted system, the upper tank overflowed, and gasoline was forced to be thrown overboard through the drain pipe. The pilot could not turn off the pumps or reduce their speed.

Delivery of one of the aircraft purchased with the funds of the fund "Our answer to Chamberlain". Among those present - S.S. Kamenev, P.I. Baranov, Ya.I. Alksnis. Machine gun PV-1 is installed on the machine

There were also frequent cases of pump failure. When they stopped working, the pilot could only count on a small supply of gasoline in the upper tank. This often led to forced landings.

Back in 1924, engineer K.A. Belousov developed a scheme for powering the engine from a pump on the motor, but then this project was not implemented. In December 1925, on R-1 No. 2741, a gasoline pump driven by the crankshaft of the engine was first tested. In 1928, the experiment was repeated on aircraft No. 1314, using a different type of pump. But such a pump was not introduced on production aircraft, perhaps because almost all such pumps were then imported from abroad. R-1 until the very end was produced with windmills.

The designers also proposed a significant modernization of the R-1 airframe with the transition from a completely wooden to a mixed design. Since November 1926, the OSS has been developing new wings for the duralumin frame. They were designed in three versions and even made one spar, but they were not installed on the aircraft and they were not allowed into the series - aluminum was in short supply, and the P-1 was built a lot. Another unrealized novelty was the chassis with hydropneumatic shock absorption, the model for which was the struts from the English passenger aircraft DH.34, purchased in one copy.

The aircraft were completed approximately equally with instruments of Soviet and foreign models, and even on machines of the same series, the set could be different. They imported compasses, water and oil thermometers, speed indicators, ammeters - mainly from England.

The quality of Soviet engines gradually increased. If in 1925 less than a third of the M-5I engines passed factory tests without defects, then by 1927 their number had reached three-quarters. Of the mass defects, only oil leaks remained. But the quality of the M-5B remained approximately at the same level. In Leningrad, they were in no hurry to introduce innovations invented by Muscovites. This can be understood: "Bolshevik" was not an aviation, but an artillery factory; the production of aircraft engines there soon began to turn off.

Sometimes engine defects led to very serious consequences. So, in the autumn of 1927, during a parade in Leningrad, the engine on the R-1 of the 56th squadron crumbled in the air over the city. Pilot Purelis managed to land on a wasteland with great difficulty.

Aircraft accident No. 2887 during the acceptance flight on the GAZ-1, 1927

STOP? NO - CONTINUE!

Initially, the production of the R-1 was intended to be stopped in the middle of 1928. Its place was to be taken by the R-4 reconnaissance aircraft, designed under the leadership of A.A. Krylov. The prototype R-4 was completed in May 1926 and further tested and adjusted until 1928. But the car turned out to be too heavy, and its centering was too rear. In the end, work on the P-4 was stopped, and the military again showed interest in continuing to build the P-1.

However, time has been lost. The Air Force did not sign an agreement on the serial production of the P-4, but did not order new batches of the P-1 either. The deadline for the delivery of the last R-1 ended on July 1, 1928. The factories could simply stop. Having secured the oral consent of the head of the UVVS P.I. Baranov, the leadership of Aviatrest itself concluded agreements with the factories. Both enterprises, Plant No. 1 in Moscow and Plant No. 31 in Taganrog - as they were called from November 1927, were ready to continue the production of cars.

But then the question arose about the need to modernize the aircraft. Finally, on August 27, 1928, the UVVS sent a letter to Aviatrest with a list of changes that needed to be implemented on the R-1 in the second half of 1928 and early 1929. Two series, from 79 and 100 aircraft, should have been distinguished by an enlarged oil drain pipe , a new gasoline meter and a gasoline pump driven by a motor. The military representative of plant No. 1 added to this proposal to introduce a reinforced landing gear, provide for laying a parachute in the pilot's seat and move the bomb racks forward.

October 6, 1928 I.M. Kostkin suggested first testing all the new items on aircraft No. 3483, which was at the factory after the repair of the fuselage spar. On it, in order to improve centering on the aircraft, they introduced the removal of the upper wing by 300 mm forward, increased the stroke of the stabilizer, moved the bomb racks forward (DER-6 - by 45 mm, DER-7 - by 223 mm), a tool box with a hatch appeared behind the cabin of the letnab in the upper skin, introduced a control handle and seat belts of a new type, changed the design of the pedals. The aircraft was equipped with a radio station and a camera, which brought the empty weight of the machine with water filled into the system to 1462 kg. It also made a pilot's seat under the parachute: not round, as before, but rectangular. It turned out not to be very successful. When laying the Irwin parachute in a cup, the pilot's eyes, even of average height, turned out to be higher than the cockpit visor. It was not possible to lower the seat further down - it pinched the control pedals in the rear cabin. The pilot reached his own pedals only with his socks.

All these changes were then implemented on the serial P-1; only the pilot's seat had to be modified. In addition, the frame of the pilot's visor was reinforced and an external step was introduced for climbing into the aircraft. From a wooden chassis with a steel axle, they switched to a more durable all-metal chassis. But they didn’t make it for long - only until September 1928, then they returned to a cheaper wooden one again.

R-1, made in Taganrog in 1930

Since 1928, the R-1 was produced in three versions: a corps (short) reconnaissance spotter, an army (long-range) reconnaissance and a 3rd class bomber. The first provided for the presence of an AK-23 radio station or a special aviation WHO III (weighing 48.3 kg) and two Lewis; bomb racks could be removed partially or completely. The second differed from the previous one in the presence of a Potte I camera. The third carried one Lewis, did not have a camera and a radio station.

On aircraft manufactured in 1928, the TOZ-type turret was replaced with a new Tur-4, which had a device that made it easier to rotate the installation at large angles. It was possible to put one machine gun, you can - two on an additional fork. At the TOZ, gear racks were bent, with the help of which the trunks were lifted. At Tur-4 they were strengthened, as well as some other details. Therefore, the Tour-4 was a little heavier than the TOZ. The Tour-4 set with two Lewises and 10 discs weighed 63.8 kg, and the old turret in the same configuration weighed 56.5 kg. The novelty was approved by the troops. The chief of staff of the 20th air brigade, Lavinovsky, reported to the headquarters of the Ukrainian military district: "The TUR-4 turret has an incomparable advantage over the TOZ turret."

Since 1929, the production of R-1 nevertheless began to be curtailed. Plant No. 1 was preparing to switch to the assembly of new R-5 reconnaissance aircraft designed by the same N.N. Polikarpov. The last planes were assembled there at the beginning of 1930. In Taganrog, the production of R-1 remained approximately at the same level for another two years.

Changes made to R-1 during this period were relatively minor. The visor of the pilot's cabin was again reinforced, and from aircraft No. 3483 they again switched from celluloid to triplex. Bags for revolvers were made on the port side in both cockpits. Instruments were now only Soviet. Optical rifle sights OP-1 (Aldis) and duplicate KP-5 ring sights, rear-view mirrors and new ERO radio stations were installed on some of the vehicles.

From the middle of 1929, only domestic M-5 engines were installed on the R-1. Liberty imports did not stop, but they were now being converted for use on tanks. In March 1929, burnt-out pistons were revealed at the M-5 of plant No. 24. The reason was that the piston crown of the Soviet engine was thinner than that of the original Liberty. After that, we began to produce pistons with a thickened bottom.

Since 1930, the aircraft were produced in only two versions: a short-range reconnaissance spotter and a training aircraft. The functions of a light bomber and army reconnaissance were now assigned to the P-5.

In 1931, the plant in Taganrog was also loaded with mastering the production of new types of aircraft. Instead of 302 R-1s, according to the plan, only 266 were handed over there. The following year, the last two cars were produced, and at this point the R-1 assembly was stopped.

"LORREN-DIETRICH"

Hearing this name, you immediately remember the unforgettable Wildebeest by Adam Kozlevich. But the French company "Lorraine-Dietrich" produced not only cars, but also aircraft engines. Among them was the LD 12E 12-cylinder water-cooled engine with a power of 450 hp, popular in the mid-20s. It had a W-shaped layout: three rows of four cylinders were arranged in a fan.

These motors were purchased in fairly large quantities in France, and in February 1925 the question was even raised about their release under license in Russia.

As mentioned earlier, in 1924 the idea arose to produce a part of the R-1 with French engines. The design assignment for the LD 12E variant was given on August 5, 1924; it received the designation RD2 or R-1LD.

The first estimates of the designers were disappointing. Almost all flight data according to the calculations turned out worse than with the Liberty. The ceiling dropped by 300 m, the flight duration was reduced by half an hour, the rate of climb worsened. Only the maximum speed due to the greater maximum engine power should have increased by about 5%.

Despite this, R-1LD continued to give such great importance that it was included in the mass production plan. The GAZ-10 was supposed to assemble these aircraft in Taganrog, according to the draft plan for 1925/1926, half of the machines assembled by this enterprise were to come out with Lorrains.

The designers worked on linking the airframe and the engine. Coupling the motor, which had a large midsection, with the narrow fuselage of the P-1 was a difficult task. To bypass the carburetor located behind, the engine mount struts were made curved. This immediately reduced its rigidity and forced the pipes to be supported from below in the middle with pyramids of tubes of a smaller diameter. As a result, access to the carburetor was largely difficult. The engine hood has acquired a more complex shape and design.

On the R-1 there was a frontal radiator of the automobile type. The long toe of the crankshaft went right through the hole in the radiator. In the existing LD 12E, the shaft toe was too short; on the "Icarus" they made nozzles for him.

In October 1924, they began to build a prototype R-1LD; it was completed on February 17 of the following year. On February 24, they tried to launch Lorraine on an airplane. The attempt ended in failure; It turned out that they mixed up the carburetor rods.

On March 6, 1925, a prototype with Lorraine was taken to the Central Airfield. We intended to start factory tests on March 10, in fact, they started on March 19. Four days later, the car was handed over to the PLA.

The radiator was shaking during testing. It was secured with a brace. Again, bad - too stiff suspension led to the destruction of adhesions by vibration and water leaks.

The empty weight of the aircraft with Lorraine turned out to be almost 100 kg more than that of the serial P-1 with Liberty, takeoff weight lifted about 30 kg. Coupled with deteriorating aerodynamics, this negatively affected flight data. They turned out to be even lower than the calculated ones. The plane lost more than 10 km/h top speed and approximately 1000 m of practical ceiling. The rate of climb also dropped significantly.

On June 4, 1925, a prototype P-1 with Lorraine was examined by the Aviatrust commission headed by Akashev. The commission concluded that the Lorraine was unsuitable for the R-1. Work on the R-1LD was stopped.

R-2, aka R-1SP

The English DH.9 aircraft was equipped with a 230 hp Siddley Puma engine. It was a water-cooled in-line engine.

We actually started work on the Puma version even earlier than on the Liberty aircraft. At the end of 1922, the Air Force handed over one DH.9 to the GAZ-1. The plant began to make drawings and even templates, but a little later the military suspended work, preferring the Liberty aircraft.

In 1924, Soviet representatives managed to order 150 Puma engines from Great Britain. According to the agreement, the British were to deliver the first 30 engines in July 1925, and then send 40 Pums each within three months. Since the aircraft builders constantly lacked engines, they decided to equip part of the Russian Havilands with Cougars. As early as April 1, 1924, Plant No. 1 received the task of adapting the aircraft to this engine. At first it was about copying the DH.9, then the factory designers suggested using the DH.9a airframe (which differed in the size of the wings and the shape of the fuselage), and, finally, they used it as a basis for the R-1.

The project, named at the plant 2US1, was carried out downright quickly. Supervised the work of V.P. Moiseenko. The car had a different engine mount, a different hood and a radiator located under the forward fuselage. Already on April 23, the NK approved the preliminary project, and on April 1, the construction of a prototype began. On August 1, the plane was ready, and on October 1 it was already taken to the airfield. Factory testing of the aircraft, called R-2 or R-1SP, ended by the middle of the same month, and on October 15 the car was handed over to the PLA.

The serial empty P-2 was more than 100 kg lighter than the P-1. Takeoff weight was more than 400 kg less. This allowed the use of smaller wheels - 750x125 mm. The strength of the airframe was assessed as excessive. But the low-power motor did not allow to obtain high flight data. The speed, compared with the R-1, fell by 30-35 km / h and was equal to 167 km / h, the ceiling decreased by about 800 m; climb rate also deteriorated. Approximately the same was assumed according to the calculations of the designers. But from the point of view of piloting, the car has become simpler; rebalancing made it more stable.

The tests were completed on December 9, 1924. In general, the aircraft was recognized as successful. But the report on the test results moved through the authorities for a long time. When the first production aircraft were already at the factory, it was not yet known what changes the UVVS would require from them compared to the prototype.

The first four serial R-1SPs, while unarmed, arrived at the Central Airfield in January 1925. One aircraft was tested on full program, the rest are abbreviated. The machines flew with three types of propellers: one English company "Davis" and two domestic designs by Dyachkov from the GAZ-8 plant. One of Dyachkov's screws turned out to be the best. With it, we got a speed of 171 km / h, with English - 166 km / h.

Improved R-2 (R-1SP)

By the beginning of January 1925, the wooden parts of the first two series were already ready, but there were not enough motors and propellers. Such speed was explained by the fact that the units of the P-1 standing without motors were used. All free space at the plant was occupied by finished products. On January 10, the GAZ-1 management decided to disassemble the wing boxes for 15 R-2s and suspend the assembly of 30 cars, which had to be completed at the end of the month. The plant filed claims with UVVS, which, under the contract, was obliged to supply engines and propellers, demanding payment for the forced disassembly of finished aircraft.

Only on January 19, the military acceptance at the enterprise received a list of additional requirements for the car. It was planned to shift the windshield forward, slightly move the gas sector and the stabilizer control helm, install the backs of both seats. The plant replied that it could do all this only from the 41st aircraft (after all, the groundwork for the previous ones is already ready) and for additional money - you had to think before!

Less than a month later, production was completely paralyzed. On February 12, 1925, there were 40 finished biplanes in the shops without engines and propellers, another 90 were in different stages of production. The most interesting thing is that the UVVF knew very well that engines from England would not arrive before June!

The first "Puma" really arrived at the beginning of June 1925 - 15 pieces. All others were delivered by the end of October.

The delay in the arrival of the engines greatly affected the delivery of the aircraft. By October 1, 1925, GAZ-1 was supposed to hand over 52 R-2s, but in reality, by November 28, only nine finished cars were presented. They put PUL-7 and bomb racks on them, but there were no droppers.

On serial R-2s, a fixed Vickers machine gun was placed on the left side, and a TOZ turret with one Lewis was placed in the cockpit of the letnab. The PUL-7 synchronizer was specially designed for Puma. It passed ground tests on September 21-23, 1925. In November, it was officially accepted into service; by this time it was already in serial production. Released 62 PUL-7; this means that almost half of the R-1 SP was delivered with incomplete or no armament.

Only DER-4 ventral bomb racks were installed on the R-1SP. The plant also mounted DER-3bis on some of the machines, but already on December 19, 1925, when the planes were still in the workshops, they were ordered to be removed.

R-1SP was built in three series - 40, 50 and 40 more machines. Of these, 86 passed by the middle of 1926 and 44 more - in the second half of the year.

R-1 with BMW IV engine

WITH ENGINE BMW IV

In 1926, the supply of Puma engines came to an end. But the need for a cheaper version of the R-1 for training purposes has not disappeared. They decided to replace the English engine with the German BMW IV, also in-line water-cooled, but with a slightly lower power - 190 hp. The conversion project for another engine was developed by E.K. Stoman. Since the BMW IV was shorter, the overall length of the fuselage was reduced by 49 mm, the center of gravity shifted slightly forward. They used a propeller from a Yu-20 aircraft with a diameter of 2.9 m. According to the assignment, it was required to install a course machine gun and one "Lewis" on the turrets, but the centering of the machine made this impossible.

A prototype was not built. At the plant in Taganrog, a series of 30 copies was immediately laid. In June 1928, the lead vehicle was assembled there, which was tested at the factory airfield. The entire batch was handed over to customers by the end of the year. A total of 83 aircraft of this type were manufactured.

In 1925, the R-1 and R-1SP aircraft took part in the Eastern flight on the route Moscow - Urga (Ulan Bator) - Beijing - Tokyo.

For the flight, a batch of four specially equipped R-1s with M-5B engines and without weapons was prepared. They were distinguished by an additional tank for 7 pounds (112 kg) of gasoline, installed in front of the pilot's dashboard, a soft back of the pilot's seat and motors that underwent an additional bulkhead (in the obligatory presence of pilots!). Reinforced landing gear axles were also installed on these aircraft, additional braces for the rear landing gear struts were added; it was impossible to put them on combat vehicles - they interfered with bomb racks. They strengthened the crutches, mounted additional manual petrol pumps, and second batteries. They increased the floor area of ​​the observer and made a luggage box behind his place. The screws were improved, with a forging of the leading edge.

In addition to this, two R-1SPs were made in an improved version, with an elliptical frontal radiator and spinner on the propeller hub. Interestingly, the observer's seat on them was performed without a back.

Three out of six aircraft actually took part in the flight - two R-1s and one R-1SP. Three others, as spares, were sent by train to Novosibirsk and Irkutsk.

On June 10, six aircraft selected for the flight took off from Moscow. Among them were two P-1s piloted by M.M. Gromov and M.A. Volkovoynov (mechanics, respectively, E.V. Rodzevich and V.P. Kuznetsov), and R-1SP, on which A.N. Ekatov and F.M. Malikov. Then the group gradually overcame segments of the route. Due to the slowness of the R-1SP, it constantly took off half an hour earlier than other aircraft.

On July 13, four vehicles arrived in Beijing, both R-1 and R-1SP were among them. In August, two spare M-5 engines were delivered to Beijing, after which two P-1s continued their way to Japan through Korea. Over the strait, the planes landed in fog and dispersed. Gromov managed to land in Hiroshima and the next day, September 2, ended up in Tokyo. Volkovoynov landed on a small island near Shimonoseki, from where he could no longer take off. On this "Great Eastern Flight of 1925" ended.

In 1926, one R-1 piloted by Ya.N. Moiseev flew to Tehran, another, controlled by P.Kh. Mezheraup - to Ankara.

P-1 "Iskra", on which in July 1926 Ya.N. Moiseev and P.V. Morozov flew from Moscow to Tehran

ON FLOATS

The design of the float version of the R-1, MR-L1, began at the OSS at the end of 1925 on its own initiative. Only in April of the following year, the Air Force entered into an agreement with Aviatrest for the design and construction of three prototypes. The military assigned the designation MP-1 to the float machine.

Project MR-L1, prepared under the direction of N.N. Polikarpov, provided for the installation of the aircraft on two wooden floats connected to the wings and fuselage by a steel pipe truss. In August 1926, the project was sent for consideration to the leadership of Aviatrest, then it was studied by representatives of the STC UVVS, who finally approved it in October.

Without waiting for the end of this long process, the plant began building the first machine. It was completed in mid-October 1926. The first flight of prototype No. 3017 took place on October 19, 1926 on the Moscow River in Fili; the car was piloted by V.N. Filippov. The Air Trust was told that the seaplane "had performed very well"; received a speed of 186 km / h and a ceiling of 4200 m. Later, another copy was built, No. 3020, with a reinforced chassis. It was flown by M.M. in early November. Gromov.

Prototype MP-1 on wooden floats

In parallel, a version of the machine with metal floats was created. The task for it was received in March 1926 by the GAZ-5 design bureau. There, the German engineer Münzel, who worked under the contract, was engaged in the design of the float aircraft. The total displacement of the metal floats was slightly larger, and the weight of the chassis as a whole was less. The project was ready in October of the same year, but on March 3, 1927, the task was redirected to the OSS. There, Münzel's project was studied and considered imperfect. Metal floats were criticized by M.M. Shishmarev. In his opinion, the volume was insufficient, the contours did not provide proper seaworthiness, the chassis as a whole was unstable to side impact, and the shock absorption was too hard. The structure was re-calculated for strength, and some places were reinforced. On May 6, Aviatrest ordered to manufacture landing gear units and conduct statistical tests. At the end of June, the units were ready, and in August they conducted tests at TsAGI.

In early September, aircraft No. 3030 was put on metal floats. It was distinguished by reinforced upper wing spars and a 20% larger vertical tail (to improve directional stability). An unnecessary crutch was removed from the car, a crane lifting device and mooring rings were installed. The ventral bomb racks were moved back, the underwing bomb racks were moved to the ends of the wing, placed under the racks. The first flight on Münzel floats took place on September 12, 1927, the pilot was Ya.N. Moiseev. On September 15, this car was handed over to the Air Force Research Institute. Until October 25, she made several flights, then the tests had to be interrupted due to the need to replace the engine.

Prototype MP-1 on Münzel metal floats

Since the metal floats were lighter, the weight of the empty aircraft was correspondingly lower. Hence - a small gain in maximum "speed, but for some reason all other characteristics turned out to be worse. The ceiling fell, the rate of climb at low altitudes deteriorated. Takeoff and landing characteristics were especially affected.

All three MP-1s built were sent to the Black Sea for further testing. The first car on wooden floats left the factory in Sevastopol on February 14, 1927, the second on March 10. Tests of the first MP-1 ended in December with an accident while landing on a 1.5 m high wave. The cause of the accident is described in the documents as a “splash landing”. From the impact of the plane on the water, the tail section of the fuselage and the motor broke off, and central part with the crew cabins remained to stand on the floats. The pilot and Polikarpov, who was in the rear cockpit, rushed into the water and swam to the shore.

The second aircraft on wooden floats, and later the car on Münzel floats, was transferred to the combat unit, where they underwent operational tests. Ultimately, the choice was made in favor of a simpler and cheaper wooden structure.

The wooden float over the frame was sheathed with plywood, and then pasted over with percale. Thin boards of teak or mahogany were laid on top of the plywood on the bottom. From above, longitudinal slats were stuffed onto the floats, along which they walked.

The floats had sockets for attaching wheels, on which the car was rolled ashore. These were regular R-1 wheels, only a third filled with water, so that it would be easier to sink them when they were put into place.

It was possible to remove the floats from the MP-1 and install the aircraft on a wheeled or ski chassis. At the same time, the car could fly from land, like a regular P-1, but with some load restrictions caused by differences in centering.

The engine was started on the MP-1 by a manual mechanical starter. The mechanic stood on the float and twisted the detachable handle.

The “exemplary” (head serial) MP-1 was assembled at the Taganrog GAZ-10 plant at the end of September 1927. An additional radiator was mounted under the forward fuselage, originally designed for the R-4, on serial machines. The area of ​​​​the vertical tail was increased, the underwing arches were removed, replacing them with mooring rings. The Taganrog floats turned out to be lighter than the Moscow ones: 195 kg versus 210 kg. The Vickers was not on the plane. The first flight took place on 12 October. According to the report, "the overall performance of the seaplane and floats is satisfactory." But at the same time, it was determined that due to poor fit, one float is 10 mm higher than the other.

During the tests, it turned out that the data of the head machine approximately correspond to a prototype built in Moscow. The speed was the same, the rate of climb improved slightly, but the ceiling decreased to 3680 m.

The head of the Black Sea Air Force, Bergstrom, who tested this aircraft, wrote: “The MP-1 aircraft is a cultural aircraft ... it is easily piloted in the air, much better than the Savoy aircraft, it is sensitive to the actions of the pilot, and taxiing is difficult.” Indeed, the behavior of the MP-1 on the water left much to be desired. With a wind of more than 6 m/s and a wave of 0.5 - 0.6 m, the aircraft was poorly controlled on the water. The wooden propeller on the taxi was wet with splashes. Metal parts quickly rusted. Even with a wave of 0.5-0.7 m, the landing was accompanied by "leopards" (jumps) up to 3 m high. The floats were gradually filled with water through ill-fitting hatches of the necks. It turned out that the aircraft was not seaworthy and more suitable for rivers and lakes. But there it was not always possible to find a direct distance of 0.8 - 1.3 km, necessary for the MP-1 to take off.

The general conclusion from the tests was as follows: "The operation of MP1-M5 aircraft is possible only in the conditions of a river hydroaerodrome, with well-trained flight personnel."

Approximately the same results were obtained during the trial operation of the first serial MP-1 in the 53rd UAE, the 60th UAE and the School of Naval Pilots. The most favorable response was sent from the 53rd OAO, and the most negative one from the school; they considered that the MP-1 was too strict in piloting and was not suitable for training young pilots.

As a result, the UVVS concluded: "The MP-1 aircraft is considered a palliative and its operation is temporary ...".

Nevertheless, mass production of the MP-1 continued. A series of float machines were included in the total account of plant No. 31, so the first of them was called the 16th, followed by the 17th series of conventional P-1 on wheels and then two series of seaplanes - the 18th and 19th. The series included 10 hydroplanes.

Machines of the 18th series had the lower wings of the land version, in which only one span between the ribs was sheathed with plywood - near the fuselage. The rigidity of such a biplane box for a seaplane was insufficient. Pilot Remezyuk wrote in the test report of one of the machines of the 18th series: "The wings shook unnaturally, and the center section braces dangled like ropes." Further it was worse. The conclusion of the report states: "... the revealed deformations of the aircraft after 10 flights are so serious that they make the aircraft dangerous for flights." The wings needed to be reinforced.

This was done on the aircraft of the 19th series, which surrendered in December 1928. On these machines, the shoes of the center section mounting struts were reinforced and they began to cover with plywood two spans of the lower wing on each side. In addition, they introduced a solid putty of the fuselage plywood skin (previously only screws were putty), varnished all aluminum parts, introduced a new pilot's harness and a mechanical inertial starter with a removable crank. The float deck was now sheathed not with an overlap, but end-to-end with overlapping joints with copper tape. Bomb armament consisted of Der-7 bomb racks under the wing and an SBR-8 dropper. On the plane were one PV-1 machine gun and two Lewis, and 10 disks were taken to the latter. All this made the car 20 kg heavier, the empty weight of the aircraft was 1955 kg.

The production of the MP-1 in Taganrog continued until the end of 1929, with a total of 124 copies produced.

stormtroopers

In the 1920s, the concept of a “militant” was actively developed - a specialized attack aircraft for operations on the front line and in the near rear, designed to destroy enemy manpower with powerful machine-gun fire. A similar unarmored vehicle was going to be made on the basis of the R-1. The plan for 1926/27 provided for the creation of a "fixed battery installation" for it. Later they went further - it was proposed to create a mobile firing system controlled by a letnab.

In early 1927, the OSS began designing a simpler fixed version. On each side, under the lower wings, it was necessary to place one machine gun "Maxim A2" or "Maxim T3". To compensate for the weight of the installations, the number of underwing bomb racks was halved. Cartridges for machine guns on the wing decided to place in the drums. But in order to lay the tape with the required stock of 500 rounds of UVVS, a drum with a diameter of at least 450 mm was needed. Such "barrels" significantly worsened the aerodynamics of the aircraft. The leadership of the OSS turned to the UVVS for permission to limit the ammunition to 250 rounds per machine gun. This would allow the drums to be compressed to an acceptable diameter of 225 mm.

The mobile version also provided for the installation of two additional machine guns, but with the ability to deflect up and down by 15 °, to the right and left by 45 °. Letnab was supposed to control the movement of the trunks. How they were going to turn the machine-gun installations is unknown; in those years in our country there were neither electromechanical nor hydraulic turrets. Apparently, the development of both versions of the "action movie" in the OSS was stopped in 1928.

Perhaps this was due to the advent of a more successful design. In 1928, in the 5th air brigade in Kyiv, one machine gun was fixedly installed on the lower wings of the R-1, one machine gun on each side. Cartridge belts were placed in boxes inside the wing. New weapons were tested, including firing at the training ground. In 1929, additional PV-1s were installed on parts of the brigade's aircraft in a similar way; the weight of the machine gun mounts made it necessary to reduce the bomb load for these machines.

Another effective way to defeat infantry and cavalry was considered to be the use of a large number of small fragmentation bombs. But their suspension on the R-1 was limited by the number of locks on the beams of the bomb racks; when switching to small-caliber ammunition, the real bomb load decreased sharply, the aircraft could not fully use its carrying capacity. In 1926, GAZ-1 developed DER-10 cassettes, designed for 2-kg bombs. But they were not installed on serial R-1s.

For a long time there was a practice of equipping flight schools with obsolete and worn-out combat aircraft. When the production of the P-1 was established, the DH.9a, which had become unnecessary, began to be sent there. After a short operation in combat units, all R-1SPs were transferred to schools.

Later, they were joined by the worn-out P-1s of the first series, which were already considered unsuitable for combat. The farther, the more such machines entered flight schools and other educational institutions. A significant part of the weapons and equipment was already removed from them, sometimes the chassis was reinforced.

Since 1928, factories have been producing the R-1 variant specifically for training purposes. So, in February of that year, GAZ-1 made six vehicles without bomb weapons and with additional chassis braces for the Air Force Academy. On training machines, twin machine guns were never placed on turrets and ventral bomb racks; radio stations and cameras were found only on the machines of schools that trained pilot-observers.

Training R-1s met at various flying schools until the summer of 1935.

IMPACT FORCE OF THE AIR FORCE OF THE RKKA

R-1s began to enter the combat units of the Air Force in 1923. Their combat value was very low. Aircraft of the first series could only conduct visual reconnaissance. It was effective only from low altitudes. From a height of 1000 m or more, it was difficult for observers to determine what they were seeing below. Convoys were confused with artillery, it was generally impossible to determine which equipment was moving. Bombing, due to the lack of bomb racks and droppers, was conditionally designated by the launch of missiles. In some squadrons and detachments, bomb racks and droppers were made by hand, and cameras were mounted.

Aircraft with more or less full-fledged weapons began to arrive from factories by the end of 1925. So, under Leningrad, R-1 with a set of Bomb-1 arrived only in mid-July 1926. The lack of one or the other led to the fact that the machines were already understaffed in military units. Often in the same squadron there were P-1s with different weapons and equipment, not to mention instruments. At the same time, the units often changed the equipment and their location on the dashboard.

At first, there were many complaints about the low reliability and operational inconvenience of the aircraft's armament. Complaints were received from the units about excessive efforts on the levers of the bomb releasers, the tight movement of the turrets.

The P-1 was gradually replaced in flight schools by the Sopvichi and Arieita remaining from the Civil War, the later Italian Ansaldo and SVA, the English DH.4 and DH.9. Already in January 1926, the One and a half rack, Arieites and DH.4 were officially removed from service altogether.

R-2 (R-1SP), given the general shortage of aircraft in the Air Force, at first they tried to use them as combat ones. They, for example, were received by two separate detachments and one squadron in the Leningrad Military District. So, in September 1926, the 28th squadron on the R-2 participated in the maneuvers of the 4th cavalry division. She conducted reconnaissance, photographed and tried to correct artillery fire using AK-23 radios. The latter failed poorly - the AK-23 was too unreliable.

The R-1SP lasted in combat units for about a year - until the spring of 1927; then all of them were gradually sent to flight schools. So, in the Leningrad District in the 1st Corps Detachment on January 1, 1927, all P-1 SPs are already listed as spares; The 41st detachment was completely re-equipped by the end of spring.

In general, by the autumn of 1926, the R-1 had already spread throughout almost the entire territory of the country and became not only the most massive reconnaissance aircraft, but in general the most common aircraft of the Red Army Air Force. These machines constantly participated in various maneuvers.

Group R-1 supports the attack of tanks and infantry on the maneuvers of the Red Army

For example, on November 15, 1926, aviation participated in joint exercises with anti-aircraft artillery in the Kachi area. Returning to the place of permanent deployment in Kharkov, the R-1 group from the 24th squadron fell into an emergency situation. At the Pavlograd-Lozovaya stage, one of the aircraft caught fire in the air. Pilot V.V. Bubnov managed to make an emergency landing in a meadow near the Domakha farm, but because of the smoke on the run, the car buried itself in a haystack. The stack caught fire, the flames from it were transferred to the sheds located nearby. The peasants rushed to put out the flames, but the pilots did not let them near the haystack, fearing an explosion of the remaining gasoline in the aircraft's tanks. The police arrived at the scene and arrested the crew. R-1 completely burned down. The investigation showed that the cause of the accident was a fuel line leak: both mechanics, who were preparing the car for departure, were drunk ...

By the autumn of 1927, the R-1 fleet had reached a significant size for that time. As of October 1, there were 724 R-1s plus 116 R-1SPs. The arrival of new equipment made it possible to start writing off the R-1 of the first series. So, all aircraft produced in 1923 were decommissioned in 1928.

The crews learned to conduct visual and photographic reconnaissance. Letnab wrote the reports with a pencil on sheets from a notebook, put them in a pencil case and dropped them with a pennant somewhere closer to the command post. Messages from the ground, tied to a rope between two poles, were raised with a “cat” - a hook on a cable. Short phrases could also be coded using Popham banners, wide strips of white cloth laid on the ground in various ways.

Bombing was carried out one by one and in formation to drop bombs by the leader. They lined up in a column or bearing. They mainly used bombs of 8, 10, 16 and 32 kg, but from 1928 they began to use new AF-82 bombs. After dropping the bombs, it was supposed to make several visits to shell the enemy with machine guns.

The pilots receive a task from the commander of the detachment N.I. Andreeva, 1925

Here is a typical task for the R-1 crew during the exercises (July 1928, 25th detachment, Chita): reconnaissance of the location of the 75th cavalry regiment, an attack on it from a dive in three runs, then dropping the pennant at the positions of the 74th cavalry regiment and lifting reports "cat".

R-1 "Fighter of the cultural front" - a gift from the staff of the "Teacher's newspaper"

Visit of the 19th air detachment by the commander of the Siberian Military District Petin, Spassk, 1926

Major maneuvers of the Red Army took place in Ukraine and Belarus in August 1928. During these exercises, a group of five R-1s of the 28th squadron, led by the detachment commander Sergeyev, flew to "bomb" the Bakhmach station. At first, the pilots got lost, and instead of Bakhmach they tried to attack Konotop, but then the leader’s pilot realized the mistake. The group turned around and after a while passed safely over the target, firing flares. But on the way back, the detachment commander again began to stray. One P-1 broke away from the group and went on its own, but correctly and flew to the base. The rest were less fortunate. Two cars made forced landings: one successfully, and the second capoted. The commander with one wingman accidentally went to the airfield in Gomel when it was already dark. Sergeev immediately went to land, missed and landed on a wetland. The second pilot waited for a long time until the landing lights were turned on, burned all the gasoline and crashed into the hangar on landing. In general, the accident rate at these exercises turned out to be very high. Only forces brought in from the Leningrad District lost four P-1s and seven more were under repair.

Usually P-1s flew only during the day, but on August 28, 1928, during maneuvers near Gomel, two P-1s of the 16th detachment were released for night reconnaissance. They were supposed to land in Gomel, where a searchlight was placed at the airfield. One plane landed safely, the other rolled straight at the searchlight for a long time, then turned sharply to the side and crashed into the hangar.

Before departure, 19th squadron

By the end of autumn 1928, the number of R-1 and its variants in the Air Force reached a thousand. Imported DH.9 and DH.9a, as well as their Russian counterparts, were written off completely. Back in March, the UVVS ordered that these machines "... are subject to mandatory and immediate decommissioning."

The M-5 engines, like the Liberty, on the R-1 constantly suffered from overheating in the summer. To combat this, the side panels of the hood were temporarily removed. But that didn't help much. In the Caucasus, they tried to put an additional radiator from the MP-1 on the planes. But its effectiveness was low - it was partially obscured by the hood. In Central Asia, radiators from the R-1SP were used, which were placed at the rear struts of the chassis. Radiators were taken from warehouses, and a set of parts for their fastening and connection to the cooling system was supplied by the Moscow plant No. 39.

Since 1927, much attention has been paid to air navigation. For training, the crews made long-distance flights in groups. On June 19, 1927, a "star flight" was organized. From different cities planes flew to Moscow. In total, 10 cars participated then. The scale was constantly growing, whole military units began to make flights in formation. So, in June 1929, the 26th squadron flew Rostov - Kharkov - Smolensk - Krasnogvardeysk in two groups. 15 cars out of 16 reached their destination safely.

In September of the same year a large number of P-1 was involved in major exercises in Belarus. They worked for both the Reds and the Blues. For the first time at these exercises, filming was carried out from an aircraft: on September 16, the cameraman filmed the approach of the “blue” units to Bobruisk.

Since 1928, MP-1s have been in service in the Black Sea (in the 55th and 65th detachments) and the Baltic (in the 51st, 66th, 87th detachments). They were used mainly for reconnaissance off the coast. In naval aviation, the MP-1 enjoyed a low reputation. They were considered quite difficult to pilot and unseaworthy. Even a little excitement made takeoff and landing a very dangerous business. But even with calm water, a long run sometimes led to trouble. The plane went beyond the safe zone and ran into obstacles. There were cases of collision with small vessels or buoys. In 1929, on the Black Sea, MR-1 took first place in terms of accidents - 14 cases.

These machines were also equipped with river units attached to military fleets. In the Dnieper flotilla, the 67th detachment was armed with MP-1 aircraft, in the Amur flotilla - the 68th.

On August 2, 1930, three R-1s took part in the landing of the world's first airborne assault near the Klochkovo farm near Voronezh. Paratroopers were thrown from a Goliath bomber, and single-engine biplanes delivered packages of weapons and ammunition, also dropped by parachutes.

The peak number of R-1 and its variants in the Air Force was reached at the beginning of 1931. As of January 1, there were 1517 R-1, 20 R-1SP, 79 R-1BMV and 71 MP-1.

On March 27, 1931, two R-1s from the 28th squadron were sent to photograph the structures of the Karelian fortified area in order to check the state of their disguise. But the young pilots got lost and removed the fortifications on the Finnish side of the border, near the Viisijoki River. The flight did not go unnoticed: the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a note of protest. And only then it became clear what our crews photographed. The command of the Air Force of the Leningrad District took a long time to decide what to do: either to punish for a mistake, or to reward for valuable information. Ultimately, they made the “Solomonic decision” to do neither.

By that time, the car had already been discontinued; it was replaced by a new R-5 biplane. First of all, they re-equipped light bomber squadrons, then long-range reconnaissance ones. R-1 was pushed back to military aviation and flight schools.

Already in January 1932, only 17 MP-1 remained in combat units, the rest were transferred to the School of Naval Pilots. They were replaced by S-62B flying boats bought in Italy.

The last R-1SPs were written off by the beginning of 1932, but more and more R-1s were transferred to schools. At the beginning of 1933, there were still 1297 R-1s, but 705 of them were in various flying and technical schools. Most of the rest were part of military aviation - in corps, artillery and motorized separate detachments. Almost all (61 out of 62) P-1 BMWs were concentrated at the School of Naval Pilots.

In June 1933, the last combat unit, the 67th River Detachment, handed over the MP-1.

In 1935, only a few machines remained in the Air Force, which were used as auxiliary ones. Thus, four R-1s remained for the entire Ukrainian military district. A year later they were gone.

Replacing the engine on the R-1, Far East, winter 1928/29

IN BATTLE AND CAMPAIGN

The first military campaign, in which R-1 participated, was in the North Caucasus. Chechens during the years of the Civil War caused a lot of anxiety to both whites and reds, as they slaughtered and robbed both of them. After the end of the war, a lot of effort had to be made in order to defeat numerous gangs. There were entire regions that were not controlled by the Soviet authorities. The forces of the OGPU units could not cope with the situation, and in the spring of 1924 units of the Red Banner Caucasian Army, supported by aviation, were put into action. The 3rd reconnaissance detachment was transferred to the Grozny region, which included three brand new P-1s of the Taganrog assembly. From September 1925, they began to fly to the villages occupied by the rebels.

Aircraft were supposed to put pressure on local population, from which they demanded the issuance of weapons and bandits. They dropped small fragmentation bombs and scattered leaflets. The targets were chosen by the pilots themselves, who were tasked with creating as much noise and panic as possible with minimal destruction. Aviation also conducted reconnaissance and carried out communications between the units of the Red Army.

In April 1928, a special purpose group was formed in Tashkent for operations against the Basmachi in Central Asia, which included seven R-1s. In the middle of the same month, the 30th squadron, also armed with R-1, was transferred to Tashkent from the Moscow region.

Since the beginning of May, these units have started sorties from the Tashauz airfield in Tajikistan against the gangs of the Junaid Khan group in the Karakum desert. Due to the significant bomb load compared to other types of vehicles operated in Central Asia, the P-1 was used mainly as light bombers.

No. 30 Squadron tried to apply the tactics that pilots were trained for the war in Europe. They flew in groups - links and detachments, carried out bombing from a dense formation. But this could bring success only if there were sufficiently large targets, while the Basmachi quickly learned to disperse and disguise themselves from aircraft.

The "special assignment" seemed to be due to experiments in the use of chemical weapons. There are few records of the group's activities. Perhaps the materials about her work are still classified. But there is circumstantial evidence. For example, in one of the emergency acts of the 30th squadron (about a forced landing while following the target - the camp of nomads) it is directly stated: "neither fragmentation nor chemical bombs exploded." The county's report on that year's summer campaign included a section on local effectiveness of chemical weapons, clearly written from experience.

The experience turned out to be negative. Small-caliber chemical ammunition, then available to the Red Army Air Force, was useless to use against small, rapidly moving groups of riders. The concentration of poisonous substances turned out to be so low that it was impossible even for a while to disable a person or a horse. It was only in settlements that it was possible to inflict damage on the enemy, but it was mainly civilians and livestock who suffered.

In general, the P-1 proved to be not the best in Central Asia. Great were the losses due to accidents; all-metal Yu-21 and R-3LD lived longer and broke less often. All R-1s were removed from the district by 1928.

The third important campaign in which the R-1 participated and the only one in which the MP-1 was used was the battles on the CER in the summer and autumn of 1929. All the aviation used there by the Soviet side, with the exception of one squadron, was armed with the R-1 (68 machines) and MP-1 (ten). On September 8, 1929, the troops of the Special Far Eastern Army (ODVA) from Primorye, supported by the 19th air squadron from the Grodekovo airfield, launched an offensive to the west, in the direction of the Pogranichnaya station. The Chinese suffered losses and withdrew.

On October 10, the Soviet Amur flotilla entered the mouth of the Sungari River. The bombing strike of the 40th squadron and the fire of the ships disabled a gunboat, three armed steamers (one of them only by aircraft) and a floating battery barge, captured later by our landing force. The landing of troops on the shore near Lahasusu was supported by the 68th detachment on the MP-1, based on the Amur floating base. He suppressed the Chinese battery near the village of Chichiha.

"Amur" accompanied the flotilla when moving up the river. His hydroplanes carried out reconnaissance and attacked the ships and coastal positions of the Chinese. In particular, on October 30, they stopped an attempt to block the fairway by flooding barges with a stone. The pilots sank one ship and a barge, and drove the rest up the river. At the same time, the gunboat Kiang-Hyn, which later sank on the Fugdin (Fujin) roadstead, also received significant damage. Through the remaining free passage, the ships of the Amur flotilla with the landing force on board went up the river and, with the support of aircraft, took Fugdin.

From west to east, the Trans-Baikal Group of Forces struck along the CER route; it included one squadron and two squadrons (31 R-1 in total), located at the Dauria airfield. On November 17, after an air raid, tanks cut the railway in the Manchuria-Jailanor section. The cavalry began to develop a breakthrough, aviation bombarded the clusters of Chinese. In one case, there was an embarrassment: instead of infantry and cavalry, herds of cattle, which were driven along the road by nomadic Mongols, fell under the bombs. Justifying themselves, the pilots explained that from a height, the sheep are very similar to infantry in gray overcoats, and cows and camels look like cavalry.

For the first time, interaction between aviation and motorized infantry took place near Jailanor. Stopping the attempt of the Chinese to break out of the encirclement, the pilots worked as beaters. With machine-gun fire, they drove the enemy onto a chain of AMO trucks with machine guns, which finally finished off the enemy.

At the same time, the Primorsky Group of Forces began to advance again from the west; she went to Mishanfu. Aviation worked very effectively on crossings across the Muren River, along which Chinese troops retreated. Dense concentrations of soldiers were an excellent target for both machine-gun fire and small fragmentation bombs. The latter were torn, hitting five to eight people at a time.

The onset of cold weather significantly complicated the work of aviation. Already at 15 degrees below zero, the instruments on the R-1 began to “lie”, air bubbles made the compass needle invisible. At 25 degrees, the clock on the dashboard stopped, the film in the camera stopped rewinding. Even earlier, a rubber pear froze, with the help of which the letnab released the shutter of the camera; she was simply stuffed into her pants for warming ...

Increased time to prepare aircraft for takeoff. A group of 12-14 cars took up to two hours. Water and oil were heated in "potters" (Goncharov's heaters) or field kitchens.

Planes bombed enemy airfields, warehouses, barracks, railway stations. After the capitulation of the garrison of Manchuria station, the pilots searched the steppe for fleeing enemy soldiers and directed the Red Army soldiers at them.

The entire period of hostilities, Chinese aviation did not show much activity; not a single air battle was recorded. The enemy had almost no anti-aircraft artillery; Chinese soldiers fought off the attacking aircraft only with the fire of rifles and machine guns.

The fighting went on until December 6 and ended with the complete surrender of the enemy. Soviet aviation lost four P-1s and two MP-1s; none of them were shot down by the Chinese. Three P-1s were burned by the crews themselves after forced landings (two of them by mistake, on their territory), one crashed in a training flight. Two MP-1s also made forced landings (moreover, one on floats - on land!). They burned one of them themselves, the second was smashed with an armored board by the Lenin monitor, which was filming the crew from the plane.

There were losses among the flight crew, one crew was captured by the Chinese; his subsequent fate remains unknown.

Although the R-1 was in service for about five more years, they no longer had a chance to fight in the ranks of the Red Army Air Force.

NOT ONLY ON YOUR OWN LAND

P-1 was quite actively exported to the countries of the East. Export vehicles were issued as "special purpose" orders. Such aircraft sometimes differed from those supplied by the Red Army Air Force in terms of configuration, sometimes not. The R-1M5 was offered for export at half the price of the R-3 with the same engine.

The first foreign country to receive the R-1 was Afghanistan. In September 1924, six aircraft were airlifted from Tashkent to Kabul across the Hindu Kush ridge. The flight was led by the commander of the Air Force of the Turkestan district P.Kh. Mezheraup. In March 1925, a group of pilots from the 1st reconnaissance squadron from Lipetsk was sent to Afghanistan with a new batch of aircraft. It was commanded by the commander of the detachment V.N. Zhdanov (later Lieutenant General, Commander of the 8th Air Army). Soviet pilots were given the task of supporting the troops of the Afghan ruler Amanullah Khan during the internecine war. They were listed as officers of the Afghan army and wore local uniforms. An aviation school was organized in Kabul, where local personnel of flight and technical personnel were trained. The teachers and instructors in it were Soviet specialists. In 1927, the last batch of seven R-1s arrived in Afghanistan.

P-1 of the Afghan Air Force, on the wing - Arabic script

Basically, our crews conducted reconnaissance, but occasionally also carried out bombing and stormed enemy units. In December 1928, Amanullah Khan used aviation against the rebels who approached Kabul. On December 17, aircraft began to bomb the enemy. This helped push the enemy away from the capital, but did not save Amanullah, who soon had to abdicate. Soviet pilots left the country, where they spent more than three years.

On January 15, 1929, the leader of the rebels, Khabibullah, declared himself emir. He got the entire fleet of Afghan aviation. Now the planes began to bomb and fire on the supporters of the deposed Amanullah. The third contender won the fight, Nadir Shah, who captured Kabul in October 1929. He already got the remnants - only a few machines capable of taking to the air. It is possible that the last R-1s lived in Afghanistan for another year or two.

At the end of 1924, the first R-1s were delivered to China by the government army of Sun Yat-sen. Already in the "First Eastern Campaign" in February-June 1925, three P-1s participated, providing intelligence and communications. In the second campaign, in October, only one aircraft was used, but it was already dropping bombs and leaflets on the Weizhou fortress.

October 27, 1925 GAZ-1 received an order for 18 "special purpose" aircraft. Later it turned out that in fact it includes three batches of cars. Three planes were intended for a flight to Beijing, and the rest - for export, and to two different countries. On November 4, a special representative arrived at the plant, delivering a package with requirements for the first export batch. They were instructed to apply blue circles with 12-ray white stars to the wings and fuselage. It immediately became clear that the cars would go to China. In addition to foreign identification marks, the export P-1 received additional radiators necessary for a hot climate. The packaging was also very meticulous.

Apparently, the planes were transported in boxes along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Transbaikalia, assembled near the border and then driven through the air. Not all planes sent to the Chinese reached their destination safely. One P-1 was destroyed on takeoff in Verkhneudinsk by pilot Novichkov. When landing in Altan-Bulak, the pilot Pyatnitsky broke the landing gear, propeller and radiator, but this car was repaired. Two R-1s collided in the air 100 km from Urga. One pilot was killed, the second and two more crew members were injured.

A group of Soviet pilots in Afghanistan at R-1

According to various sources, in June 1926 the Kuomintang People's Revolutionary Army had from six to 13 R-1s. Three vehicles with Soviet crews were sent to the Northern Campaign in July-November of that year. This detachment was commanded by V.L. Melnikov. At first, only one aircraft, piloted by Kravtsov, took part in the operations, then the second, piloted by Sergeyev, arrived. They bombed and stormed, conducted reconnaissance. 210 bombs were dropped on the Sheshan fortress. During the capture of the city of Nanchang, Sergeyev's crew bombed the enemy armored train several times, forcing it to cease fire.

On April 12, 1927, General Chiang Kai-shek carried out a coup d'etat, after which relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated sharply. The supply of aircraft and other weapons and military equipment from our country has ceased. However, the previously transferred vehicles continued to be used. For example, in April 1928 they participated in operations against the troops of General Zhang Zuoling. At the same time, one R-1 crashed on April 14 during reconnaissance.

The Soviet Union continued to deliver aircraft to some local rulers in northwest China, in particular, to Xinjiang and in the early 30s. Cars were distilled through the air. On December 25, 1931, during an intermediate landing in Urumqi, one P-1 broke the rear stretch on the right side, but the aircraft as a whole was not damaged. The entire batch of biplanes was delivered on December 23 to Vakhty. In total, about 30 R-1s were delivered to China.

The second part of the "special purpose" batch, ordered by GAZ-1 in the fall of 1925, was destined for Persia (Iran). These R-1s had bombers copied from the British model and adapters on synchronizers for British machine guns. On November 27, the Iranian representative Amin-zade arrived to look at these cars. He asked to remake the control knobs a little, put in second batteries, provide for a manual fuel pump at the letnab, and be sure to supply the turrets with forks for twin machine guns. The Iranian planes were not supposed to differ in color from the Soviet ones, but under the lower planes it was required to depict a flag with a lion and the letter "P".

Apparently, the cars were being driven along railway in Baku and collected there. In any case, it is known that in January 1926, Aminzade, during a test flight on the R-1 in Baku, crashed on takeoff due to a failure of the Liberty engine. The plane was completely destroyed, and the pilot escaped with bruises.

A year later, the Iranian military ministry negotiated the sale of R-1 reconnaissance aircraft, U-1 training aircraft and I-2bis fighters. In June 1927, Plant No. 1 was given the task of preparing three P-1s with fancy new markings and packing for their transportation by sea. These machines were manufactured and delivered.

In January 1928, another 10 aircraft were shipped to the Persians. Their equipment was different: half with Liberty engines, half with M-5, TOZ turrets were only on two cars, on the rest - only Maxim machine guns. This batch was delivered through the Caspian Sea. Deliveries continued further: on August 15, 1929, the Iranian representative Isa Khan Shtaudah received four more P-1s at plant No. 1.

Iranian aviation used part of the received aircraft to fight the rebels in different parts of the country.

P-1 was also delivered to Mongolia. In 1929, six new aircraft were handed over to the Mongols. One of them was soon smashed, and two were dismantled for parts in order to maintain the combat capability of the rest. On April 12, 1932, the Mongolian Air Force had three P-1s, three P-5s and one Junkers B-33 transport aircraft; all of them were part of the country's only squadron named after. Sukhbaatar. By the end of the year, the fleet was replenished with two U-2s and four R-1s.

In May-July 1932, two P-1s, along with one P-5, took part in operations against the rebels. The crews were mixed: Russian pilots and Mongolian letnabs. The planes conducted reconnaissance, scattered leaflets and provided communication between parts of the Mongolian army and volunteer detachments. Near the Kichigin-gol river, the scout discovered two large gangs, preparing from different sides to attack a mechanized detachment. The pilots dropped fragmentation bombs, and then supported the attack of the motorized infantry with machine-gun fire.

Two Iranian P-1s at an airfield in Nuristan province

Two P-1s of the Mongolian Air Force; U-2 stands on the left

There were several other cases of bombing, for example, on the monastery, where the rebel commanders were located. But their effectiveness was low, since the Mongolian letnabs did not have sufficient experience.

The enemy did not give the aviators much trouble, the "gray devil's bird" inspired him with superstitious horror. Only a large gang of Jamtso, a former military man, put up serious resistance. R-1 was met with volleys from rifles, and Jamtso taught his people to shoot with the necessary lead. Cars returned with holes. On the R-1 pilot Ivanov, a bullet pierced the radiator, he had to land at the location of the gang. The pilots managed to escape, and the bandits burned the plane. They fled, however, not far: they fell into the hands of another gang. The pilots were robbed, stripped, tied up and thrown into the water. Fortunately, Ivanov was badly tied up; he swam out himself, untied and pulled out the letnab. On the eleventh day, naked, hungry people met with Mongol scouts.

The last R-1s were operated in Mongolia as training aircraft until the mid-1930s.

EXPERIMENTS

What they just didn’t do with the R-1. In November 1929, the design department of the Air Force Research Institute was given the task of developing an air-to-air refueling system for the R-1. Its use would significantly increase the range of the aircraft. Since mid-December, a group of engineer A.K. Zapanovanny began designing the necessary equipment. The draft design was completed by April 5, 1930. From June 4, the production of equipment began in the workshops of the research institute. By July 7, everything was ready, but we had to wait for the arrival of two serial P-1 for rework.

One aircraft was converted into a refueling tanker, the second was equipped for refueling. On the tanker, 30 m of hose was wound on a drum mounted on a turret. By rotating the turret, it was possible to release or reel the hose. Machine guns, of course, were removed at the same time. A telephone wire was tied to the hose with a cloth to equalize the electrical potentials between the two machines. This wire had plugs at both ends, which were connected to sockets on airplanes. The hose was let out through a window in the floor, designed for the Hertz bombsight. To make the hose dangle less in the air, a weight was attached to its lower end - a weight. On both aircraft, tanks with a capacity of 32 liters were installed in the fuselage, disconnected from the gas system.

At first, aircraft crews trained by releasing and catching a rope with a load. The first refueling flight was made on 29 August. First they tried to pour water, then gasoline. The distance between the planes was about 12 m. The mechanic, who was sitting in the rear cockpit of the P-1 being refueled, caught the weight with his hands and filled the end of the hose into the tank neck. After the end of the overflow, he pulled it out, and the automatic valve on the hose blocked the line. They were afraid to retract the hose back - they simply dropped it before landing. A total of 26 flights were made before December 1. We came to the conclusion that the adopted method is dangerous for the refueling aircraft and its crew. A dangling weight could cause serious damage. In one case, it really broke through the upper plane, and then the hose fell under the screw, which cut off a three-meter piece from it.

The experience gained by the Zapanovanny group was later used in the development of refueling systems for other aircraft.

For the R-1, the first landing suspensions, special bags and boxes were developed. So, it was on it that the “cardboard air dropper” was tested - a cigar made of thick cardboard with a G-2 parachute container at one end. It was packed six rifles or zinc with 5000 rounds. An alternative was the G-3 cargo bag, also with a parachute. Three 76-mm shells or three DP light machine guns or three boxes with machine-gun belts could be placed in it. A set based on a type 3A cargo parachute had an even greater capacity. It included several types of cylindrical containers for various types of cargo weighing up to 60 kg. Four Lewis machine guns or six DPs, 64 grenades, seven 76-mm shells could enter one container. Tanks for water, gasoline and oil were provided. Two cylinders housed a disassembled dynamo-reactive (recoilless) gun: in one barrel, in the other a lock, tripod and sight. The R-1 could carry one bag or box on each side under the lower wing.

In 1930, it was proposed to convert the R-1 into an ambulance aircraft. But further general considerations on this score did not go.

It was on R-1 that the first device for laying telephone lines from the air was tested. The plane dropped a field telephone with a parachute and from a height of 100 m began to unwind the wire from the reel; at the end, the second apparatus was dropped from the car. On January 1, 1931, a 2.5 km long line was laid in this way.

The famous inventor P.I. Grokhovsky at the Air Force Research Institute designed and built a special version of the R-1 for training in aerial shooting, called the "Air Range". The converted aircraft carried a total of six linen sleeves and six plywood targets, which could be fired in different sequences. The total weight of the additional equipment was 84 kg. Four flights were made during the tests. The speed of the aircraft dropped by 40-50 km/h. In addition, it was considered that the structure was not strong enough, and the cables on which the targets were pulled were too short.

In January 1930, K-3 pouring devices were tested on the R-1 of the NIHP flight squad. The pilot M. Vasiliev flew. On January 7, the plane crashed at the Ukhtomskaya airfield near Moscow. In the same year, another device, the VAP-4 with a capacity of 80 liters, was adopted for the R-1. This weapon was intended to "destroy the enemy's manpower and infect the area with established gross production." But there is no information that VAP-4 entered combat units. Apparently, pouring devices on R-1 were hung only during experiments, in particular, at the Shikhany test site. There, on February 15, 1932, the 36th chemical detachment included three P-1s.

In November 1930, an unusual weapon was tested on the R-1: the “devices” of engineer Meisel. These were small unmanned aircraft without a motor, but with a propeller. The flywheel provided the energy to rotate the propeller, which, before launch, was spun up to 18,000 rpm with the help of a windmill and a step-up gearbox on the carrier aircraft. The spin-up took 5-6 minutes. The airframe of the apparatus was wooden, the skin was plywood. Meisel developed two families of "devices" - ZAM, capable of flying horizontally for some time, and PBM, flying with a decrease. The first were intended to destroy air targets, the second - ground. The flight range ranged from 2500 to 6000 m. The "instruments" did not have any guidance and control system - the designer relied on the properties of the flywheel-gyroscope. The warheads of these winged projectiles were different - fragmentation, high-explosive, incendiary and chemical. ZAM, for example, provided for undermining the flywheel, which created a wall of fragments in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bits rotation; so they were going to hit the airships. The weight of prototypes ZAM and PBM was approximately 50 kg, including about 20 kg of explosives.

Launches of winged projectiles were carried out from a specially equipped R-1 (“ZAMONOSES”) at a training ground near Evpatoria. The plane raised one "instrument". The famous test pilot A. Zalevsky flew. He released about a dozen ZAM and PBM from different heights. Handicraft workmanship has led to low accuracy. Two shells significantly deviated from the trajectory and fell near populated areas. One ZAM fell under the promotional windmill during the reset. As a result, the windmill exploded, but its blades managed to damage the mechanism, and the propeller of the projectile did not turn on.

In the future, various variants of ZAM and PBM were tested on R-5 aircraft, but they could not bring them to the characteristics required by the task.

On the R-1 in July 1930, a 76-mm dynamo-active (recoilless) cannon APK-1 designed by Kurchevsky was tested. She was placed on the lower wing. Near the muzzle there was a magazine for 10 shells. Reloading was carried out by a cable from the cab. They did not dare to lift the car into the air, they fired on the ground - and they did the right thing. After the first shot, the canvas on the stabilizer and fuselage burst, after the second, the stabilizer strut split, its rib cracked, and the elevator was damaged.

R-1 was the first Soviet aircraft equipped with a turbocharged engine. For the first time, the purchase of a turbocharger for the Liberty abroad and testing it on the R-1 was discussed for the first time back in May 1925. In November 1926, at the Ikar plant, engineer I.I. Vinogradov developed the first domestic project of a turbocharger for the M-5. But he remained on paper; it is doubtful that the Soviet industry in those years could produce such a device. The first sample came to us from abroad. In 1935, a General Electric turbocharger bought in the USA was installed on one machine at the Air Force Research Institute. The supercharger was intended for the Liberty and fitting it to the M-5 was not a particular problem. Employees of the Air Force Research Institute and CIAM participated in this work, and it was led by military engineer Pavlyuchuk.

On the beams of the bomb racks under the lower wing - gasoline tanks dropped with parachutes, July 1932

Under the fuselage of the R-1 is a "cargo parachute" (a cargo container dropped with a parachute) designed by Blagin

The turbocharger was attached to the sub-frame. The fuselage skin at the exhaust pipes was covered with a steel sheet with an asbestos gasket. I also had to make changes to the bonnet. The weight of the power plant has increased by 60 kg.

The first flight of the R-1 with a turbocharger took place on July 23, 1935. Pilot Kaverin piloted the car, and Pavlyuchuk was sitting in the cockpit. After landing, the pilot turned off the ignition, but the engine did not stop. They tried to turn on the ignition again - a fire started in the supercharger; but when Kaverin added momentum, the fire went out.

In further flights, such troubles were not encountered. Only excessive emission of oil from the turbocharger bearings was revealed. In total, up to October 21, pilots Kaverin, Uronichev and Dolgov made 17 flights with various letnabs. The experience of acquaintance with the American device was later used in the development of the first domestic turbochargers.

IN CIVIL AVIATION

At the end of the 1920s, a number of R-1s were transferred to civil aviation. All weapons and military equipment were removed from them and used as training and postal ones under the designation P-1. For the first time, these planes were used to transport matrices of the Pravda newspaper to other cities. By order of the head of the Air Force on May 15, 1931, 55 R-1s with BMW IV engines were to be transferred to civil aviation, but not all of them could fly. In reality, apparently, if they gave it away, then no more than a dozen cars. The last mention of the civilian P-1 refers to 1932.

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4k. Training biplane P-IV-BIS (const. A. A. Porokhovshchikov). 1917 In the first years of Soviet power, training biplanes with a truss tail could be seen at the airfields. These aircraft were designed by Alexander Alexandrovich Porohovshchikov. In 1918, he passed the official test for the title of military pilot and voluntarily joined the First Petrograd Air Group. Then he served in the 3rd and 32nd squadrons, led the 16th aviation train and experimental workshops of the Air Force. Particularly successful was the P-IV-bis aircraft, designed for an 80 hp engine. back in 1917 and released in 1920. Porohovshchikov's planes did not have high speed and ceiling, but they were distinguished by their simplicity of design and low cost, they were very easy to pilot, which was the most important requirement for initial training machines.

6k. The first Soviet passenger aircraft AK-1 (constant V.L. Aleksandrov and V.V. Kalinin). Light multipurpose aircraft. The first flight was in 1924. The design of the AK-1 was wooden with little use of metal. The passenger cabin of a closed type, designed to accommodate two passengers, was located in the fuselage under the wing center section. When flying without a flight mechanic, another passenger could be placed in his place. The AK-1 aircraft was not mass-produced. Designed for a relatively low power engine, this aircraft was significantly inferior in its passenger capacity to the German Junkers Ju-13 and Dornier III aircraft, as well as the Fokker F-111 aircraft, which were operated in the mid-20s on Soviet airlines.

10k. Military (reconnaissance aircraft), mail and cargo aircraft R-3 (ANT-3) (const. A. N. Tupolev). 1925 R-3 became the first Soviet all-metal aircraft. Tests of the R-3 began in 1925, and from 1927 it began to be mass-produced. Production of the R-3 continued until 1929.

12k. Twin-engine all-metal bomber TB-1 (ANT-4) (const. A. N. Tupolev). The world's first serial all-metal heavy twin-engine bomber. The aircraft was designed and built in 1925. But it was not possible to immediately launch the aircraft into a series due to the lack of supplies of English engines and imported parts, which were on the prototype. It was serially built from the summer of 1929 to the beginning of 1932. In 1929, the crew of pilot S.A. Shestakov flew on the ANT-4 "Country of Soviets" aircraft on the route Moscow - New York. In 1934, pilot A.V. Lyapidevsky took part in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites on this plane. He made 29 search flights in a snowstorm and in bad weather, before on March 5, 1934, having discovered their camp, he landed on an ice floe and took out 12 people from there.

16k. Reconnaissance aircraft R-5 (designer N. N. Polikarpov). 1929 Multi-purpose single-engine aircraft. One of the most popular biplanes of the 1930s. It was built serially from 1930 to 1941. Participated in the rescue of the crew of the Chelyuskin icebreaker. During the Great Patriotic War was used as a night bomber, liaison and transport.

20k. Training and postal transport amphibious aircraft Sh-2 (constant V. B. Shavrov). 1930 First production amphibious aircraft. In total, 270 cars were produced in 1932-1934, after which their production ceased. The situation changed with the start of the Soviet-Finnish war, when it became clear that a small seaplane was needed for operational communications among the troops, and the removal of the wounded. In this regard, it was decided to return the decommissioned Sh-2s to service.

The first Soviet jet passenger liners for a long time could not get rid of the "childhood illnesses" inherent in their type of aviation. Therefore, their accident rate turned out to be unprecedented in comparison with this indicator for other Soviet aircraft. In total, as a result of accidents, 18% of total number produced by Tu-104.

Tu-104

The Tu-104 made its first flight in 1955, and since 1956 it has been on regular flights. Tu-104 became the pride of the USSR. His demonstration flights to London and New York made a splash. At that time, it was the only jet passenger aircraft in the world, since the British De Havilland Comet were taken off the lines after a series of disasters, and the American Boeing 707s were just about to go into operation.

Jet planes have made a breakthrough in aviation. So, the speed of their flight was twice that of piston passenger aircraft: (instead of 350-400 km / h - 750-800 km / h), and the range of non-stop flight increased from 1500-2000 km to 3000-3500 km. But, as you know, you have to pay for everything, sometimes too expensive.

The first mysterious crash of the Tu-104 occurred on August 15, 1958 near Khabarovsk. For some unknown reason, the plane left the train, went into a tailspin and crashed into the ground. The conclusion of the commission of inquiry stated that at high altitude the liner was picked up by an ascending air flow, lost speed and control and began to dive. There were no conclusions. Everything was repeated when, on October 17, 1958, another Tu-104 crashed in Chuvashia, flying from Beijing to Moscow.

After the last intermediate landing in Omsk, the Tu-104 flew almost to Moscow, but here the dispatchers refused to land due to difficult weather conditions. The same unfavorable conditions were at the alternate airfield in Gorky. The crew of the aircraft made a U-turn and headed to Sverdlovsk (the airport in Kazan at that time could not receive the Tu-104 due to the short runway). Over Chuvashia, the liner, flying at an altitude of 10 km, was picked up and thrown by a turbulent current to a height of 13 km, where the engine power dropped sharply, and the plane fell into a dive, from which it did not come out.

The causes of the crash this time would have remained hypothetical if the crew commander G.D. Kuznetsov, being calm in the face of imminent death, would not have reported on the radio all the circumstances of the accident (there were no black boxes at that time). This catastrophe was the impetus for making technical improvements to the design of the elevators, as well as restrictions for the Tu-104 in flight altitude.

In 1960, the production of the Tu-104 was discontinued due to the transition to the production of more advanced aircraft. However, they served in civil aviation until 1979, when, after the disaster at Vnukovo, caused by the human factor, they were finally withdrawn from the civil air fleet. Nevertheless, it continued to be used as a military service aircraft.

On February 7, 1981, a disaster occurred near Leningrad, which put an end to the operation of the Tu-104. After takeoff from Pulkovo, the plane crashed, on which, after staff exercises in Leningrad, the command of the Pacific Fleet was returning to Vladivostok. 50 people were killed, including the commander of the fleet, Admiral E.N. Spiridonov and 15 more admirals and generals. The Pacific Fleet was completely decapitated. The commission found that the causes of the accident were incorrect cargo alignment and incorrect actions of the crew, that is, the human factor.

The crew was blamed for most of the tragedies that happened to the Tu-104 in the 1960s and 1970s. However, it was found that more than a third (35%) of them occurred due to equipment failure. The Tu-104 turned out to be the most dangerous Soviet civilian aircraft, claiming a total of 1140 lives (although more people, although it has been in use for much longer). However, the Tu-104 was still better than its English predecessor, the De Haviland Comet, in total, 23% of the fleet of these vehicles was lost. Moreover, most of the crashes of the first English jet airliner occurred because the planes simply fell apart in the air to pieces.

Tu-124

Tu-124 became the modernization of the Tu-104. While retaining its layout while being smaller, it was for the first time powered by the economical bypass turbojet engines that have been placed on all jet aircraft since then.

The Tu-124 became famous at first for an emergency landing on the surface of the Neva on August 21, 1963. Luckily, everything went well that time. On September 2, 1970, a Tu-124 flying Rostov-Vilnius, for some unknown reason, left the train and crashed into the ground near Dnepropetrovsk. On December 16, 1973, a Tu-124 flying from Vilnius to Moscow went into a steep dive and crashed near Volokolamsk. On January 3, 1976, shortly after takeoff from Vnukovo, a Tu-124 crashed en route to Minsk. In all cases, the reason was the failure of the equipment.

The sad crowning achievement of the Tu-124 operation was the death of the aircraft on August 29, 1979 near Kirsanov, Tambov Region, when the liner went into a tailspin and fell apart in the air due to overload. After that, this model was finally banned. In total, 312 people died in Tu-124 accidents, and the total share of lost aircraft was 9%.

An-10

An-10 is the first passenger turboprop airliner of the Soviet civil air fleet. Its cargo analogue An-12 is still flying. The passenger plane suffered a less enviable fate.

An-10 has long been considered the most spacious aircraft of Aeroflot. Even after the appearance of the Tu-114, he remained so on medium-range lines. He needed runway strip shorter than for other Soviet aircraft. Hence its popularity and widespread use. Over time, naturally, the wear of these liners increased.

A feature of the disasters that led to the removal of the An-10 from the lines was that these aircraft began to fall apart in the air, and the wings were torn off first of all. As it turned out later, the wing mount was really the weak point of these aircraft. It was the nature of the disasters that occurred with the An-10 that gave rise to the opinion that this model is extremely dangerous. In fairness, it should be said that only five An-10s with passengers crashed during the entire period of operation of this liner.

The causes of the first two disasters that happened at the Lviv airport in the winter of 1959-1960 were identical: icing with fully extended flaps. This, most likely, testifies to the human factor, especially since never anywhere else similar situation did not repeat. In 1962, an An-10 crashed into a mountain in the air near Sochi due to a controller error. After that, there were no accidents for 10 years. But in 1972, two identical disasters - near Lugansk and near Kharkov (122 people died in the latter) - put an end to the flights of this liner.

One of the main attractions of Ulyanovsk, although not as widely known as the Lenin and Goncharov places, is, of course, the leading branch museum of civil aviation, containing a number of unique exhibits. A feature of the museum is the fact that almost all exhibits aircraft arrived here on their own.

The Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation Museum is located near the city's airport. It consists of four halls with exhibits that fully illustrate the history of aviation, starting from the period civil war and up to our times. The museum belongs to the higher aviation school of the city of Ulyanovsk, where cadets study and study the history of civil aviation. The museum fund is simply huge, numbering more than nine thousand exhibits, among which there is a considerable number of originals, preserved in a single copy and representing truly unique things!

Let's start with the first Soviet passenger aircraft AK-1

The aircraft was built in a single copy in November 1923 with funds contributed by the Latvian riflemen to the fund for the construction of the Soviet air fleet

The aircraft handed over to the Dobrolet company was operated on the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow-Kazan airlines. Accommodates three passengers

The museum displays a replica of the aircraft, made in 1986. The only replica, all other objects of the museum are absolutely authentic

ANT-4 (TB-1). The world's first heavy all-metal twin-engine bomber

In 1929, such an aircraft flew from Moscow to New York.

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In 1934, TB-1 participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskin steamship expedition.

The museum presents the only surviving ANT-4 out of 212 produced

U-2, one of the most massive aircraft in the world. Start of operation - 1929

Yak-12, 1946. A large number of these aircraft remain in service to this day.

Yak-40, 1966

The world's first jet passenger aircraft for local airlines

Yak-42. Medium-haul passenger aircraft, 1975

Legendary "Kukuruznik" An-2. More than 2,000 of these aircraft are currently in operation worldwide, many of them have been flying for more than 40 years.

An-14 "Bee". Developed to replace the An-2, but could not replace it

An-24, 1962. Turboprop passenger aircraft for short and medium haul lines

Let's move on to the Tu family. Tu-104, 1955. The first Soviet jet passenger aircraft

Between 1956 and 1958, the Tu-104 was the only operating jet airliner in the world.

It was with the advent of the Tu-104 that special vehicles, self-propelled ladders began to be introduced, the now-familiar ticketing and baggage check-in systems began to work at airports, buses for passengers appeared, and the current standard of on-board service was first introduced.

Passengers began to be provided with hot meals and soft drinks, flight attendants began to conduct mandatory safety briefings before departure, etc.

Already in 1956-57, the Tu-104 was flying from Vnukovo to London, Budapest, Copenhagen, Beijing, Brussels, Ottawa, Delhi, Prague, etc.

The appearance of the Tu-104 allowed the USSR to reach the international level of air transportation as soon as possible.

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Tu-114. The world's largest and fastest turboprop passenger aircraft. Flew to USA, Cuba, Japan

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The fuselage has two decks connected by a staircase, on the lower of which there are two luggage compartments, a crew rest room and a kitchen, and on the upper deck there is a passenger cabin. The kitchen is equipped with a lift for serving dishes to the salon, initially the crew included a chef

This aircraft was released the penultimate of all Tu-114s (in 1964) and is one of three surviving examples of this type of aircraft.

Tu-116, 1958

A passenger aircraft specially converted from a Tu-95 bomber for long-range flights by the leadership of the USSR, built in case of an unforeseen delay in the production of the first Tu-114

It had a pressurized passenger cabin-capsule with portholes built into a slightly converted bomber fuselage, a built-in gangway, including two cabins for 20 people, a kitchen, a toilet, an office space

In total, two copies were built, only one has survived to this day.

Tu-124, 1962

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Tu-124 is actually a smaller copy of the previously developed Tu-104, and both types are similar in appearance, but differ in size, as well as the design of some units

The fate of the Tu-124 was decisively influenced by Khrushchev's instructions to transfer engines to tail section aircraft, like the French Caravel he saw. As a result, the large-scale production of the aircraft that had unfolded was discontinued in favor of its deep modification of the Tu-134

Tu-134. One of the most massive passenger aircraft assembled in the Soviet Union

A total of 852 aircraft were built, 130 of which are still in service.

The pearl of the exposition is the world's first supersonic airliner Tu-144

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June 3, 1973 Tu-144 No. 77102 crashed during a demonstration flight at the air show in Le Bourget. Nevertheless, the Tu-144 began to make regular flights on the route Moscow - Alma-Ata

A ticket for this plane cost 68 rubles, while a ticket to Alma-Ata for a regular subsonic plane cost 48 rubles.

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After the second crash of the Tu-144 in a test flight on May 23, 1978, just seven months after the start of commercial operation, Aeroflot stopped supersonic passenger flights.

Of the 16 Tu-144s produced, only two aircraft were engaged in the transportation of passengers on regular routes Moscow - Alma-Ata - these are the hundred and forty-fourth ones under Nos. 77109 and 77110, and only one of them has survived, and it is exhibited in the museum.

Also, this aircraft flew to the international air show in Le Bourget in 1977. At the moment, it is the most complete of all the surviving Tu-144s.

The aircraft is equipped with original engines NK-144A

According to the museum staff, the aircraft cabin is in perfect condition.

The most massive Soviet jet passenger aircraft Tu-154

Let's move on to the Il family. IL-14, 1950

Short-haul twin-engine aircraft designed to replace the obsolete Li-2 and Il-12

In total, more than 3500 aircraft were produced

On this moment only one Il-14 aircraft is in airworthiness condition in Russia, repaired by enthusiasts from St. Petersburg

IL-18. The first Soviet turboprop liner that made its first flight six months before the Tu-114

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IL-28. The first Soviet jet front bomber, carrier of tactical nuclear weapons

IL-62. The first Soviet jet intercontinental passenger aircraft

The first flight was made in 1963. Mass-produced in 1966-1995

A total of 289 aircraft were produced. A third of all cars produced were exported to socialist countries, primarily to Cuba.

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For several decades, the IL-62 served and serves as a government ("board number 1") - in the USSR, Russian Federation and Ukraine

To date, there are no aircraft of this type left in commercial operation in Russia; they fly only in the Air Force, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the special flight squad "Russia"

IL-86 - the first and most massive Soviet / Russian passenger wide-body aircraft

The need for such an aircraft arose in the USSR in 1967, when Aeroflot developed requirements for an aircraft with 350 seats.

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Four aircraft were built in the variant of the Il-87 air command post to control the armed forces in the event of a nuclear conflict

In Soviet times, the main purpose of the Il-86 was domestic regular flights of medium length, in the post-Soviet era, a roomy car began to be used for charter flights to popular resorts

The mass write-off and decommissioning of this type of airliners began in 2001. The reason was, among other things, noise restrictions introduced in the EU, which prevented the Il-86 from flying to most airports in Europe

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MiG-25 - Soviet supersonic high-altitude fighter-interceptor of the third generation

The world's first serial fighter to reach speeds of 3,000 km/h. Multi-purpose aircraft capable of solving both reconnaissance and fighter missions

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Czechoslovak L-29 "Dolphin". The most massive jet trainer in the world

Another copy from Czechoslovakia - L-410 "Turbolet". The first post-war aircraft of foreign production, which entered the Soviet air routes

Polish M-15 "Belfegor". The world's only jet agricultural aircraft

Designed and produced in Poland in the 1970s by order of the USSR

For its strange appearance, it was called "Belphegor" - a demon

Mi-1 is a multipurpose helicopter developed in the late 1940s.

Serial production was carried out in 1954-1960, a total of 2680 machines were built.

Mi-2, also in the coloring of the traffic police

It is widely used to perform many civil and military tasks. Before the end of production in 1992, over 5400 units were built. Even now, the Mi-2 takes part in tenders, competing with its successors Ka-226 and Ansat

Mi-4. The first military transport helicopter of the armed forces of the USSR

In 1950-1970 it was the main transport and landing helicopter of the Warsaw Pact countries

Mi-6 - heavy multipurpose helicopter

It has been built since 1959 at the Rostov Helicopter Plant in both military and civilian versions. In 1964-1978 it was exported

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Helicopter Mi-6 - the most lifting at that time

The museum also presents various options for flight recorders, the so-called. "black boxes"

As you can see, the "black boxes" are actually orange

In general, the museum is excellent. Despite the fact that some aircraft do not look very presentable, they are gradually being painted and soon, one must think, everyone will look good enough. And the museum staff, mostly made up of former pilots, is very friendly and talkative.