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When the jet passenger plane was created. Jet aviation was created by the USSR itself. and what !!! History of jet aircraft

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

Joining the "jet" club

"The era of propeller-driven airplanes should be followed by the era of jet airplanes ..." - these words of the founder of jet technology, KE Tsiolkovsky, began to be embodied in the mid-1930s of the twentieth century.

By this time, it became clear that a further significant increase in aircraft flight speed due to an increase in the power of piston engines and a more perfect aerodynamic shape is practically impossible. The aircraft had to be equipped with motors, the power of which could not be increased without an excessive increase in the mass of the engine. So, to increase the flight speed of a fighter from 650 to 1000 km / h, it was necessary to increase the power of the piston engine 6 (!) Times.

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


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

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

In the USSR, however, practical work on the "jet" theme was carried out mainly in the direction of liquid-propellant rocket engines. The founder of rocket propulsion in the USSR was V.P. Glushko. In 1930, then an employee of the Gas Dynamic Laboratory (GDL) in Leningrad, which at that time was the only design bureau in the world to develop solid-propellant missiles, he created the first domestic LPRE ORM-1. And in Moscow in 1931-1933. F. L. Tsander, a scientist and designer of the Jet Propulsion Research Group (GIRD), developed the OR-1 and OR-2 LPRE.

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


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

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

But the wave of mass repressions that unfolded in the army after the arrest of Tukhachevsky reached the RNII. There a counterrevolutionary Trotskyist organization was "exposed", and its "members" IT Kleimenov, G.E. Langemak were shot, and Glushko and Korolev were sentenced to 8 years in camps.

These events slowed down the development of jet technology in the USSR and allowed European designers to get ahead. On June 30, 1939, the German pilot Erich Varzitz took off the world's first jet aircraft with a liquid-propellant engine designed by Helmut Walter "Heinkel" He-176, reaching a speed of 700 km / h, and two months later, the world's first jet aircraft with a turbojet engine " Heinkel "He-178, equipped with the engine of Hans von Ohain," HeS-3 B "with a thrust of 510 kg and a speed of 750 km / h. A year later, in August 1940, the Italian Caproni-Campini N1 took off, and in May 1941 the British Gloucester Pioneer E.28 / 29 took off with the Whittle W-1 turbojet engine designed by Frank Whittle.

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


But still, although the massive repressions in the USSR caused significant damage, they could not stop all the work on such an obvious reactive topic that Korolev had begun. In 1938 RNII was renamed to NII-3, now the "royal" rocket plane "218-1" began to be designated "RP-318-1". New leading designers, engineers A. Shcherbakov and A. Pallo replaced the ORM-65 liquid-propellant engine of the "enemy of the people" V. P. Glushko with the nitric-acid-kerosene engine "RDA-1-150" designed by L. S. Dushkin.

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

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

"Close fighter"

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

The massive Luftwaffe raids on British cities and the absence in the Soviet Union of a sufficient number of radar stations revealed the need to create a fighter-interceptor to cover especially important objects, on the project of which young engineers A. Ya.Bereznyak and A.M. Isaev began to work in the spring of 1941 from the design bureau of designer V.F.Bolkhovitinov. The concept of their rocket interceptor with a Dushkin engine or a "close fighter" was based on Korolev's proposal put forward back in 1938.

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

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

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

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


In order to reduce the time for creating an interceptor, at the request of the Deputy People's Commissar of the Aviation Industry for Experimental Aircraft Construction A.S. Yakovlev, the glider of the BI aircraft was examined in a full-scale TsAGI wind tunnel, and at the airfield test pilot BN Kudrin began jogging and approaching in tow ... We had to tinker a lot with the development of the power plant, since nitric acid corroded tanks and wiring and had a harmful effect on humans.

However, all work was interrupted due to the evacuation of the design bureau to the Urals in the village of Belimbay in October 1941. There, in order to debug the operation of the liquid-propellant engine systems, a ground stand was mounted - the BI fuselage with a combustion chamber, tanks and pipelines. By the spring of 1942, the ground test program was completed. Soon Glushko, released from prison, got acquainted with the design of the aircraft and the test bench.

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

The morning of May 15, 1942 forever entered the history of Russian cosmonautics and aviation, with the takeoff from the ground of the first Soviet aircraft with a liquid-propellant jet engine. The flight, which lasted 3 minutes 9 seconds at a speed of 400 km / h and a climb rate of 23 m / s, made a strong impression on everyone present. This is how Bolkhovitinov recalled it in 1962: “For us, standing on the ground, this take-off was unusual. With an unusually fast gaining speed, the plane took off from the ground in 10 seconds and disappeared from sight in 30 seconds. Only the flame of the engine spoke of where he was. Several minutes passed in this way. Frankly, my veins were shaking. "

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

A day after the tests, a solemn meeting and meeting were held in Bilimbay. A poster hung over the presidium table: "Greetings to Captain Bakhchivandzhi, the pilot who made a flight to a new one!"


Soon, the State Defense Committee decided to build a series of 20 BI-VS aircraft, where, in addition to two cannons, a cluster bomb was installed in front of the pilot's cockpit, which housed ten small anti-aircraft bombs weighing 2.5 kg each.

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

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

The catastrophe hurt the reputation of the Bolkhovitinov Design Bureau - all the unfinished BI-VS interceptors were destroyed. And although later in 1943-1944. a modification of the BI-7 was designed with ramjet engines at the wing ends, and in January 1945 pilot BN Kudrin performed the last two flights on the BI-1, all work on the aircraft was discontinued.

And yet the liquid-propellant engine

The concept of a rocket fighter was most successfully implemented in Germany, where since January 1939, in a special "Section L" of the firm "Messerschmitt", where Professor A. Lippisch and his staff moved from the German glider institute, work was underway on "Project X" - " on-site interceptor "Me-163" "Komet" with liquid-propellant rocket engine operating on a mixture of hydrazine, methanol and water. It was an aircraft of an unconventional "tailless" scheme, which, for the sake of maximum weight reduction, took off from a special trolley and landed on a ski extending from the fuselage. The first flight at maximum thrust was performed by test pilot Dietmar in August 1941, and already in October, for the first time in history, the mark of 1000 km / h was exceeded. It took more than two years of testing and development before the Me-163 was put into production. It became the first aircraft with a liquid-propellant rocket engine to take part in battles since May 1944. And although more than 300 interceptors were produced by February 1945, no more than 80 combat-ready aircraft were in service.

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

The leadership of the Soviet aviation industry in 1941-1943. was focused on the gross production of the maximum number of combat aircraft and the improvement of production samples and was not interested in the development of promising work on jet technology. Thus, the BI-1 disaster put an end to other projects of Soviet missile interceptors: Andrei Kostikov's 302, Roberto Bartini's R-114 and Korolev's RP. Here the mistrust that Stalin's deputy for experimental aircraft construction Yakovlev felt in jet technology, considering it a matter of a very distant future, played a role.

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

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

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

Korolev, who was released from prison, also contributed to this work. In 1945, for his participation in the development and testing of rocket launchers for combat aircraft "Pe-2" and "La-5 VI", he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.

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


In November 1945, the order to build RM-1 was signed by Minister A. I. Shakhurin, but ... in January 1946, the notorious 'aviation business' was launched, and Shakhurin was convicted, and the order to build RM- 1 "canceled by Yakovlev ...

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

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

They were the first

“… It’s scary to remember how little I knew and understood then. Today they say: "discoverers", "pioneers". And we walked in the dark and stuffed hefty bumps. No special literature, no technique, no well-established experiment. The stone age of jet aircraft. We were both complete burdocks! .. "- this is how Alexei Isaev recalled the creation of BI-1. Yes, indeed, because of their colossal fuel consumption, aircraft with liquid-propellant rocket engines did not take root in aviation, forever giving way to turbojets. But having made their first steps in aviation, liquid-propellant rocket engines have firmly taken their place in rocketry.

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


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

"... Without the flights of Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, perhaps there would have been no April 12, 1961". Who could have known that exactly 25 years later, on March 27, 1968, like Bakhchivandzhi at the age of 34, Gagarin would also die in a plane crash. They were really united by the main thing - they were the first.

Evgeny Muzrukov

There are pioneers in any business: what is completely customary today was once new. Probably, few people will be able to remember a flight on an airplane, from the windows of which the propeller was visible (nevertheless, in Europe, regional airlines often use turboprop aircraft). Turbojet engines today rule the world - apparently, nothing better has been invented at the moment, and hydrogen and atomic planes do not fly yet. Almost 80 years have passed since the appearance of the first efficient motor of this type.

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

Engineer Ernst Heinkel

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

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

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

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

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

Heinkel He 178

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

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

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

The first flight

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

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


The first independent flight ended without unnecessary pathos and sharp turns. Everything was ruined by a bird that got into the engine: the flame went off, but Varzits was able to safely land the car. The aircraft was also shown to representatives of the Ministry of Aviation. The flight lasted only 10 minutes, and it was pointless to use the He 178 in that state. This was the opinion of the special commission.

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

The Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke company continued to develop engines, which, in general, were the prospects for this type of aircraft. On March 30, 1941, the He 280 made its debut flight, but again failed to satisfy the commission's requests. It didn't help that he used kerosene instead of burning high-octane fuel like "classic" flying vehicles. Heinkel over and over again attempted to prove the superiority of his designs over competing aircraft. In speed races, the He 280 outperformed the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, but in vain. Only in 1942, after a demonstration battle between these two aircraft, the Ministry of Aviation recognized the promising nature of the He 280 - it turned out to be more maneuverable and faster.

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

After some time, participating in the competition of Nazi Germany Jägernotprogramm, Heinkel presented his "dream fighter" - He 162 Salamander. Today such a program would be called a "prototype competition" - few of the participants were able to go beyond the design stage. The planes on display are pure retro-futurism by today's standards. Ernst's brainchild looked to match them, but one of the prototypes was able to accelerate to an incredible 900 km / h. This could make it the fastest aircraft in World War II ...

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

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

April 18, 1941 - The first flight of the German aircraft Messerschmitt Me.262 took place, which later became the world's first serial jet aircraft and the world's first jet aircraft that participated in hostilities. Due to delays in the development of jet engines, a Jumo 210G piston engine was installed in this flight.

History does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, but if it were not for the indecision and shortsightedness of the leadership of the Third Reich, the Luftwaffe again, as in the first days of World War II, would have received a complete and unconditional advantage in the air.

In June 1945, Royal Air Force pilot Captain Eric Brown took off in a captured Me-262 from occupied Germany and headed for England. From his memoirs: “I was very excited because it was such an unexpected turn. Previously, every German plane flying over the English Channel was met by a barrage of fire from anti-aircraft guns. And now I was flying home in the most valuable German plane. This plane has a rather sinister appearance - it looks like a shark. And after takeoff, I realized how much trouble the German pilots could bring us in this magnificent car. Later I was part of a team of test pilots who tested the Messerschmitt jet at Fanborough. I did 568 mph (795 km / h) on it then, while our best fighter did 446 mph, which is a huge difference. It was a real quantum leap. The Me-262 could have changed the course of the war, but the Nazis had it too late. "

The Me-262 entered the world aviation history as the first serial combat jet fighter.

In 1938, the German Armaments Directorate assigned the Messerschmitt A.G. to develop a jet fighter, on which it was planned to install the latest BMW P 3302 turbojet engines. According to HwaA's plan, BMW engines were to go into mass production in 1940. By the end of 1941, the glider of the future fighter-interceptor was ready.
Everything was ready for testing, but constant BMW engine malfunctions forced the Messerschmitt designers to look for a replacement. It was the Jumo-004 turbojet engine from Junkers. After finalizing the design in the fall of 1942, the Me-262 took to the air.
Experimental flights showed excellent results - the maximum speed was close to 700 km / h. But the Minister of Armaments of Germany A. Speer decided that it was too early to start mass production. Thorough revision of the aircraft and its engines was required.
A year passed, the "childhood diseases" of the aircraft were eliminated, and Messerschmitt decided to invite the German ace, the hero of the Spanish war, Major General Adolph Galland to the test. After a series of flights on the modernized Me-262, he wrote a report to the commander of the Luftwaffe Goering. In his report, the German ace in enthusiastic tones proved the unconditional superiority of the newest jet interceptor over single-engine piston fighters.

Galland also suggested starting the immediate deployment of the serial production of the Me-262.

In early June 1943, at a meeting with the commander of the German Air Force Goering, it was decided to start mass production of the Me-262. At the factories of Messerschmitt A.G. preparations began for the assembly of the new aircraft, but in September Goering received an order to "freeze" this project. Messerschmitt urgently arrived in Berlin at the headquarters of the commander of the Luftwaffe and there he got acquainted with Hitler's order. The Fuehrer expressed bewilderment: "Why do we not get the Me-262 when the front needs hundreds of Me-109 fighters?"

Upon learning of Hitler's order to stop preparations for mass production, Adolf Galland wrote to the Fuehrer that the Luftwaffe needed a jet fighter like air. But Hitler had already decided everything - the German Air Force needed not an interceptor, but a jet attack bomber. The tactics of "Blitzkrieg" did not give the Fuehrer rest, and the idea of ​​a lightning attack with the support of "blitz stormtroopers" firmly stuck in Hitler's head.
In December 1943, Speer signed an order to begin development of a high-speed jet attack aircraft based on the Me-262 interceptor.
The Messerschmitt design office was given carte blanche, and funding for the project was restored in full. But the creators of the high-speed attack aircraft faced numerous problems. Due to massive Allied air raids on industrial centers in Germany, interruptions in the supply of components began. There was a lack of chromium and nickel, which were used to make the turbine blades of the Jumo-004B engine. As a result, the production of Junkers turbojet engines fell sharply. In April 1944, only 15 pre-production attack aircraft were assembled, which were transferred to a special test unit of the Luftwaffe, which was practicing the tactics of using new jet technology.
Only in June 1944, after the transfer of the production of the Jumo-004B engine to the underground plant Nordhausen, it became possible to start mass production of the Me-262.

In May 1944, Messerschmitt began developing bomb racks for the interceptor. A variant was developed with the installation of two 250-kg or one 500-kg bombs on the Me-262 fuselage. But in parallel with the attack bomber project, the designers, secretly from the Luftwaffe command, continued to refine the fighter project.
During the inspection, which took place in July 1944, it was found that work on the jet interceptor project was not curtailed. The Fuehrer was furious, and the result of this incident was Hitler's personal control over the Me-262 project. Any change in the design of the jet "Messerschmitt" from that moment could only be approved by Hitler.
In July 1944, the Kommando Nowotny unit was created under the command of the German ace Walter Novotny (258 enemy aircraft shot down). It was equipped with thirty Me-262, equipped with bomb racks.
The Novotny team was tasked with testing the attack aircraft in combat conditions. Novotny violated the order and used a jet plane as a fighter, in which he achieved considerable success. After a series of reports from the front on the successful use of the Me-262 as an interceptor in November, Goering decided to order the formation of a fighter unit with jet Messerschmitts. Also, the commander of the Luftwaffe was able to convince the Fuhrer to reconsider his opinion about the new aircraft. In December 1944, the Luftwaffe adopted about three hundred Me-262 fighters, and the attack aircraft production project was closed.

In the winter of 1944, "Messerschmitt A.G." felt an acute problem with obtaining the components necessary for the assembly of the Me-262. Allied bomber aircraft bombed German factories around the clock. In early January 1945, HWaA decided to disperse jet fighter production. Nodes for the Me-262 began to be assembled in one-story wooden buildings, hidden in the forests. The roofs of these mini-factories were covered with olive-colored paint, and it was difficult to spot the workshops from the air. One such plant produced the fuselage, another made the wings, the third made the final assembly. After that, the finished fighter took off into the air, using the impeccable German autobahns for takeoff.
The result of this innovation was 850 Me-262 turbojets, produced from January to April 1945.

In total, about 1900 Me-262s were built and eleven modifications were developed. Of particular interest is a two-seater night fighter-interceptor with a Neptune radar station in the forward fuselage. This concept of a two-seat jet fighter equipped with a powerful radar was repeated by the Americans in 1958, using the F-4 Phantom II.

In the fall of 1944, the first air battles between the Me-262 and Soviet fighters showed that the Messerschmitt was a formidable enemy. Its speed and climb time were incomparably higher than that of Russian aircraft. After a detailed analysis of the combat capabilities of the Me-262, the Soviet Air Force command ordered the pilots to open fire on the German jet fighter from the maximum distance and use an evasion maneuver.
Further instructions could have been adopted after testing the Messerschmitt, but such an opportunity presented itself only at the end of April 1945, after the capture of the German airfield.

The design of the Me-262 consisted of an all-metal cantilever low-wing aircraft. Two Jumo-004 turbojet engines were installed under the wings, on the outside of the landing gear. Armament consisted of four 30-mm MK-108 cannons mounted on the nose of the aircraft. Ammunition - 360 shells. Due to the dense layout of the cannon armament, excellent accuracy was provided when firing at enemy targets. Experiments were also carried out to install larger-caliber guns on the Me-262.
The jet Messerschmitt was very easy to manufacture. The maximum manufacturability of the units facilitated its assembly in the "forest factories".

With all the advantages, the Me-262 had incorrigible disadvantages:
Small motor resource of engines - only 9-10 hours of operation. After that, it was required to carry out a complete disassembly of the engine and replace the turbine blades.
The long takeoff run of the Me-262 made it vulnerable during takeoff and landing. Fw-190 fighter units were assigned to cover takeoff.
Extremely high requirements for aerodrome coverage. Due to the low-located engines, any object entering the Me-262's air intake caused a breakdown.

This is interesting: on August 18, 1946, at an aviation parade dedicated to the Air Fleet Day, an I-300 (MiG-9) fighter flew over the Tushino airfield. It was equipped with an RD-20 turbojet engine - an exact copy of the German Jumo-004B. Also at the parade was presented the Yak-15, equipped with a captured BMW-003 (later RD-10). It was the Yak-15 that became the first Soviet jet aircraft officially adopted by the Air Force, as well as the first jet fighter on which military pilots mastered aerobatics. The first serial Soviet jet fighters were created on the basis laid in the Me-262 back in 1938.

American soldiers inspect the captured German Me262A1aU4 jet fighter, Me-262A-1a U4 modification, with a 50mm VK5 cannon. It was intended as an interceptor for bombers. Not serially produced.

German jet fighter-bomber Messerschmitt Me-262A-2a "Sturmvogel" ("Petrel") from I / KG 51 at the airport. There are two 250-kg bombs on the ventral suspension of the aircraft.

Supersonic

Military

A-5 "Vigilent" (North American A-5 Vigilante) - the only supersonic deck bomber in the history of aviation.

Yak-141 (prototype) and F-35 Lightning II - supersonic carrier-based fighters.

Civil

Tu-144LL in flight

In the entire history of aviation, only two supersonic passenger airliners have been created.

  • USSR - Tu-144, first flight on December 31, 1968, the beginning of passenger traffic on November 1, 1977, June 1, 1978 decommissioned after another disaster. 16 were built, 2 were involved in the transportation of passengers, 55 flights were made, 3194 passengers were transported. On all flights, the crew commanders were test pilots from the Tupolev Design Bureau.
  • Great Britain, France - Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde, first flight March 2, 1969, commenced operation on January 21, 1976, decommissioned on November 26, 2003. 20 aircraft were built, 14 were actively operated, more than 3 million passengers were transported, the average flight time was 17,417 hours. One was lost in the crash on July 25, 2000, had a flight time of 11 989 hours with the largest of all aircraft - 23 397 (serial number 210, registration G-BOAD, located in the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum (English)).

Description of the design of the MiG-9 fighter

The MiG-9 is an all-metal single-seat fighter powered by two turbojet engines. It is made according to the classic design with a mid-wing and retractable tricycle landing gear.

The aircraft has a semi-monocoque fuselage with smooth working skin. In its bow there is an air intake, which is divided into two tunnels, each of which supplies air to one of the engines. The channels have an elliptical cross-section, they pass along the side parts of the fuselage, bypassing the cockpit on both sides.

The wing of the aircraft is trapezoidal with flaps and ailerons.

The tail unit of the MiG-9 is all-metal with a high-mounted stabilizer.

The cockpit is located in front of the fuselage, it is closed by a streamlined canopy, consisting of two parts. The front part, the visor, is fixed immovably, and the rear part slides back along three guides. On later modifications of the car, the visor is made of armored glass. In addition, front and rear armor plates are installed on the vehicle to protect the pilot, their thickness is 12 mm.

The MiG-9 has a retractable tricycle landing gear with a front wheel. The landing gear system is pneumatic.

The fighter was equipped with a power plant consisting of two RD-20 turbojet engines, which were nothing more than a copy of the German captured BMW-003 engines. Each of them could develop a thrust of 800 kgf. The engines of the first series (A-1) had a resource of only 10 hours, the resource of the A-2 series was increased to 50 hours, and the RD-20B engines could work for 75 hours. The power plant of the MiG-9 was launched using the Ridel starting motors.

The engines were installed in the lower part of the fuselage, the nozzles were adjustable, they could be set in four positions: "start", "takeoff", "flight" or "high-speed flight". The control of the nozzle cone was electrical.

To protect the body from hot gases, a special thermal shield was installed on the underside of the tail section, which was a corrugated sheet of heat-resistant steel.

The fuel was housed in ten tanks located in the wings and fuselage. Their total volume was 1595 liters. The fuel tanks were interconnected to ensure an even use of fuel, this made it possible to maintain the center of the aircraft during flight.

The MiG-9 was equipped with the RSI-6 radio station, the RPKO-10M radio compass, and the KP-14 oxygen apparatus. The aircraft received power from the captured LR-2000 generator, which was later replaced by the domestic GSK-1300.

The fighter's armament consisted of one 37-mm N-37 cannon with 40 rounds of ammunition and two 23-mm NS-23 cannons with 40 rounds of ammunition. Initially, it was planned to equip the plane with a more powerful, 57-mm, N-57 cannon, but later this idea was abandoned.

One of the main problems of the fighter was the ingress of powder gases into the engines, since the N-37 gun was installed on the partition between the two air intakes. On later modifications of the aircraft, gas pipes were installed on the H-37. Vehicles that were produced earlier were equipped with them already in combat units.

The first MiG-9 had a collimator sight, later it was replaced by an automatic rifle sight.

The main types at present

USSR / Russia

  • Tu-154. Passenger, 1968/1972, 935 built (69 lost), production is planned to be completed in 2010, is in the stage of decommissioning due to low fuel efficiency and high noise, the service life is possible to operate until 2015-16, decommissioned at Aeroflot on December 21, 2009 , after 38 years of service.
  • IL-76. Cargo, military transport, 1971/1974, 960 built (61 lost, 13 of them destroyed in hostilities), is currently being produced, updated versions are being designed. Up to 60 tons of cargo, up to 245 soldiers (various modifications).
  • Su-25. Sturmovik, 1975/1981, 1320 units, it is planned to operate until 2020 and further production.
  • Su-27. Multipurpose fighter, 4th generation. 1977/1984, built about 600 of the base type, modification of the Su-30 270 pcs. [ 2956 days]
  • Aero L-39 Albatros. The main training aircraft of the Warsaw Pact countries, Czechoslovakia, 1968/1972, produced until 1999, 2868 built.

Western countries

  • Boeing 737. Medium-haul passenger aircraft. Commissioned in 1968, built 6285 units, currently in production.

How a jet engine works

Rice. 1. Diagram of a turbojet (jet) engine. 1 - air inlet; 2 - compressor; 3 - combustion chamber; 4 - nozzle; 5 - turbine.

In a jet engine (Fig. 1), the air stream enters the engine, meets the compressor turbines rotating at high speed, which sucks in air from the external environment (using the built-in fan). Thus, two tasks are solved - primary air intake and cooling of the entire engine as a whole. The blades of the compressor turbines compress air by about 30 times or more and "push" it (pump) into the combustion chamber (a working fluid is generated), which is the main part of any jet engine. The combustion chamber also acts as a carburetor, mixing fuel with air. It can be, for example, a mixture of air with kerosene, as in a turbojet engine of a modern jet aircraft, or a mixture of liquid oxygen with alcohol, as in some liquid-propellant rocket engines, or some solid fuel for powder rockets. After the formation of the fuel-air mixture, it is ignited and energy is released in the form of heat, that is, only substances that, during a chemical reaction in the engine (combustion), release a lot of heat, and also form a large amount of gases, can serve as fuel for jet engines ...

In the process of ignition, significant heating of the mixture and surrounding parts occurs, as well as volumetric expansion. In fact, a jet engine uses a controlled explosion for propulsion. The combustion chamber of a jet engine is one of the hottest parts of it (the temperature in it reaches 2700 ° C), it must be constantly intensively cooled. The jet engine is equipped with a nozzle through which hot gases - products of fuel combustion in the engine - flow out of the engine at a high speed. In some engines, gases enter the nozzle immediately after the combustion chamber, for example, in rocket or ramjet engines. In turbojet engines, the gases after the combustion chamber first pass through a turbine, to which they give up some of their thermal energy to drive a compressor, which serves to compress air in front of the combustion chamber. But, one way or another, the nozzle is the last part of the engine - gases flow through it before leaving the engine. It forms a direct jet stream. Cold air is directed into the nozzle, which is forced by the compressor to cool the internal parts of the engine. The jet nozzle can be of various shapes and designs depending on the type of engine. If the outflow velocity must exceed the speed of sound, then the nozzle is given the shape of an expanding pipe or, first, converging and then expanding (Laval nozzle). Only in a pipe of this shape can the gas be accelerated to supersonic speeds, to step over the "sound barrier".

Depending on whether or not the environment is used during the operation of a jet engine, they are divided into two main classes - air-breathing engines (WFM) and rocket engines (RD). All WFDs - the working fluid of which is formed during the oxidation reaction of a combustible substance with atmospheric oxygen. Air coming from the atmosphere makes up the bulk of the WFD working fluid. Thus, an apparatus with a WFD carries an energy source (fuel) on board, and draws most of the working fluid from the environment. These include a turbojet engine (turbojet engine), a ramjet engine (ramjet engine), a pulsating jet engine (PuVRD), a hypersonic ramjet engine (scramjet engine). In contrast to the WFD, all the components of the working fluid of the taxiway are on board the vehicle equipped with the taxiway. The absence of a propeller interacting with the environment and the presence of all components of the working fluid on board the vehicle make the taxiway suitable for operation in space. There are also combined rocket engines, which are, as it were, a combination of both basic types.

How does a jet engine work

Figure 3 - Scheme of operation of a jet engine

Air from the surrounding space enters the intake of the fans, which feed it further on the blades of the turbocharger rotating at a very high speed. In this case, the incoming air performs 2 functions:

  • oxidizer for fuel combustion;
  • unit cooler.

In the turbocharger blades, the air is tightly compacted and under high pressure (from 3 MPa) is supplied to the fuel mixing chamber of the jet engine. Figure 3 shows that the combustion chamber is designed in such a way that the air is mixed in several stages - at the inlet and in the chamber itself. Fuel is also supplied here.

A well-mixed and sufficiently enriched mixture ignites, and as a result of combustion, thermal energy is generated with the release of a huge volume of gases. The latter drive the turbine of the hot part of the engine into rotation, the drive of which serves as a drive for the turbocharger.

In some models of jet engines, the turbines are not mounted at the outlet. For the most part, this version is used in the design and principle of operation of a rocket engine, where the combustion products after the chamber enter the outlet nozzles.

Leaving the hot stage, gases in all jet apparatus pass through nozzles. These elements differ in their designs for different models of jet units and represent a "pipe", which first narrows and increases in diameter towards the outlet of gases. Due to this design, the exhaust gases increase their speed to supersonic and generate a reactive force.

The combustion temperature in the "heart" of the jet unit reaches 2500 ° C, therefore, they are structurally demanding in terms of the constancy of cooling.

A brief history of the development of jet aircraft

The beginning of the history of jet aircraft in the world is considered to be 1910, when a Romanian designer and engineer named Anri Konada created an aircraft based on a piston engine. The difference from standard models was the use of a vane compressor, which set the machine in motion. In the post-war period, the designer began to assert especially actively that his apparatus was equipped with a jet engine, although initially he stated categorically the opposite.

Studying the design of A. Konada's first jet aircraft, several conclusions can be drawn. First, the design features of the car indicate that the engine in front and its exhaust gases would kill the pilot. The second development option could only be a fire on the plane. This is exactly what the designer was talking about, at the first launch the tail section was destroyed by fire.

As for the jet aircraft that were manufactured in the 1940s, they had a completely different design, with the engine and pilot's seat removed, and as a result, this increased safety. In places where the flame of the engines came into contact with the fuselage, a special heat-resistant steel was installed, which did not cause injury or damage to the hull.

In our time, there is hardly a single person left who does not know about jet planes and did not fly on them. But few people know what a difficult path engineers from all over the world had to go through to achieve such results. There are even fewer people who know exactly what modern jet aircraft are and how they work. Jet aircraft are advanced, high-powered passenger or military vessels powered by an air-jet engine. The main feature of a jet aircraft is its incredible speed, which favorably distinguishes the propulsion mechanism from the outdated propeller-driven one.

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

The first attempts to create a jet aircraft

The search for a more powerful and faster engine for the military, and in the future and civil aircraft began back in 1910. The rocket research of the past centuries was taken as a basis, which described in detail the use of powder boosters, which could significantly reduce the length of the afterburner and takeoff run. The chief designer was the Romanian engineer Anri Coanda, who created an aircraft based on a piston engine.

What differentiated the first jet aircraft in 1910 from the standard models of the time? The main difference was the presence of a vane compressor, which is responsible for setting the aircraft in motion. The Coanda airplane was the first, but a very unsuccessful attempt to create an airplane with a jet engine. In the course of further tests, the device burned out, which confirmed the inoperability of the structure.

Subsequent studies have identified possible reasons for the failure:

  1. Poor engine location. Due to the fact that it was located in the front of the structure, the danger to the pilot's life was very high, since the exhaust gases would simply not allow a person to breathe normally and would cause suffocation;
  2. The emitted flame hit directly on the tail of the airplane, which could lead to a fire in this area, fire and the fall of the aircraft.

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

Supplement italny information. An engineer from England can rightfully be called the discoverer of the jet engine.–Frank Whitl, who proposed the first ideas and received his patent for them at the end XIX century.

The beginning of the creation of aircraft in the USSR

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

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

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

Germany - the country of the first jet vehicles

The first jet aircraft were developed by German engineers. The creation of projects and production were carried out in secret in disguised factories located in deep forest thickets, so such a discovery came as a kind of surprise to the world. Hitler dreamed of becoming a world ruler, so he involved the best designers in Germany to create the most powerful weapons, including high-speed jet aircraft. There were, of course, both failures and successful projects.

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

This aircraft became the first in the world that successfully passed all the tests, took off freely and after that began to be mass-produced. Great "destroyer of the enemies of the third Reich "Had the following features:

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

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

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

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

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

  • The I-250, better known as the legendary MiG-13, is a fighter that AI Mikoyan worked on. The first flight was made in March 1945, at that time the car showed a record speed indicator, reaching 820 km / h;

  • A little later, namely in April 1945, for the first time, a jet plane took off into the sky, rising and supporting flight due to the air-jet motor-compressor and piston engine, which was located in the tail of the structure, P.O. Sukhoi "Su-5". Speed ​​indicators were no lower than those of its predecessor and exceeded 800 km / h;
  • The innovation of engineering and aircraft construction in 1945 was the RD-1 liquid-jet engine. For the first time it was used in the model of the aircraft designed by P.O. Sukhoi - "Su-7", which was also equipped with a piston engine, which performs the main pushing, driving function. G. Komarov became the tester of the new aircraft. In the first test, it was noted that the additional motor increased the average speed indicator by 115 km / h - this was a great achievement. Despite the good result, the RD-1 engine became a real problem for Soviet aircraft manufacturers. Similar aircraft equipped with this model of a liquid-jet engine - "Yak-3" and "La-7R", on which engineers S.A. Lavochkin and A.S. Yakovlev worked, crashed during testing due to constantly emerging failure of the motor;
  • After the end of the war and the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union got the German aircraft with jet engines "JUMO-004" and "BMW-003" as trophies. Then the designers realized that they were indeed several steps behind. Among the engineers, the motors were called "RD-10" and "RD-20"; on their basis, the first jet aircraft engines were created, on which A. M. Lyulka, A. A. Mikulin, V. Ya. Klimov worked. At the same time, P.O. Sukhoi was developing a powerful twin-engined aircraft equipped with two RD-10 engines located directly under the wings of the aircraft. The interceptor jet was named SU-9. The disadvantage of this arrangement of motors can be considered a strong drag during flight. The advantages are excellent access to the engines, making it easy to get to the mechanism and fix the breakdown. The design feature of this model of the aircraft was the presence of starting powder boosters for take-off, brake parachutes for landing, guided missiles of the "water-to-air" type and a booster-amplifier, which facilitates the control process and increases the maneuverability of the apparatus. The first flight of the "Su-9" was carried out in November 1946, but it never came to mass production;

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

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

Interesting f Act. In fact, the SU-9 jet was hard call it a simple fighter. TO the designers among themselves called it "heavy", because the cannon and bomb armament of the aircraft was at a fairly high level. It is generally accepted that the SU-9 was the prototype of modern fighter-bombers. For all the time, approximately 1100 pieces of equipment were manufactured, while it was not exported. More than once the legendary "Sukhoi Ninth" was used to intercept a reconnaissance aircraft in the air. new aircraft. V the first this happened in 1960, when airplanes burst into the airspace of the USSR " LockheedU -2 ".

First world prototypes

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

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

  • GlosterMeteor - a jet fighter manufactured in Great Britain in 1943; played a significant role during the Second World War, and after its end served as an interceptor for German V-1 cruise missiles;
  • The Lockheed F-80 is a US-made jet aircraft using an AllisonJ engine. These aircraft have participated in the Japanese-Korean War on several occasions;
  • B-45 Tornado - the prototype of modern American B-52 bombers, created in 1947;
  • "MiG-15" - a follower of the recognized jet fighter "MiG-9", which actively participated in the military conflict in Korea, was produced in December 1947;
  • The Tu-144 is the first Soviet supersonic jet airliner, which became famous for a series of accidents and was discontinued. A total of 16 copies were produced.

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

Some interesting facts

Now there are liners capable of accommodating a large number of passengers and cargo, of enormous size and unimaginable speed of over 3000 km / h, equipped with modern military equipment. But there are some truly amazing designs; record-breaking jet aircraft include:

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

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

Video

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