A little more than a hundred years ago, Nicholas II authorized the creation of a squadron of Ilya Muromets aircraft. It was then that long-range aviation was born in our country. You will read about the main milestones of its history in this article.
But first we must pay tribute to the people who led this industry. Who were the commanders of long-range aviation? Let's list them:
- P. V. Androsov.
- A. E. Golovanov.
- P. S. Deinekin.
- A. D. Zhikharev.
- I. M. Kalugin.
- A. A. Novikov, who later became a marshal.
- M. M. Oparin.
- B. To Reshetnikov.
These commanders did a lot to improve the defense capability of our entire country.
"Ilya Muromets": how it all began
At the end of 1914, by the Highest command, the Muromtsev squadron was created, headed by Mikhail Shidlovsky. For the first time in the world, such a large formation of four-engine bombers appeared, and long-range aviation as such was born. Actually, her “great-grandfather” himself first took the wing on December 23, 1913.
"Muromets", whichbetter known as S-22, created the legendary Sikorsky at the Russo-B alt plant. For its time, it was an incredible machine, the motors of which could well lift as many as five tons of mass into the air. The aircraft had two gun platforms at once, which for those times was also simply advanced technology.
Participation in World War I
Oddly enough, the squadron of these aircraft was well equipped, which was a pleasant exception for the Russian army of those years. For four years, from 1914 to 1918, the aircraft carried out more than four hundred sorties. Losses amounted to only one aircraft.
By 1917, Sikorsky created a fundamentally new modification, "type Zh". In total, it was planned to build up to 120 aircraft, but then a revolution broke out. Some of the vehicles were burned to prevent them from falling into German hands, while others were used as transport training vehicles for some time.
The Tupolev era
But that was only the beginning. Long-range aviation of the USSR reached a qualitatively new level when the TB-3 aircraft was created. The design bureau of Andrey Tupolev was in charge. The development of the machine began in 1926. Five years later, not only large-scale production was started, but also the formation of a corps of heavy bombers, which for those years was unthinkable in any country in the world.
In the same 1934, the TB-4 aircraft was created, which in history remained under the name "Maxim Gorky". It was a general purpose machine that could be used for almost any purpose.
The first flight was made in 1934, Mikhail Gromov was at the helm. This machine set two world records: it lifted loads of ten and fifteen tons to a height of five kilometers. It was on Gorky that the legendary writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery flew. But the age of the aircraft was short-lived, as more and more miscalculations and shortcomings were found in its design. But the history of long-range aviation continued.
New distance records
Already in 1932, the same Tupolev bureau developed a fundamentally new aircraft with an all-metal fuselage, ANT-25. The car turned out to be excellent, it was on it that the best pilots of those years set several world records at once. So, Chkalov flew on it from Moscow to the Far East, covering a distance of 9375 kilometers. On June 18, 1937, the same Chkalov commanded the crew that flew to the USA.
In just a month - a new record. Although this time the Soviet pilots again flew to America, but the ultimate goal was California, not Washington. During this flight, two (!) world records were broken at once. First, the team covered 10,148 kilometers in a straight line, and also managed to fly 11,500 kilometers along a broken coastline.
Legendary Ilyushin
In 1933, the leadership of the young country decided to gather all promising aircraft designers in one place, as they urgently needed new long-range aviation equipped with the best, most promising machines. That is how the famous Central Design Bureau was born, headed bywhich stood Sergei Ilyushin. In just two years, he and a team of like-minded people create a new long-range bomber DB-3. Test pilot Vladimir Kokkinaki conducted long-range flights on it. Already in 1936, aircraft began to massively enter service with the Soviet army.
An improved model of the same machine, which appeared two years later, was named IL-4. He received powerful engines and new weapons. Before the war, in the middle of 1940, the DB-3 was removed from the assembly line, and the IL-4 took its place. In total, the country produced 1528 vehicles of the DB-3 family, which participated in both the Finnish and the Great Patriotic War.
The first Soviet attack aircraft was also created by Ilyushin. His IL-2 brought fame to this designer. Today, the legendary Il-76 is the main military transport aircraft of our country, worthily continuing the work of its ancestor.
The Great Patriotic War, the role of aviation
Already on June 22, 1941, long-range aircraft began to carry out their first sorties. And on the second day of the war (!) they paid a "courtesy call" to the Nazis, bombing Danzig, Koenigsberg, as well as some cities in Poland and Hungary.
The main machines were: Pe-8, DB-3, Il-4 and Pe-2. The IL-4 described above became the backbone of long-range aviation. During all the years of the war, they made thousands of sorties, completing an incredible number of tasks. It must be said that long-range aviation at that time "gave birth" to many heroes of the USSR. A total of 269 privates and officers received this high rank, with sixhonored twice.
But the price was high: after the Second World War, the aviators remained practically "on the beans", having lost most of the aircraft fleet. And the point here was not only in quantitative indicators: out of 1800 aircraft, only a dozen or three aircraft remained more or less modern, suitable for solving important tasks. Therefore, it was decided to copy the American B-29, making a new aircraft based on it.
Already in 1947, the production of heavy Tu-4s was launched. Huge work was done in the shortest possible time, aimed at adapting the aircraft to domestic conditions and weapons, the designers managed to significantly increase the reliability of the machines. In 1951, it was these aircraft that became the first domestic carriers of nuclear weapons.
Post-war work
In the mid-1950s, new long-range aircraft appeared, which predetermined the development of the industry for decades to come. It was at this time that the epic Tu-95, the "Bear", which still stands on the defensive lines of our country, as well as some other machines, was developed and put into operation.
So, the Tu-16, which was nicknamed "Badger", was the first swept-wing monoplane. The first car was assembled in 1953. Her crew consisted of six or more people. The main weapon for self-defense was the PU-88 nose automatic cannon and three remote-controlled gun turrets. Subsequently, the aircraft received seven AM-23 guns, the caliber of which was 23 mm.
Badgers and their long-range pilotstook an active part in the "six-day war" of 1967, in almost all other Arab-Israeli conflicts of that time, and also managed to take part in the Afghan campaign.
Tu-95, Russian "Bear"
This monumental aircraft was tested in 1952. This is an all-metal medium wing with four turboprop engines, which were mounted directly in the swept wings. Its "highlight" is precisely the NK-12 engines, which still continue to be the best turboprop engines in their class.
The plane can carry twelve tons of bomb load. In addition, aerial bombs weighing up to ten tons can be mounted in the bomb bay. In 2010, they set a new record: bombers flew 30,000 kilometers in 43 hours. The peculiarity of this action is also that ordinary mass-produced cars were used for its implementation. So Russian long-range aviation, even in the turboprop version, is still a formidable force.
ZM Bomber
This machine was produced in 1956-1960. A feature of the aircraft was the latest weapon system, the "backbone" of which was a special D-5 missile, which could confidently hit both sea and ground targets. The range of its flight was as much as 280 kilometers, and the speed was three times higher than the speed of sound. It should be noted that it was these missile carriers that for a long time formed the basis of strategic aviation in the Far East.
Today long-range aviation of the Russian Federation is represented by several machines, including TU-95 and TU-160, butThe "old men" ZM were decommissioned relatively recently. There is no exact information about whether there are currently aircraft of this family that can take to the air.
Cold War and long-range aviation
After Germany was defeated, spheres of influence throughout the world were redrawn. NATO and the union of the Warsaw Pact countries were formed, which did not have special love for each other. Today, historians and the military themselves believe that it was only a miracle that the Third World War did not start at that time.
It is not surprising that in those years it was strategic aviation that was one of the guarantors of world peace, maintaining the strength of the country's nuclear shield. Until 1961, aircraft were the most important means of delivering atomic bombs to a potential enemy. By the way, it was the commanders of long-range aviation who stood at the head of the first missile division of the USSR.
Change in development vector
In the post-war years, it became finally clear that it was time to move from the old turboprop aviation to jet machines. In principle, the first jet Il-28 appeared at the end of the distant 1940. Of course, this aircraft was in some sense a breakthrough, but there was still a lot of work to be done on the design.
Thus, at the beginning of 1970 (on the basis of the relatively old TU-22) a new K-22 missile carrier was created. In addition, there were other modifications of this aircraft. We are talking about Tu-22M2 and Tu-22M3 machines. They were characterized by the fact that new technologies and technologies were massively used in their design and production.materials that until then had been used exclusively in astronautics.
Finally, the time has come for the most beautiful "White Swan", the Tu-160. He became one of the symbols of the entire Cold War. It was the world's first variable-wing aircraft of its size, and incorporated thousands of advanced technical solutions, many of which are unparalleled to this day. The impetus for realizing the need to develop something like this was intelligence data, which reported on the start of the creation of the B-1 aircraft.
The first "White Swan" took off from the Ramenskoye airfield. It happened at the end of December 1981. In 1984, the Kazan Aviation Plant began large-scale production of a unique machine.
In mid-2003, these planes flew over the Indian Ocean, crossing the airspace of many states. Until that moment, Russian long-range aviation (the photo of which is in the article) did not carry out flights of such a length in principle. Last September, two Tu-160s flew to Venezuela, cementing the allied relationship between the two states.
It is safe to say that the development of strategic aviation is the key to statehood and security of our country in the coming years.
