The An-225 Mriya (translated from Ukrainian as “dream”) is the heaviest cargo-lifting aircraft ever taken into the air. The maximum take-off weight of the aircraft is 640 tons. The reason for the construction of the An-225 was the need to create an aviation transport system for the Soviet reusable spacecraft Buran project. The plane exists in a single copy.

The aircraft was designed in the USSR and built in 1988 at the Kiev Mechanical Plant.

"Mriya" set a world record for take-off weight and carrying capacity. On March 22, 1989, the An-225 flew with a load of 156.3 tons, thereby simultaneously breaking 110 world aviation records, which is a record in itself.

Since the start of operation, the aircraft has flown 3,740 hours. If we assume that the average flight speed (taking into account take-off, climb, cruising, descent, approach) is about 500 km/h, then we can calculate the approximate value of the kilometers traveled: 500 x 3740 = 1,870,000 km (more than 46 revolutions around the Earth along the equator).

The scale of the An-225 is amazing: the length of the aircraft is 84 meters, the height is 18 meters (like a 6-story 4-entrance house)

A visual comparison of the Mriya and the passenger Boeing 747.

If we take the largest of the Boeing 747-800 as a basis, then the length of the An-225 will be 8 meters longer, and the wingspan will be 20 meters longer.
Compared to the Airbus A380, the Mriya is 11 meters longer, and its wingspan is almost 9 meters longer.

It happens that the airport does not have adequate parking for such a large aircraft, and it is parked directly on the runway.
Of course, we are talking about an alternate runway, if the airport has one.

The wingspan is 88.4 meters and the area is 905 m²

The only aircraft superior to the An-225 in terms of wingspan is the Hughes H-4 Hercules, which belongs to the class of flying boats. The ship took off only once, in 1947. The history of this aircraft was reflected in the film "The Aviator"

Since the Buran spacecraft itself and the blocks of the Energia launch vehicle had dimensions exceeding the dimensions of the Mriya’s cargo compartment, the new aircraft provided for securing cargo from the outside. In addition, it was planned that the aircraft would be used as the first stage for the launch of a spacecraft.

The formation of a wake from a large cargo attached to the top of the aircraft required the installation of a double-finned tail unit to avoid aerodynamic shading.

The aircraft is equipped with 6 D-18T engines.
At takeoff mode, each engine develops a thrust of 23.4 tons (or 230 kN), i.e. the total thrust of all 6 engines is 140.5 tons (1380 kN)

It can be assumed that each engine develops about 12,500 horsepower at takeoff!

The D-18T engines of the An-225 aircraft are the same as those on the An-124 Ruslan.
The height of such an engine is 3 m, width 2.8 m, and weight more than 4 tons.

The starting system is air, with electrical automatic control. The auxiliary power unit, consisting of two TA-12 turbo units installed in the left and right fairings of the chassis, provides autonomous power to all systems and engine starting.

The mass of fuel in the tanks is 365 tons, it is placed in 13 wing caisson tanks.
The aircraft can remain in the air for 18 hours and cover a distance of over 15,000 km.

The refueling time for such a vehicle ranges from half an hour to a day and a half, and the number of tankers depends on their capacity (from 5 to 50 tons), i.e. from 7 to 70 tankers.

The aircraft's fuel consumption is 15.9 tons/h (in cruising mode)
When fully loaded, the aircraft can remain in the sky without refueling for no more than 2 hours.

The chassis includes a two-post nose and 14-post main (7 posts on each side) supports.
Each stand has two wheels. Total 32 wheels.

Wheels require replacement every 90 landings.
Tires for Mriya are produced at the Yaroslavl Tire Plant. The price of one tire is about $1000.

On the bow strut there are wheels measuring 1120 x 450 mm, and on the main strut there are wheels measuring 1270 x 510 mm.
The pressure inside is 12 atmospheres.

Since 2001, the An-225 has been performing commercial cargo transportation as part of Antonov Airlines.

Dimensions of the cargo compartment: length - 43 m, width - 6.4 m, height - 4.4 m.
The cargo cabin of the aircraft is sealed, which allows the transportation of various types of cargo. Inside the cabin you can place 16 standard containers, up to 80 cars and even heavy-duty BelAZ dump trucks. There is enough space here to fit the entire body of a Boeing 737.

Access to the cargo compartment is through the nose of the aircraft, which folds up.

The process of opening/closing the cargo compartment ramp takes no more than 10 minutes.

To unfold the ramp, the aircraft performs the so-called “elephant bow.”
The nose landing gear tilts forward, and the weight of the aircraft is transferred to auxiliary supports, which are installed under the front threshold of the cargo compartment.

Auxiliary support.

Control panel for the aircraft's "squat" system.

This loading method has a number of advantages compared to the Boeing 747 (which is loaded through a compartment in the side of the fuselage.

"Mriya" is a record holder for the weight of cargo transported: commercial - 247 tons (which is four times more than the maximum payload of a Boeing 747), commercial monocargo - 187.6 tons, and an absolute record for carrying capacity - 253.8 tons. On June 10, 2010, the longest cargo in the history of air transportation was transported - two windmill blades, each 42.1 m long.

To ensure a safe flight, the center of gravity of an aircraft with cargo must be within certain limits along its length. The load master performs loading in strict accordance with the instructions, after which the co-pilot checks the correct placement of the cargo and reports this to the crew commander, who makes a decision on the possibility of carrying out the flight and is responsible for this.

The aircraft is equipped with an on-board loading complex consisting of four lifting mechanisms, each with a lifting capacity of 5 tons.
In addition, two floor winches are provided for loading non-self-propelled wheeled vehicles and cargo on the loading ramp.

This time, the An-225 was chartered by the French engineering company Alstom to transport 170 tons of cargo from Zurich, Switzerland to Bahrain with refueling in Athens and Cairo.

This is a turbine rotor, a turbogenerator for producing electricity and components.

Flight manager Vadim Nikolaevich Deniskov.

To tow the An-225 aircraft, it is impossible to use the carrier of aircraft from other companies, so the carrier is transported on board the aircraft.

And since the aircraft is not equipped with a rear cargo hatch and the towing carrier is unloaded and loaded through the front cargo hatch, which requires a full cycle of squatting of the aircraft onto the front support, as a result, at least 30 minutes are lost and the resource of the aircraft structure and squatting system is unjustifiably consumed.

Technician-foreman for aircraft maintenance.

To ensure turns when the aircraft moves on the ground, the last four rows of the main support struts are made orientable.

Aircraft maintenance technician: specialization: hydraulic system and landing gear.

The heavy weight of the aircraft causes the landing gear to leave marks on the asphalt.

Ladder and hatch to the cockpit.

The passenger compartment is divided into 2 parts: in the front there is the aircraft crew, and in the rear there are accompanying and maintenance personnel.
The cabins are sealed separately - they are separated by a wing.

The rear part of the accompanying cabin is intended for eating, working with technical documentation and holding conferences.
The aircraft has 18 seats for rest of crew members and members of the engineering and technical team - 6 seats in the front cabin and 12 in the rear.

Staircase and hatch to the attendant cabin at the rear of the aircraft.

Technical compartment located at the rear of the cockpit.

On the shelves you can see the blocks that ensure the operation of various aircraft systems, and the pipelines of the pressurization and air conditioning system and the anti-icing system. All aircraft systems are highly automated and require minimal crew intervention during operation. Their work is supported by 34 on-board computers.

Wall of the front center section spar. It is installed (from top to bottom): the slats transmission and air bleed pipelines from the engines.
In front of it are stationary cylinders of the fire protection system with the fire extinguishing agent "Freon".

Stickers are souvenirs from numerous visitors on the panel on the plane's emergency escape hatch flap.

The farthest point from the base airport that the plane managed to visit was the island of Tahiti, part of French Polynesia.
The distance along the shortest arc of the globe is about 16,400 km.

Rynda An-225
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mason mentioned in the engraving is an aircraft operation engineer who worked at Mriya for many years.

The aircraft commander (PIC) is Vladimir Yuryevich Mosin.

To become an An-225 commander, you must have at least 5 years of experience flying an An-124 aircraft as a commander.

Weight and alignment control is simplified by installing a load-measuring system on the chassis.

The aircraft crew consists of 6 people:
aircraft commander, co-pilot, navigator, senior flight engineer, aviation equipment flight engineer, flight radio operator.

ORES

To reduce efforts on the throttles and increase the accuracy of setting engine operating modes, a remote engine control system is provided. In this case, the pilot makes a relatively small effort to use cables to move the lever of an electromechanical device mounted on the engine, which reproduces this movement on the fuel regulator lever with the necessary force and accuracy. For the convenience of joint control during takeoff and landing, the throttle levers of the outermost engines (RUD1 and RUD6) are linked, respectively, with RUD2 and RUD5.

The helm of the largest aircraft in the world.

Aircraft control is booster i.e. The control surfaces are deflected solely with the help of hydraulic steering actuators, if they fail, it is impossible to control the aircraft manually (with an increase in the required effort). Therefore, quadruple redundancy was applied. The mechanical part of the control system (from the steering wheel and pedals to hydraulic steering actuators) consists of rigid rods and cables.
The total length of these cables is: the aileron control system in the fuselage - about 30 meters, in each console (left, right) of the wing - approximately 35 meters; elevator and rudder control systems - about 65 meters each.

When the plane is empty, 2400 m of runway is enough for takeoff and landing.
Takeoff with maximum weight - 3500 m, landing with maximum weight - 3300 m.

At the executive start, the engines begin to warm up, which takes about 10 minutes.

This prevents engine surge during takeoff and ensures maximum takeoff thrust. Of course, this requirement leads to the fact that: takeoff is carried out during a period of minimal airport congestion, or the plane waits a long time for its turn to take off, missing scheduled flights.

The takeoff and landing speed depends on the takeoff and landing weight of the aircraft and ranges from 240 km/h to 280 km/h.

The climb is carried out at a speed of 560 km/h, with a vertical speed of 8 m/s.

At an altitude of 7100 meters, the speed increases to 675 km/h with further continuation of the climb to the flight level.

Cruising speed of An-225 - 850 km/h
When calculating cruising speed, the weight of the aircraft and the flight range that the aircraft must cover are taken into account.

Dmitry Viktorovich Antonov - senior captain.

The middle panel of the pilots' instrument panel.

Backup instruments: attitude indicator and altitude indicator. Fuel lever position indicator (FLU), engine thrust indicator (ET). Indicators of deviation of control surfaces and take-off and landing devices (slats, flaps, spoilers).

Senior flight engineer's instrument panel.

In the lower left corner there is a side panel with controls for the hydraulic complex and a chassis position alarm. Top left panel of the aircraft fire protection system. At the top right is a panel with controls and control devices: starting the APU, the supercharging and air conditioning system, the anti-icing system and the signal panel block. At the bottom is a panel with controls and controls for the fuel supply system, engine operation control and the on-board automated control system (BASK) of all aircraft parameters.

Senior onboard engineer - Polishchuk Alexander Nikolaevich.

Engine control instrument panel.

On the left, at the top is a vertical indicator of the position of the fuel levers. Large round instruments are speed indicators for the high-pressure compressor and engine fan. Small round instruments are indicators of oil temperature at the engine inlet. The block of vertical instruments at the bottom - indicators of the amount of oil in the engine oil tanks.

Aeronautical engineer's dashboard.
Controls and monitoring devices for the aircraft's power supply system and oxygen system are located here.

Navigator - Anatoly Binyatovich Abdullaev.

Flight over the territory of Greece.

Navigator-instructor - Yaroslav Ivanovich Koshitsky.

Flight operator - Gennady Yurievich Antipov.
The ICAO call sign for the An-225 on the flight from Zurich to Athens was ADB-3038.

On-board engineer - Yuri Anatolyevich Mindar.

Athens airport runway.

Landing at night on Mriya is carried out instrumentally, i.e. using instruments, from the leveling height and visually before touching down. According to the crew, one of the most difficult landings is in Kabul, which is associated with high altitude and many obstacles. The approach begins at a speed of 340 km/h to an altitude of 200 meters, then the speed is gradually reduced.

Landing is carried out at a speed of 295 km/h with fully extended mechanization. It is allowed to touch the runway at a vertical speed of 6 m/s. After touching the runway, reverse thrust is immediately switched to engines 2 to 5, while engines 1 and 6 are left at idle. The landing gear is braked at a speed of 140-150 km/h until the aircraft comes to a complete stop.

The aircraft's service life is 8,000 flight hours, 2,000 takeoffs and landings, 25 calendar years.

The aircraft can still fly until December 21, 2013 (25 years since the start of its operation), after which a thorough study of its technical condition will be carried out and the necessary work will be carried out to ensure an extension of the calendar service life to 45 years.

Due to the high cost of transportation on the An-225, orders appear only for very long and very heavy cargo, when transportation by land is not possible. Flights are random: from 2-3 per month to 1-2 per year. From time to time there is talk about building a second copy of the An-225 aircraft, but this requires an appropriate order and appropriate funding. To complete the construction, an amount of approximately $90 million is required, and taking into account testing, it increases to $120 million.

This is perhaps one of the most beautiful and impressive aircraft in the world.

Thanks to Antonov Airlines for their help in organizing the photography!
Special thanks to Vadim Nikolaevich Deniskov for his help in writing the text for the post!

For any questions regarding the use of photographs, please email.

The An-225 Mriya is a unique transport aircraft characterized by its ultra-high payload capacity. It was developed by the OKB im. Antonova. The project was led by Viktor Ilyich Tolmachev.

From 1984 to 1988, this unique aircraft was competently designed and created at the Kiev Mechanical Plant. It made its first flight on December 21, 1988. At the beginning of the development of the project, 2 aircraft were laid down, and now one Mriya is used by Antonov Airlines. As for the second car, its readiness is estimated at only 70%.

Technical characteristics of An-225

This aircraft model has a six-engine turbojet high-wing aircraft with a swept wing and two-tail tail, as well as 6 D-18T aircraft engines. They were developed by ZMKB "Progress" named after. A. G. Ivanchenko.

The An-225 Mriya is a jet transport aircraft with a huge payload capacity, which received the name Cossack according to NATO coding. It was designed back in the days of the Soviet Union by chief designer V.I. Tolmachev. at OKB im. Antonov. First flew on December 21, 1988. Nowadays, only one copy of the Mriya is in working flight condition, another is 70% ready, but due to a lack of funding (about $100 million is required), work is not being carried out. The operator of the one-of-a-kind giant aircraft is the Ukrainian airline AntonovAirlines.

History of creation

The need to construct a transport jet aircraft of enormous scale arose in connection with the maintenance of the Buran spacecraft. The functions of such an aircraft included transporting individual heavy elements of the spacecraft and launch vehicle from the place of its assembly to the launch site. The fact is that rockets and spaceships are launched mainly in the equator region, where the value of the Earth’s magnetic field is minimal, and, accordingly, the risks of accidents during takeoff are reduced.

Also, the An-225 was tasked with carrying out the first stage of the air launch of a spacecraft, and for this its payload must be at least 250 tons.

Since the dimensions of the Buran and the launch vehicle exceeded the dimensions of the Mriya’s cargo compartment, external fastenings were adapted to the transport aircraft for transporting cargo from the outside. This specificity led to a change in its tail unit. It was necessary to replace the tail of the aircraft with a double fin to avoid the heavy impact of aerodynamic currents.

All this suggests that the An-225 was designed as a highly specialized heavy transport aircraft, but some features that were taken from the An-124 made it universal in its qualities.

Many sources mistakenly call P.V. Balabuev the chief designer of the An-225, but this is not so. Balabuev was the chief designer of the entire Antonov Design Bureau in 1984-2005, but V.I. Tolmachev was appointed head of the An-225 project.

Cooperation ties during the creation of Mriya

Since 1985, the leadership of the CPSU Central Committee has outlined a short time frame for the development of the An-225. Therefore, during the design and creation of the transport heavyweight, hundreds of thousands of designers, scientists, engineers, technologists, pilots, military personnel and workers from all republics of the former USSR were involved.

Let's consider the work of individual enterprises to create the An-225

• "OKB im. Antonov" (Kyiv) – main design work. Production of most of the components, fuselage parts, fairings and fairings, nose section, etc. Assembly: fuselage and overall assembly of the aircraft.
• “Tashkent Aircraft Production Association named after. Chkalov" - production of central and end parts of wings based on the An-124.
• "Ulyanovsk Aviation Industrial Complex" - production of large-sized milled power frames, fuselage brackets, some serial components and aircraft parts.
• "Kiev Aircraft Production Association" - production of the nose of the fuselage, nose and horizontal tail, front landing gear, ball screw mechanisms for the fuselage struts.
• "Moscow Institute of Automation and Electromechanics" - design and production of the A-825M aircraft control complex.
• "Zaporozhye Engine Plant" - production of serial D-18 engines.
• "Gidromash" (Nizhny Novgorod) - production of new chassis.
• "Voronezh Aviation Plant". Specialists were painting the aircraft in Kyiv.

Capabilities of the An-225 aircraft

• Transportation of general purpose cargo (heavy, large, long) with a total weight of up to 250 tons.
• Inland non-stop transportation of cargo with a total weight of 180-200 tons.
• Intercontinental transportation of goods up to 150 tons.
• Transportation of external monocargoes attached to the fuselage with a weight of up to 200 tons.
• "Mriya" is a promising base for the design of aerospace systems.

Let's look at the volume of the fuselage cargo compartment using examples.

• Passenger cars (50 pcs.).
• Universal aviation containers UAK-10 (16 pcs.).
• Large monocargoes with a total weight of up to 200 tons (generators, turbines, dump trucks, etc.)

Exploitation

The first flight of the Mriya dates back to December 21, 1988.

The aircraft was created to transport the Buran spacecraft and Energia launch vehicles. However, before the completion of work on its release, the launch vehicles had already been transported by the Atlant aircraft, and the An-225 was only involved in moving the Buran itself. In May 1989 it was presented at the Paris Air Show and conducted several demonstration flights over Baikonur in April 1991.

After the collapse of the USSR, in 1994, the only unit of the Mriya stopped flying. The engines and some other pieces of equipment were removed from it and installed on the Ruslan. But by the beginning of the 2000s, it became clear that the need for a working An-225 was very great, so they tried to restore it at Ukrainian enterprises. In order to fit the aircraft to modern civil aviation certificates, minor modifications were also required.

On May 23, 2001, the An-225 Mriya received certificates from the International Aviation Committee and the State Department of Aviation Transport of Ukraine. They made it possible to carry out commercial activities involving the transportation of goods.

Currently, the owner of the only copy of the An-225 is Antonov Airlines, which carries out commercial cargo transportation as part of a subsidiary of ANTK named after. Antonov.

On the basis of the aircraft, a flying complex is being designed for the launch of various aviation and space systems. One of the promising projects in this direction is MAKS (Ukrainian-Russian multi-purpose aerospace system).

Records

During its short existence, the An-225 set hundreds of aviation records.

The An-225 Mriya is the heaviest lifting aircraft that has ever taken to the air. The wingspan is second only to the HuglesH-Herkules, which made only one flight in 1974.

The An-225 set especially many records in terms of carrying capacity. Thus, on March 22, 1989, lifting a cargo with a total weight of 156.3 tons into the sky, he broke 110 world aviation records. But this is not the limit of his capabilities. August 2004 - the Mriya aircraft transports cargo consisting of Zeromax equipment in the direction Prague - Tashkent with refueling in Samara, with a total weight of 250 tons.

Five years later, in August 2009, the name of the Ukrainian aircraft once again entered the Guinness Book of Records, this time for transporting the heaviest monocargo in the cargo compartment. It turned out to be a generator that weighed 187.6 tons together with the auxiliary unit. The cargo was sent from the German city of Frankfurt to Yerevan at the request of one of the Armenian power plants.

The absolute record for carrying capacity of 253.8 tons belongs to the An-225 Mriya.

10.06. In 2010, this aircraft transported the longest cargo in the history of air transportation - two blades of a screw windmill, each 42.1 m in length.

If we sum up all the Mriya’s world records, there are over 250 of them.

Second copy of "Mriya"

The second An-225 is currently only 70% complete. Its assembly began during the Soviet Union at the aircraft plant named after. Antonov. According to the plant management, when a customer appears, it will be able to be brought to operational flight readiness.

Based on the statement of the general director of the Kyiv Aviant Oleg Shevchenko, about $90-100 million of investment is now required to lift the second copy of the An-225 into the air. And if we also take into account the amount required for flight testing, the total cost could rise to $120 million.

As you know, the development of this aircraft is based on the An-124 Ruslan. The main differences between the AN-225 and the An-124 aircraft are as follows:

two additional engines,

increase in fuselage length as a result of inserts,

new center section,

replacement of the tail unit,

no tail cargo hatch,

external cargo fastening and pressurization system,

increasing the number of main landing gear struts.

As for other characteristics, the An-225 Mriya almost completely corresponds to the An-124, which significantly facilitated and reduced the cost of developing a new model and its use.

Purpose of An-225 "Mriya"

The reason for the development and creation of the An-225 was the need for an aviation transport platform designed for the Buran spacecraft. As is known, the main purpose of the aircraft within the project was to transport the space shuttle and its components from the production site to the launch site. In addition, the task was set to return the Buran spacecraft to the cosmodrome if it was suddenly forced to land at alternate airfields.

The An-225 aircraft was also supposed to be used as the first stage of the space shuttle air launch system. That is why the aircraft had to withstand a load capacity of more than 250 tons. Since the Energia carrier blocks and the Buran spacecraft itself had dimensions that were somewhat larger than the dimensions of the aircraft’s cargo compartment, external cargo fastening was provided on it. This, in turn, required the replacement of the aircraft's basic tail unit with a two-fin one, which avoided aerodynamic shading.

As you can see, the aircraft was created to perform a few specialized transport tasks that were very responsible. However, its construction on the basis of the An-124 Ruslan endowed the new aircraft with many of the qualities of a transport aircraft.

An-225 has the ability to:

transportation of general purpose cargo (large, long, heavy), the total weight of which is up to 250 tons;

intracontinental transportation of cargo weighing 180-200 tons without landing;

intercontinental transportation of goods, the total weight of which is up to 150 tons;

transportation of heavy monocargoes with a total weight of up to 200 tons and large dimensions.

The An-225 is the first step in the creation of an aerospace project.

The model features a spacious and roomy cargo compartment, making it possible to transport a wide variety of cargo.

For example, it can be translated:

fifty cars;

monocargoes with a total weight of up to 200 tons (dump trucks, turbines, generators);

sixteen ten-ton UAK-10, which are universal aviation containers.

Cargo compartment parameters: 6.4 m – width, 43 m – length, 4.4 m – height. The cargo compartment of the An-225 is sealed, which expands its capabilities. Above the cargo compartment there is a room intended for a replacement crew of 6 people and for 88 people who can accompany the transported cargo. Moreover, all control systems have quadruple redundancy. The design of the front cargo hatch and on-board equipment allow loading/unloading cargo as conveniently and quickly as possible. The aircraft can carry large cargo on the fuselage. The dimensions of these cargoes do not allow them to be transported using other land or air vehicles. A special fastening system ensures that these cargoes are securely located on the fuselage.

Flight characteristics of An-225

800-850 km/h - cruising speed

1500 km - flight distance with maximum fuel reserve

4500 km - flight range with a load of 200 tons

7000 km - flight range with a load of 150 tons

3-3.5 thousand m - required runway length

Dimensions

88.4 m - wingspan

84 m - aircraft length

18.1 m - height

905 sq. m - wing area

Today, the An-225 Mriya is the largest aircraft in the world, as well as the most load-bearing. Moreover, the giant set a large number of world records, many of them in terms of carrying capacity, take-off weight, length of cargo, etc.

Possible competition

The president of Antonov Airlines claims that launching satellite satellites from the An-225 will cost much less than using the cosmodrome infrastructure. Moreover, the aircraft will not compete with the Polet project, which involves launching from Ruslan. All this is because the “Flight” project has planned the launch of so-called light satellites, weighing up to 3.5 tons. But with the An-225 it is possible to produce medium-type structures weighing up to 5.5 tons.

Well, as for the updated projects of the West, we are talking about the Airbus A3XX-100F aircraft and the Boeing 747-X aircraft model, their carrying capacity is no more than 150 tons, and they are beginning to compete with the An-225. Moreover, they have quite a lot of chances to win.

The last modernization of the An-225 aircraft took place in 2000, as a result of which it received navigation equipment that meets international standards.

People are always attracted to some kind of record - record-breaking aircraft always receive a lot of attention

The Airbus A380 is a wide-body, double-deck jet passenger aircraft created by Airbus S.A.S. (formerly Airbus Industrie) is the largest production airliner in the world.

The height of the aircraft is 24.08 meters, length is 72.75 (80.65) meters, wingspan is 79.75 meters. The A380 can fly non-stop over distances of up to 15,400 km. Capacity - 525 passengers in three classes; 853 passengers in single-class configuration. There is also a cargo modification of the A380F with the ability to transport cargo up to 150 tons over a distance of up to 10,370 km.

The development of the Airbus A380 took about 10 years, the cost of the entire program was about 12 billion euros. Airbus says it needs to sell 420 planes to recoup its costs, although some analysts estimate the figure could be much higher.

According to the developers, the most difficult part in creating the A380 was the problem of reducing its weight. It was solved through the widespread use of composite materials both in structural structural elements and in auxiliary units, interiors, etc.

To reduce the weight of the aircraft, advanced technologies and improved aluminum alloys were also used. Thus, the 11-ton center section consists of 40% of its mass from carbon fiber reinforced plastic. The fuselage top and side panels are made from Glare hybrid material. Laser welding of stringers and skin was used on the lower fuselage panels, which significantly reduced the number of fasteners.

Airbus claims that the Airbus A380 burns 17% less fuel per passenger than “the current largest aircraft” (presumably referring to the Boeing 747). The less fuel is burned, the lower the carbon dioxide emissions. For an airplane, CO2 emissions per passenger are only 75 grams per kilometer traveled. This is almost half the carbon dioxide emissions limit set by the European Union for cars produced in 2008.

The first A320 aircraft sold was delivered to the customer on October 15, 2007 after a long acceptance testing phase and entered service on October 25, 2007, making a commercial flight between Singapore and Sydney. Two months later, Singapore Airlines President Chew Chong Seng said the Airbus A380 was performing better than expected and was consuming 20% ​​less fuel per passenger than the company's existing Boeing 747-400s.

The aircraft's upper and lower decks are connected by two staircases at the bow and tail, wide enough to accommodate two passengers shoulder to shoulder. In the 555-passenger configuration, the A380 has 33% more passenger seats than the Boeing 747–400 in its standard three-class configuration, but the cabin has 50% more space and volume, resulting in more space per passenger.

The maximum certified capacity of the aircraft is 853 passengers when configured with a single economy class. The announced configurations have a number of passenger seats from 450 (for Qantas Airways) to 644 (for Emirates Airline, with two comfort classes).

Hughes H-4 Hercules (eng. Hughes H-4 Hercules) is a transport wooden flying boat developed by the American company Hughes Aircraft under the leadership of Howard Hughes. This 136-ton aircraft, originally designated the NK-1 and informally nicknamed the Spruce Goose, was the largest flying boat ever built, and its wingspan remains a record to this day. - 98 meters. It was designed to transport 750 soldiers when fully equipped.

At the beginning of World War II, the US government allocated $13 million to Hughes to build a prototype of a flying ship, but the aircraft was not ready by the end of hostilities, which was explained by a shortage of aluminum, as well as Hughes’ stubbornness in creating a flawless machine.

Specifications

• Crew: 3 people
• Length: 66.45 m
• Wingspan: 97.54 m
• Height: 24.08 m
• Fuselage height: 9.1 m
• Wing area: 1061.88 m²
• Maximum take-off weight: 180 tons
• Payload weight: up to 59,000 kg
• Fuel capacity: 52,996 l
• Engines: 8× air-cooled Pratt&Whitney R-4360-4A 3000 hp each. With. (2240 ​​kW) each
• Propellers: 8× four-blade Hamilton Standard, 5.23 m diameter

Flight characteristics

• Top speed: 351 mph (565.11 km/h)
• Cruising speed: 250 mph (407.98 km/h)
• Flight range: 5634 km
• Service ceiling: 7165 m.

Despite its nickname, the plane is built almost entirely from birch, or more precisely from birch plywood glued to a pattern.

The Hercules aircraft, piloted by Howard Hughes himself, made its first and only flight on November 2, 1947, when it rose to a height of 21 meters and covered approximately two kilometers in a straight line over Los Angeles Harbor.

After a long period of storage (Hughes maintained the aircraft in operational condition until his death in 1976, spending up to $1 million a year on this), the aircraft was sent to a museum in Long Beach, California.

The plane is visited by about 300,000 tourists annually. The biography of the aircraft's creator, Howard Hughes, and the aircraft's testing are shown in Martin Scorsese's film "The Aviator."

It is currently on display at the Evergreen International Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, where it was moved in 1993.

This machine was designed and built in a very short time: the first drawings began to be created in 1985, and in 1988 the transport aircraft was already built. The reason for such a short deadline can be quite easily explained: the fact is that the Mriya was created on the basis of well-developed components and assemblies of the An-124 Ruslan. For example, the fuselage of the Mriya has the same transverse dimensions as the An-124, but is longer; the span and area of ​​the wings have increased. The wing has the same structure as the Ruslan, but additional sections have been added to it. The An-225 now has two additional engines. The aircraft's landing gear is similar to that of the Ruslan, but it has seven instead of five struts. The cargo compartment has been changed quite seriously. Initially, two aircraft were laid down, but only one An-225 was completed. The second copy of the unique aircraft is approximately 70% complete and can be completed at any time, subject to proper funding. To complete its construction, an amount of 100-120 million dollars is needed.

On February 1, 1989, the aircraft was shown to the general public, and in May of the same year, the An-225 made a non-stop flight from Baikonur to Kiev, carrying a Buran weighing sixty tons on its back. That same month, the An-225 delivered the Buran spacecraft to the Paris Air Show and created a real sensation there. In total, the aircraft holds 240 world records, including the transportation of the heaviest cargo (253 tons), the heaviest monolithic cargo (188 tons) and the longest cargo.

The An-225 Mriya aircraft was originally created for the needs of the Soviet space industry. In those years, the Soviet Union was building Buran, its first reusable spacecraft, an analogue of the American shuttle. To implement this project, a transport system was needed that could be used to transport large loads. It was for these purposes that “Mriya” was conceived. In addition to the components and assemblies of the spacecraft itself, it was necessary to deliver parts of the Energia rocket, which were also colossal in size. All this was delivered from the production site to the final assembly points. The units and components of Energia and Buran were manufactured in the central regions of the USSR, and final assembly took place in Kazakhstan, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In addition, the An-225 was initially designed so that in the future it could transport the finished Buran spacecraft. The An-225 could also transport large cargo for the needs of the national economy, for example, equipment for the mining, oil and gas industries.

In addition to participating in the Soviet space program, the aircraft was to be used to transport oversized cargo over long distances. The An-225 Mriya will carry out this work today.

The general functions and tasks of the machine can be described as follows:

• transportation of general purpose cargo (large, heavy) with a total weight of up to 250 tons;
• intracontinental non-stop transportation of cargo weighing 180−200 tons;
• intercontinental transportation of goods weighing up to 150 tons;
• transportation of heavy bulky cargo on an external sling with a total weight of up to 200 tons;
• use of aircraft for air launch of spacecraft.

The unique aircraft was given other, even more ambitious tasks, and they were also related to space. The An-225 Mriya aircraft was supposed to become a kind of flying cosmodrome, a platform from which spaceships and rockets would be launched into orbit. "Mriya", according to the designers, was supposed to be the first stage for the launch of reusable spacecraft of the "Buran" type. Therefore, initially the designers were faced with the task of making an aircraft with a payload capacity of at least 250 tons.

The Soviet shuttle was supposed to launch from the “back” of the plane. This method of launching vehicles into low-Earth orbit has many serious advantages. Firstly, there is no need to build very expensive ground-based launch complexes, and secondly, launching a rocket or ship from an airplane seriously saves fuel and allows you to increase the payload of the spacecraft. In some cases, this may make it possible to completely abandon the first stage of the rocket.

Various air launch options are currently being developed. They are working especially actively in this direction in the United States, and there are also Russian developments.

Alas, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the “air launch” project with the participation of the An-225 was practically buried. This aircraft was an active participant in the Energia-Buran program. The An-225 carried out fourteen flights with Buran on the top of the fuselage, and hundreds of tons of various cargo were transported as part of this program.

After 1991, funding for the Energia-Buran program ceased, and the An-225 was left without work. Only in 2000 did the modernization of the machine begin for use for commercial purposes. The An-225 Mriya aircraft has unique technical characteristics, enormous payload capacity and can transport large cargo on its fuselage - all this makes the aircraft very popular for commercial transportation.

Since that time, the An-225 has performed many flights and transported hundreds of tons of various cargo. Some transport operations can be safely called unique and have no analogues in the history of aviation. The aircraft took part in humanitarian operations several times. After the devastating tsunami, he delivered power generators to Samoa, transported construction equipment to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and helped eliminate the consequences of the earthquake in Japan.

In 2009, the An-225 aircraft was modernized and its service life was extended.

The An-225 Mriya aircraft is designed according to the classical design, with high-raised, slightly swept wings. The cabin is located in the front of the aircraft, the cargo hatch is also located in the nose of the vehicle. The aircraft is made according to a two-fin design. This decision is related to the need to transport cargo on the fuselage of the aircraft. The An-225 airframe has very high aerodynamic properties; the lift-to-drag ratio of this aircraft is 19, which is an excellent indicator not only for transport aircraft, but also for passenger aircraft. This, in turn, significantly improved the aircraft's performance and reduced fuel consumption.

Almost the entire internal space of the fuselage is occupied by the cargo compartment. Compared to the An-124, it has become 10% larger (by seven meters). At the same time, the wingspan increased by only 20%, two more engines were added, and the aircraft’s carrying capacity increased by one and a half times. During the construction of the An-225, drawings, components and assemblies of the An-124 were actively used, thanks to which the aircraft was able to be created in such a short time. Here are the main differences between the An-225 and the An-124 “Ruslan”:

• new center section;
• fuselage length increased;
• the single-fin tail was replaced with a double-fin;
• lack of a tail cargo hatch;
• the number of main landing gear struts has been increased from five to seven;
• external cargo fastening and pressurization system;
• two additional D-18T engines were installed.

Unlike the Ruslan, the Mriya has only one cargo hatch, which is located in the bow of the aircraft. Like its predecessor, Mriya can change the ground clearance and angle of the fuselage, which is extremely convenient during loading and unloading operations. The chassis has three supports: a front two-post and two main ones, each of which consists of seven posts. Moreover, all racks are independent of each other and are produced separately.

To take off without cargo, the plane needs a runway 2400 meters long, with cargo - 3500 meters.

The An-225 has six D-18T engines suspended under the wings, as well as two auxiliary power units located inside the fuselage.

The cargo compartment is sealed and equipped with all the necessary equipment for loading operations. Inside the fuselage, the An-225 can transport up to sixteen standard aviation containers (each weighing ten tons), fifty passenger cars, or any cargo weighing up to two hundred tons (turbines, especially large cargo vehicles, generators). On top of the fuselage there are special fastenings for transporting large cargo.D

Technical characteristics of An-225 "Mriya"

Dimensions

• Wingspan, m 88.4
• Length, m 84.0
• Height, m ​​18.2

Weight, kg

• Empty 250000
• Maximum takeoff 600000
• Fuel weight 300000
• Engine 6*TRDD D-18T
• Specific fuel consumption, kg/kgf·h 0.57-0.63
• Cruising speed, km/h 850
• Practical range, km 15600
• Range, km 4500
• Practical ceiling, m 11000

Crew of six people

An-225 is a Soviet transport jet aircraft with an ultra-high payload developed by the Design Bureau named after. O.K. Antonov, is the largest aircraft in the world.

The An-225 Mriya is the largest aircraft in the world that has ever taken off (“Mriya” from Ukrainian “dream”). The maximum lifting weight of the aircraft is 640 tons. The An-225 aircraft was built specifically to transport the Soviet reusable spacecraft Buran. The plane was produced in a single copy.

The aircraft project was developed in the USSR and built at the Kiev Mechanical Plant in 1988.
"An-225" set a world record for carrying capacity. On March 22, 1988, the plane took off with a load of 156.3 tons and broke 110 aviation records.

During its entire operation, the aircraft flew 3,740 hours. If we consider the average speed of the aircraft to be 500 km/h, the time of takeoff and landing, it turns out to be approximately 1,870,000 kilometers or 46 around the Earth at the equator.

The dimensions of the An-225 are amazing: length - 84 meters, height -18 meters.

The photo shows a clear example of an An-225 and a Boeing 747 aircraft.
If we compare the largest Boeing 747-800, then the An-225 is 8 meters longer, and the wing size is 20 meters.

Not all airports can park such a giant; in such cases, the aircraft parks directly on the alternate runway.

The wingspan is 88.4 meters. There is one aircraft in the world that surpasses the An-225 in wingspan; this is the Hughes H-4 Hercules, which flew once in 1947.

The An-225 Airplane had external fastenings for transporting large cargo, for example the Buran spacecraft and Energia launch vehicle units. The cargo is secured to the top of the aircraft.

Loads attached to the top could create wakes, which required a twin-fin tail to avoid aerodynamic shadowing.

The aircraft is equipped with six D-18T engines, each developing a thrust of 23.4 tons during takeoff.

Each engine produces 12,500 hp during takeoff.

The D-18T engine of the An-225 Mriya aircraft is also installed on the An-124 Ruslan. The engine weight is 4 tons and the height is 3 meters.

The total volume of fuel tanks is 365 tons. The plane can fly 15 thousand kilometers and stay in the air for 18 hours.

Refueling such a giant takes from 2 to 36 hours, it all depends on the volume of the tankers (from 5 to 50 tons).

Fuel consumption 15.9 tons per hour (cruising flight mode). When fully loaded, the aircraft can remain in the air without refueling for no more than 2 hours.

The chassis consists of 16 struts, each strut has 2 wheels, for a total of 32 wheels.

90 landings is the service life of all wheels, after which they need to be changed. The wheels are produced in Yaroslavl, the price of one wheel is about 30 thousand rubles.

Wheel size: on the main rack 1270 x 510 mm, on the front 1120 x 450 mm. Wheel pressure 12 atmospheres.

The An-255 has been performing commercial transportation since 2001.

Cargo compartment: length - 43 meters, width - 6.4 meters, height - 4.4 meters.
The cargo compartment is completely sealed, which allows you to transport any type of cargo. What can be placed on a plane, for example: 80 cars, 16 containers or giant BelAZ trucks.

The cargo compartment is opened by lifting the bow up.

It takes 10 minutes to gain access to the cargo hold.

The landing gear bends under itself, the front part of the aircraft is lowered down onto special supports.

Auxiliary dough.

Aircraft lowering system control panel.

This type of loading has a number of advantages over the Boeing 747, which is loaded in the side of the fuselage.

The An-225 aircraft transports cargo: commercial cargo is 247 tons (4 times more than the Boeing-747), and the record payload is 2538 tons. In 2010, the longest cargo in air transportation was delivered, 2 windmill blades of 42.1 m each.

For flight safety purposes, cargo is placed strictly according to instructions, observing the center of gravity, after which the co-pilot checks the correct placement of the cargo and reports to the commander.

The aircraft is equipped with its own loader of 4 lifts, each lifting 5 tons. The floors are equipped with two winches for loading non-propelled cargo.

The services of the largest aircraft are used all over the world, for example: now it is necessary to transfer 170 tons of cargo from a French engineering company from Zurich to Bahrain. Refueling will be required in Athens and Cairo.

Alston turbine rotor for electricity production.

Towing of An-225 Mriya aircraft

The very heavy weight of the aircraft leaves such marks on the asphalt.

The technical compartment is located at the rear of the cockpit. There are many different systems, but their operation is controlled by 34 on-board computers, and human intervention is kept to a minimum.

The crew of the An-225 aircraft consists of six people: aircraft commander, co-pilot, navigator, senior flight engineer, aviation equipment flight engineer, flight radio operator.

The helm, he controls the largest aircraft in the world.

To take off an empty plane, 2400 meters of runway is enough. If the aircraft is fully loaded, a runway of 3500 meters is required.

Warming up the engine before takeoff takes 10 minutes, which ensures maximum thrust.

The take-off and landing speed depends on the weight of the aircraft (with or without cargo) and ranges from 240 to 280 km/h.

The plane gains altitude at a speed of 560 km/h.

After climbing to an altitude of more than 7 thousand meters, the speed increases to 675 km/h and further increases, the ship gains altitude to the flight level.

Cruising speed is 850 km/h. The speed is calculated taking into account the cargo being transported and the flight range.

Pilots' dashboard (middle panel).

Senior flight engineer's instrument panel.

Instruments for monitoring engine operation.

Navigator.

Flight engineer.

The ship's captain and co-pilot.

Landing at a speed of 295 km/h, the landing gear braking occurs at a speed of 145 km/h until the aircraft stops.

Aircraft life: 25 years, 8 thousand flight hours, 2 thousand takeoffs and landings. The aircraft reached the end of its service life in 2013 and was sent for extensive research and repair, after which its service life will increase to 45 years.

Transportation services for the largest aircraft An-225 Mriya are very expensive. The aircraft is ordered when it is necessary to transport very heavy and long cargo, only if transportation by land and water is impossible. The company wants to make a second such aircraft, but this is just talk. The cost of building the second An-225 aircraft is about 90 million dollars, taking into account all tests it increases to $120 million.

The largest aircraft in the world, An-225, belongs to Antonov Airlines.

The use of pressed panels and the development of new alloys for the An-124 "Ruslan" and An-225 "Mriya" aircraft

In April 1973, after graduating from the Moscow Aviation Institute, I was assigned to the Kiev Mechanical Plant (I come from the village of Velikopolovetskoye, Kyiv region), where the general designer was O.K. Antonov. Since our institute was taught by outstanding specialists in the field of aviation, in particular, Eger S.M. (Deputy of Tupolev A.N. for passenger matters), then I really wanted to get into the general types department KO-7, where the foundations of future aircraft are laid. But the deputy The plant's HR director M.S. Rozhkov said: “Either go to the RIO-1 strength department, or go back to Moscow.” I had to reluctantly agree. And I was very lucky, because... I ended up in a wonderful team, where the leader was Elizaveta Avetovna Shakhatuni, O.K.’s ex-wife. Antonova, a highly qualified specialist and a wonderful Person. She always strived for new knowledge and introduced it into strength calculations, looked after young specialists, and helped in both production and everyday issues.

I ended up in a new fatigue strength brigade created 4 months ago, where there was only one leader, Bengus G.Yu., and I later became his deputy. The fact is that in 1972, an An-10 passenger plane crashed near Kharkov, and also near Kuibyshev, during the flight, the pilots heard something cracking in the area of ​​​​the central part of the wing of the An-10 plane. It was a miracle that no disaster occurred. The commission determined that the cause was fatigue failure of the wing center section. As a result, by order of the Ministry of Aviation Industry (MAP), such brigades were formed in all Experimental Design Bureaus (OKB) of the USSR. Previously, in the USSR, the service life of aircraft was determined based on the results of endurance laboratory tests of full-scale aircraft airframe samples, which were calculated only for static strength, as well as based on the results of operating the so-called leader aircraft (more flight hours and more frequent and thorough inspections).

The task of the new team was to develop methods for calculating the service life of aircraft at the design stage. Since there was little experience, we tried to make the most of the available foreign experience, and the work that was carried out in other design bureaus, in particular V.B. Loima, who worked for A.N. Tupolev, TsAGI (Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute), as well as the results of full-scale tests KMZ aircraft. Conducted fatigue tests of samples and elements of aircraft structures. The main ones were samples with a hole, for calculating regular sections, and lugs, for calculating irregular (transverse joints) sections of the structure. Based on these tests and materials, methods for calculating the wing, fuselage, tail and other complex elements of the airframe structure were developed. Later, calculations and tests began to be carried out on the crack growth rate and residual strength of samples and structural elements. This work was carried out by Malashenkov S.P. All these developments were first used in the design of the An-72 aircraft, and then the An-74. Moreover, the strength experts, out of fright, (the prosecutor’s office actually wanted to put the specialists who were responsible for the service life of the An-10 aircraft in prison, with great difficulty the management saved them) laid in such a margin of safety that they could not destroy the wing during static tests. This made it possible to ensure a maximum load capacity of 10 tons, which is more than 1.5 times higher than the requirements of the technical specifications.

I will also separately note the work performed on the selection of an alloy for complex milled parts from forgings and stampings for the An-72 and An-74 aircraft. In the USSR, low-strength (tensile strength 39 kg/mm2) AK6T1 alloy was mainly used for these purposes. Although the V93T1 alloy (48 kg/mm2) was already widely used in the An-22 aircraft, the big problems with its low service life (see below) greatly frightened strength engineers. In the USA, high-strength (56 kg/mm2) alloy 7075T6 was used for these purposes. Based on the results of many studies, it was known that the medium-strength (44 kg/mm2) alloy D16T has high fatigue life characteristics and is superior to the listed alloys, but is practically never used as a forging alloy. However, we found in the literature that in the Caravel aircraft (France), an analogue of the D16T alloy was used for these purposes. The All-Union Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) scared us, but not specifically with any consequences, but, in general, that this alloy is not used for forgings and stampings. Nevertheless, we produced experimental stampings at the Verkhne-Saldinsky Metallurgical Plant (VSMOZ), tested them, and E.A. Shakhatuni. It was decided to use the D16T alloy for forgings and stampings of the An-72 aircraft. I was sent to the specified plant so that I agreed on the technical conditions, where we laid down the strength slightly above the average level, because the problem of weight reduction in aircraft construction has not yet been canceled. No one at the plant wanted to subscribe to these characteristics. I ran for a whole week between the workshops and the bosses, my ears froze, but the deputy helped us a lot. chief engineer Nikitin E.M., forcing the lower classes to sign our characteristics. (Subsequently, the management of KMZ took him to our plant as the chief metallurgist).

For more than 35 years, An-72 and An-74 aircraft have been operating in difficult climatic conditions and there are no problems with parts made of D16T alloy!

At the same time, endurance tests of the full-scale airframe of the An-22 aircraft were carried out in the static testing laboratory. And cracks began to appear there very early, especially in the transverse joints of the wing. The wing of the An-22 aircraft was made: the bottom was pressed panels from D16T alloy, the top was pressed panels from V95T1 alloy, and the transverse connecting elements, the so-called combs, were from V93T1 alloy. So literally after 1000 laboratory cycles, cracks began to appear in parts made of the V93T1 alloy. And this alloy was also very widely used in the design of both the fuselage and landing gear. And it was announced that whoever found the crack would pay 50 rubles. And we climbed this wing like cockroaches, looking for cracks. But they were found by specialists from the testing department, mainly using non-destructive testing methods. Later, when there was an understanding of the reasons for the occurrence of such early cracks, we realized that not only the alloy was to blame, but also the designers and strength experts who designed it. In particular, holes with a diameter of about 250 mm were made in the wing structure for installing fuel pumps. Around these large holes were many small holes for the bolts that held the pump in place. This created the highest concentration of stress. In order to make it easier, longitudinal holes were made in the transverse joint ridge to which the wing panels were attached, which intersected with the holes of the fasteners. All of these holes were sharp edged and of poor quality. Therefore, it is not surprising that the structure began to collapse so early. For calculations, in order to increase the service life of transverse joints, M.S. Shchuchinsky. A computer program was developed that made it possible to determine the load on bolts in multi-row joints. Using this program, specialists changed the diameter and material of fasteners in order to evenly distribute the load between the bolts. Later, to ensure the service life of the An-22 aircraft wing, the transverse joints were reinforced with steel plates, and the holes for the fuel pumps were cut and enlarged, removing the holes for fasteners, which made it possible to significantly reduce the stress concentration. Fuel pumps were attached to the wing using adapter parts.

In Shakhatuni E.A. doubts arose that the level of resource characteristics of domestic alloys was the same as that of their foreign analogues, and in 1976 she instructed me to compare fatigue life. It was very difficult to do this, because... there were significant differences - our samples have a hole, theirs have side cuts; Our test frequency is 40 Hz, theirs is 33 Hz. The test modes did not always coincide: pulsating load or symmetrical cycle. Nevertheless, having sifted through a bunch of foreign sources, we were able to select some convincing results, where we showed some advantages of foreign alloys over domestic ones in terms of fatigue life. A small report was prepared, I signed it with E.A. Shakhatuni. and thought that Antonov had O.K. she will sign it herself. But Elizaveta Avetovna sent me. She agreed with secretary Maria Alexandrovna to let me through to see Oleg Konstantinovich. He was aware of these works, because Shakhatuni told him about this. And so I, a young specialist, come to Antonov with a report and a covering letter, in which this report was sent to the heads of industry institutes TsAGI, VIAM and VILS. And Shakhatuni wrote a rather harsh letter. I show all this to Antonov, and he says that the letter needs to be corrected and softened, which he does. I object because... it has already been agreed upon by Shakhatuni, to which Oleg Konstantinovich very gently and delicately tells me why the letter needs to be rewritten. I later met with Antonov several more times in different situations, and I got the impression that he emanated “warmth of the sun.” After meeting with this outstanding Scientist, Designer, Organizer and Person, I wanted to work and literally “fly”!

After sending out this report, we began a real “war” with the leadership of VIAM and VILS (All-Union Institute of Light Alloys), who said that in the USSR all the characteristics of alloys and semi-finished products from them are the same as in the USA, and we have nothing to do with them we give in. There was a particularly tough confrontation with the head of laboratory No. 3 of VIAM Fridlyander I.N. TsAGI management, represented by Deputy. Head of TsAGI for Strength Selikhov A.F. and the head of the department, A.Z. Vorobyov, although they took our side, they behaved very passively. The KMZ management raised these issues to the Ministry level. We also took as our allies the strength engineers from the Tupolev Design Bureau A.N. Over time, we at VIAM were supported by Academician S. T. Kishkin and his wife S. I. Kishkina, Doctor of Science, head of the strength testing laboratory. Later, when R.E. Shalin was appointed head of VIAM, productive joint work began. I was very lucky because... I worked with outstanding specialists in the metallurgy industry, from ordinary employees to heads of institutes, metallurgical plants and MAP. In general, at that time there were many wonderful people and outstanding specialists in the metallurgy industry with whom we collaborated: deputy. head of VILS Dobatkin V.I., head of laboratory of VILS Elagin V.I., deputy. Head of VIAM Zasypkin V.A. and many many others.

In the USSR they could not understand how foreign aircraft B-707, B-727, DS-8 and others have a service life of 80,000-100,000 flight hours, while in the USSR it is 15,000-30,000. Moreover, when the aircraft was designed Tu-154, so it was necessary to redo the wing twice already in operation, because it did not provide the required resource. Soon we had the opportunity to study the design of foreign aircraft. At Sheremetyevo near Moscow, a Japanese airline's DC-8 plane crashed, and then on the Kola Peninsula, fighters "landed" a Korean airline's B-707 plane, which got lost and ended up in USSR airspace.

At the MMZ general designer Ilyushin S.V. pieces of structures were collected and Shakhatuni sent me to select the necessary samples for research and study. They were also tested at TsAGI, in particular, for survivability (duration of crack growth and residual strength in the presence of a crack).

Based on the results of research and testing, it was determined:

In the design (tail and longitudinal structure of the fuselage) of American aircraft, the high-strength alloy 7075-T6 (analogue in the USSR of the V95T1 alloy) is more widely used, while in domestic aircraft for these structures the less durable, but more high-resource alloy D16T (analogue in the USA 2024T3) was used. ;

Widespread use of bolt-rivets and other fastening elements that were installed with tension, which significantly increased fatigue life;

Automatic riveting of wing panels with rods using automatic machines from the Dzhemkor company, which ensured high fatigue characteristics and their stability, whereas in the USSR most of this work was performed manually;

The use of hard cladding on sheets, which increased their fatigue life. In the USSR, cladding (coating for corrosion protection) was performed with pure aluminum;

Significantly higher level of structural design to ensure high fatigue life;

Higher quality of manufacturing of structural elements and careful fitting of parts in production;

A lower content of harmful impurities of iron and silicon in alloys 2024 and 7075 than in domestic alloys, which increased the survivability (duration of crack growth and residual strength in the presence of a normalized crack) of the structure;

High-strength (210 kg/mm2) steel was used in the chassis design, while we have 30KhGSNA steel with a strength of 160 kg/mm2.

The result of these studies and others subsequently became the widespread use in the design of the An-124 aircraft of tension fasteners and high-purity alloys with the indicated impurities D16ochT, V95ochT2 and V93pchT2, an increase in culture and quality in mass production, and the introduction of new technological processes, in particular, shot blasting panels and parts, etc., which made it possible to significantly increase the service life and corrosion resistance of power structures.

According to an unspoken tradition, if some kind of military transport aircraft was created in the USA, then something similar was built in the USSR: S130 - An-12, S141 - Il-76, S5A - An-124, etc. After the company in the USA Lockheed was created and the C5A aircraft took off in 1967; the USSR began to prepare an adequate response. At first it was called the “200” product, then the “400” product, and later the An-124 aircraft. I don’t know why its creation was delayed, but it greatly helped us create an outstanding aircraft, because... A huge amount of research, scientific, applied and design work was carried out, and the negative operating experience of the C5A aircraft was taken into account, in particular, early fatigue damage to the wing in operation. They tried so hard to reduce the weight of the airframe structure when creating the aircraft that they completely forgot about the resource. When they began to carry out intensive transport during the Vietnam War, they quickly discovered the appearance of cracks in the wings, and they were first forced to reduce the weight of the cargo carried, and subsequently change the wings on all aircraft to new ones with a higher service life.

In particular, the problem of choosing semi-finished products (pressed panels or rolled plates) for the manufacture of the load-bearing structure of the wing of the An-124 aircraft was acute. The fact is that abroad, for the wings of passenger aircraft, which have a huge resource, rolled plates with stringers riveted to them are used (the exception is the military transport aircraft C141 and C5A, where pressed panels are used), and in the USSR pressed panels were used more where the skin and stringer are one. This was due to the fact that in the USSR, on the initiative of the head of VILS, Academician A.F. Belov. In the early 1960s, for the production of the An-22 aircraft and taking into account the future of the industry, unique horizontal presses with a capacity of 20,000 tons for the production of pressed panels and vertical presses with a capacity of 60,000 tons for the production of large-sized stampings were developed and built. There was no such equipment anywhere in the world. At the end of the 1970s, even the French metallurgical company Pechinet bought such a vertical press from the USSR. In the wings of the An-24, An-72, An-22, Il-62, Il-76, Il-86 and others, pressed panels were widely used and therefore serial aircraft factories had the equipment and technology for their production.

In the early 1970s, the Soviet Union considered the possibility of purchasing a wide-body passenger aircraft B-747 from Boeing. A large delegation of heads of MAP, OKB and institutes flew to Everett, where these aircraft were built. They were very impressed by what they saw in production and, especially, by the automatic riveting of the wing panels, and also by the fact that the service life of this aircraft was 100,000 flight hours. Then Boeing specialists flew to the USSR with reports on the B-747 aircraft, where Elizaveta Avetovna also took part. After arriving in Kyiv, she gathered us and told us about this meeting. What struck Shakhatuni most was that the Americans wore a new suit, tie and shirt every day (these reports lasted only 3 days), since we usually had one suit for all occasions.

Also, TsAGI specialists, in particular G.I. Nesterenko, believed and showed based on the test results of structural samples that the survivability of riveted structures is higher than monolithic structures made of pressed panels, and I always agreed with this. (By the way, the B-747 plane was never bought, but the Il-86 was built instead).
Impressed by what they saw at Boeing, all industry institutes took the position that the wing of the An-124 aircraft should be made of a prefabricated structure from rolled plates! We took the position that the wing should be made from pressed panels. And then, as they say, I found a scythe on a stone. Our designers and technologists have shown that in the case of using pressed panels with a tip, it is possible to use a flange joint rather than a shear joint, which simplifies the joining of the tip and central parts of the wing and reduces labor intensity, and simplifies the sealing of the wing box. The fact that in the USSR there is no production of long (up to 30 m) rolled slabs, as in the USA. There were also other benefits shown on the posters, but I don’t remember them anymore. But we still had to prove that the durability and weight characteristics of such a wing would be no worse.

We prepared and agreed with the institutes on a large Comparative Test Program and in the summer of 1976 I flew to the Tashkent Aviation Plant, where the head of our branch was Ermokhin I.G. At this time, the Il-76 aircraft was being built here, the wing of which was made from pressed panels. I was assigned K.I. Demidov as an assistant. and we selected 10 pressed panels from D16T alloy, which differed, within tolerance, in strength and chemical composition. According to the “Program...”, the plant was supposed to produce hundreds of different samples of different sizes for testing for fatigue and survivability and send them to TsAGI, VIAM and KMZ. All this work, which was not specific to the serial plant, was then carried out by Ermokhin and Demidov. Then I went to MAP, where the KMZ management decided to accept me at the Voronezh Aviation Plant, and also coordinate and implement the Test Program. From Moscow I went to Voronezh, where the Il-86 aircraft was produced, in the design of the central part of the fuselage, rolled plates of the D16T alloy were used. I selected 3 slabs, agreed on the Program, resolved all the issues and got acquainted with the plant. At that time, in addition to the Il-86, the Tu-144 supersonic aircraft was also being built there. Excellent workshops were built, the latest machines and equipment were purchased and installed, in particular, the aircraft wing was monolithic and was made by milling rolled plates from the heat-resistant alloy AK4-1T1. I looked at all this splendor and thought, if all these funds that were invested in the creation of the Tu-144 aircraft were invested in subsonic aviation, then maybe we would reach the level of the United States? The fact is that it was a “political” project that the Soviet Union never mastered. But this is from a different area.

Thanks to the enormous efforts of Shakhatuni and the management of KMZ, funds were knocked out at MAP and special testing equipment from Schenk (USA) was purchased, on which various tests of large-sized structural samples were carried out. V.V. Muratov dealt with this issue. Less powerful equipment was also purchased and a team was organized under the leadership of G.I. Khanin, which was engaged in numerous tests of small samples. Then Elizaveta Avetovna created a fractographic research team and “knocked out” a special microscope for studying cracks. Burchenkova L.M., a highly qualified specialist in this field, was appointed head of the team. In all these matters and in terms of the level of confidence in the results obtained, in a very short time we reached the level of the TsAGI and VIAM laboratories, which were considered the best in the industry, and even more so in the USSR!

As a result of a huge amount of testing performed in 3 different laboratories of the D16T alloy, it was shown that:

Pressed panels are superior to rolled slabs in static strength by 4 kg/mm2;

Pressed panels are 1.5 times superior to rolled slabs in terms of fatigue life;

The growth rate of fatigue cracks in pressed panels is 1.5 times lower, and the fracture toughness of CS is 15% higher.

These advantages were identified only in one longitudinal direction, in which, in fact, the panels in the wing structure operate. Microstructure studies have shown that pressed panels have a non-recrystallized (fibrous) structure, while rolled plates have a recrystallized structure, which explains the resulting difference in properties (see the dissertation of A.G. Vovnyanko “Durability and crack resistance of new aluminum alloys used in the construction of aircraft airframes ", Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, 1985).

Based on the results of these studies, pressed panels were selected for the manufacture of the wing of the An-124 aircraft.

Next, there was a huge amount of work to be done by VILS and VSMOS on the development of long (30 meters) panels with a tip for the end part of the wing, large-sized profiles for spars and massive pressed strips for the central part of the wing, the technology for their production, as well as the casting of large-sized unique ingots, the creation and development equipment. It should be noted that VSMOS was the largest metallurgical plant. He made all kinds of large pressed and stamped semi-finished products for most An aircraft, so we had very close and intimate connections. The plant used electric furnaces to smelt aluminum alloys, while other plants used gas furnaces, which increased the purity of the metal. Also, all titanium blanks for aircraft, as well as semi-finished products for the manufacture of hulls of nuclear submarines, were made at this plant, not to mention blanks for blades for jet engines and much more. The People and Team were amazing, solving the most advanced problems in the aviation industry and defense industry of the USSR!

After modifications and certification work and flight tests in 1991, the aircraft received a type certificate and became designated An-124-100. After that, other airlines, Russian and foreign, began to use it. The reserves built into the design made it possible to increase the carrying capacity from 120 tons to 150, and the service life to 40,000 flight hours and 10,000 flights. Now, at the request of Volga-Dnepr Airlines, the possibility of further increasing the resource is being considered, because many years of talk about restoring serial production of this aircraft are nothing more than an imitation of activity and self-promotion.
In the 1970s, a new generation of aluminum alloys appeared abroad: 2124, 7175, 2048, 7475, 7010,7050 and technologies for manufacturing semi-finished products from them, as well as new two-stage aging modes T76 and T73 for alloys of the 7000 series. This made it possible to improve the entire complex strength and, especially, resource properties and corrosion resistance. It should be noted that in general the USA was 10-15 years ahead of the USSR in this area (see article Vovnyanko A.G., Drits A.M., “Aluminum alloys in aircraft construction - past and present”, Non-ferrous metals, No. 8, 2010).

In January 1977, the management of KMZ, at the suggestion of Shakhatuni, decided to create a group “Structural Strength of Metals”, and I was appointed head of this group. Zakharenko E.A. was already working for us, and I had to find the best guys for this job. I walked around the departments, asked, consulted, and I managed to select excellent (in every sense) young specialists: Vorontsov I.S., then later Kuznetsova V., who dealt with aluminum alloys, Grechko V.V. – titanium alloys, and Kovtuna A.P. - structural steels. Later, Elizaveta Avetovna suggested expanding the research, and we hired A.I. Nikolaychik, who worked on residual stresses in stampings and parts made from them. These specialists carried out a huge amount of research, analysis of the results obtained, analysis of foreign literature, processing of results and drawing up reports, etc. Since I spent most of my time on long business trips, the group was actually led by E.A. Shakhatuni.

In the department RIO-1 Shakhatuni E.A. A huge amount of work was organized to study foreign experience in various areas. Domestic and foreign scientific journals were subscribed. Specially appointed translator M.N. Shnaidman to the staff of the department. search work was carried out on everything new in the field of strength, service life, materials and alloys. All this was translated, analyzed and implemented. For example, during the Vietnam War, the newest tactical bomber F-111A crashed. The results of the investigation revealed that the cause was a minor manufacturing defect, which caused the crack to appear prematurely. Work in this direction began abroad, and we did not lag behind. S.P. Malashenkov conducted tests and developed calculation methods on numerous conventional and structural samples. and Semenets A.I.. Most of the works on research on structural samples ed. “400” was led by Vasilevsky E.T.

Since after a long time of working with metallurgists, studying specialized literature and foreign research, I had already begun to understand some patterns in the field of creating alloys, and was well acquainted with specialists and with the heads of institutes and metallurgical plants, the idea arose to create alloys specifically for the An-124 aircraft , fortunately I knew what characteristics were needed. However, this was the prerogative of laboratory No. 3 of VIAM, which was headed by I.N. Fridlyander. Therefore, it was necessary to bypass them. VILS had a team of like-minded friends with enormous knowledge and desire to do this work - Drits A.M., Zaikovsky V.B. and Schneider G.I. etc. We were all young and difficulties did not bother us. Shakhatuni E.A. supported us in this endeavor.

For the lower panels (working in tension in flight) of the wings of passenger and transport aircraft, medium-strength (44-48 kg/mm2) alloys were used, where the main alloying element was copper: 2024, D16 and their derivatives. These alloys have a high level of fatigue life and survivability. They have relatively low corrosion resistance. Since the level of stress in the lower wing panels is determined (with the exception of the wing tips, where the thickness is so small that it is determined structurally) only by the resource characteristics, their significant improvement increases the weight efficiency and service life of the aircraft. In the case of using pressed panels, it was also important to guarantee a non-recrystallized structure. This is facilitated by the introduction of a small amount of zirconium into the alloy. A very important characteristic for a prefabricated monolithic (11 panels in the root part) wing made of pressed panels is the duration of crack growth and residual strength in the presence of a two-span crack (one stringer is destroyed and the crack approaches two adjacent stringers). It was later determined that this wing could withstand operational loads with one panel completely destroyed. A slight reduction in alloy doping plays a role here. However, it was necessary not to significantly lose the tensile strength and, especially, the yield strength.

For the upper panels (working in flight in compression) of the wing, high-strength zinc-based coatings were used: 7075, B95. These alloys have also been widely used for fighter and bomber wings, where service life requirements are less demanding. With single-stage heat treatment T1, they have high strength, but low service life characteristics and corrosion resistance.
Two-stage aging regimes, introduced first abroad and then in the USSR, with a slight decrease in strength, somewhat increased the service life characteristics and, significantly, corrosion resistance. In the USSR, high-alloy, high-strength alloys V96 and then V96ts were developed for disposable missiles. But they were not suitable for aircraft with a long service life, and it was impossible to make large-sized ingots from them, and therefore semi-finished products. In the USA, a high-alloy, high-strength universal alloy 7050 was developed and widely introduced, which replaced alloys 7075, 7175 for all types of semi-finished products. It exceeds the indicated alloys in static strength by approximately 4-5 kg/mm2 and is used only in two-stage aging modes. We analyzed it, but it did not suit us in terms of technological properties, because... It was impossible to cast large-sized ingots of the size we needed from it. Therefore, all efforts were aimed at somewhat increasing the strength and yield limits and, significantly, the resource characteristics.

Alloy for the manufacture of forgings and stampings. As mentioned above, in the USSR there were 2 alloys AK6T1 and V93T1, which did not suit the designers, and we used the D16T alloy for the An-72 and An-74 aircraft.

The peculiarity of the B93 alloy is that iron is an alloying element in it. This allows the workpieces to be hardened in hot (80 degrees) water, which reduces the stresses and the level of residual stresses. The price is low survivability characteristics. The 7050T73 alloy, used at that time in the USA for these purposes, significantly exceeded all of the above alloys in terms of the entire range of properties.

But we also had other problems, namely, to produce long panels and massive pressed strips of forgings and stampings, it was necessary to cast large-sized ingots with a diameter of up to 1200 mm, and we physically could not go for high alloying. A special feature of transport aircraft is the high position of the wing in order to bring the fuselage closer to the ground and simplify the loading of cargo. As a result of this, it is necessary to use very massive power frames, as well as chassis mounting brackets, power lows in the area where the front struts are attached and the threshold of the rear cargo hatch. In aircraft with lower wings, such massive semi-finished products and parts made from them are not needed. This is the difference between the An-124 and the B747: in the latter there are much fewer complex stamping parts and they are significantly smaller in size.

Also, at this time it became generally known that the impurities of iron and silicon, which are present in all these alloys, significantly reduce survivability. Therefore, their content in alloys had to be reduced as much as possible. The development of new alloys is not done in one year, because... it is necessary to carry out a large complex of research and development, first in the laboratories of institutes, and then in production and the design bureau.

We had just begun to carry out this work, but we already had to decide what to use for the design and manufacture of the An-124 aircraft? Based on the knowledge obtained, the following decisions were made: lower wing panels - pressed alloy panels made of D16 alloy ochT (och - very pure); upper wing panels - pressed panels made of V95ochT2 alloy; forgings and stampings from D16ochT alloy. Also widely used in the airframe design are sheets and profiles made of high-purity aluminum alloys (HP). In the critical power structures of the airframe and landing gear, parts made of titanium alloy VT22 and high-alloy steel VNS5 are used. The sheet flooring of the cargo compartment floor is made of sheets of titanium alloy VT6. Titanium alloys are also widely used in aircraft systems, in particular air systems.

Here I have to interrupt the story about the development of new alloys, because... all efforts during this period were aimed at the production and supply of semi-finished products, as well as the manufacture of parts from them for the construction of the first An-124 aircraft for flight tests and the second aircraft for static tests.

As I already said, we used large-sized long (30 m) pressed panels with winglets and profiles for the side members for the aircraft. The longer length was chosen in order to avoid making an additional transverse joint, because this is mass and labor intensive. In Verkhnyaya Salda, where these semi-finished products were made, there was no equipment for hardening and stretching them. Such equipment was in Belaya Kalitva, Rostov region, because They planned to launch the production of long rolled slabs there. But the rolling mill, purchased abroad, stood and rusted in boxes. To deliver these panels, first to Belaya Kalitva, and then to Tashkent, where the wing was made, a special railway platform was made. And then one day the chief controller of KMZ V.N. Panin calls me. and says that we need to go to the metallurgical plant in Belaya Kalitva to see how things are going there. The three of us, including production manager O.G. Kotlyar, went there on a study tour. The first batch of panels was already there. But the workshop had just been built and the factory workers did not know which side to approach these panels from. The authorities took a ride and left for Kyiv, and they left me hostage, although I was not a metallurgist and did not understand anything about these matters. If in Verneya Salda the panels were lowered vertically during hardening, then here they were horizontal, because It is impossible to build a bathtub 31 meters deep and instantly lower a panel into it. When lowering the panel, heated to a temperature of approximately 380°, into cold water at a temperature of 20°, it twisted terribly. We probably spent a whole month until we achieved an acceptable geometry through various experiments. I won't reveal all the secrets here. Then, again, the required stretching of semi-finished products was determined experimentally in order to remove residual stresses and obtain the required geometry. Difficulties were due to the different thickness of the regular section and the ending, and therefore different degrees of deformation.

Later, the leading designer from the wing department, A.V. Kozachenko, was sent to help me. Together, it became more fun not only to work, but also to survive, because we worked 16 hours a day with a break only for sleep and without days off, because... deadlines were pressing. We moved on to the next stage - checking for the presence of defects detected by ultrasonic testing methods. And then we were horrified! The number of such defects (delaminations) inside the metal reached 3000-5000 pieces. And they were not located evenly, but in some spots, as if someone was “shooting” this panel with a shotgun. No one could guarantee that it would not fall apart on the first flight. And so the entire first batch of panels. There was nothing to do - we went to Kyiv to report to the authorities. After I reported to Balabuev P.V., he called a meeting with the general designer Antonov O.K. There were not many people there. In addition to those listed, there were chief technologist I.V. Pavlov, head of the airframe design department V.Z. Bragilevsky, head of the wing department G.P. Gindin, Kozachenko and I, and as many other people as possible. I briefly reported the problems. After which Oleg Konstantinovich posed the question - what to do and what proposals will there be? Balabuev P.V., who, as the chief designer of the An-124 aircraft, was responsible for the deadlines, suggested cutting the panels and making an additional transverse joint. Bragilevsky spoke for a long time, but I still didn’t understand what he was offering. When they gave me the floor, I said that we would try and make long panels. I still don’t understand why I said this, because... Nothing depended on me. Probably due to my youth. After which Oleg Konstantinovich took full responsibility and decided to continue working on providing high-quality long panels. In fact, quality for defects was ensured in Verkhnyaya Salda, and not in Belaya Kalitva.

We went immediately after the meeting to Belaya Kalitva. There was a huge meeting of representatives of institutes, managers from Tashkent, who were also pressed for deadlines (they were manufacturing the central and end parts of the wing), P.V. Balabuev also arrived. After the meeting, before departure, Balabuev took me aside and said, “whatever you want do it, but provide the panels for the first plane!” Kozachenko and I had to take big risks and take responsibility. We have already focused not only on the number of defects, but also on how they are located in the design of the part, because a significant amount of metal is removed during the milling process. In difficult situations, we called the designers in Kyiv and they analyzed the location of defects and their impact on strength. Over the course of several months, from October 1978 to April 1979, we provided the required number of panels for the manufacture of the first wing, although the number of defects in them sometimes reached 1000-1500 pieces. The work, responsibility and stress were so exhausting that after 3 weeks the roof began to go crazy and we went home for 2-3 days with a report and at least to see the family with one eye. After the report to Balabuev, the very next day he called and asked why you were sitting here, let’s go back. On one of these trips from Belaya Kalitva to Kyiv there was a snowstorm. But in the steppe it sweeps up all the roads and traffic stops. It took a day to get from Belaya Kalitva to Rostov, although the distance there is about 200 km. Paid truckers. I come to Kyiv, go to Shakhatuni and say that this is how it is, I had to get there, spend money and ask for compensation. And Elizaveta Avetovna says: “I didn’t send you there. Go to the one who sent you there.” I had to go to Balabuev and he wrote me out as much as 20 rubles. And so no bonuses, because... I was listed in the RIO-1 department, where there was a bonus fund for the work that the department did, and I worked for Balabuev and Shakhatuni didn’t like it. These were the pies! I don’t remember exactly, but probably about 50% of the panels were scrap. We took a significant number of substandard panels to Kyiv, where we then made samples and carried out various tests.

Only at the end of April I arrived in Kyiv, when a new problem appeared - a sink in the end (delamination inside the metal along the entire length of the end). They are again sent to Verkhnyaya Salda, and at the same time to Tashkent. It was May 11th, in Tashkent it was already plus 30°, I think it won’t be very cold in the Urals, and I flew to Sverdlovsk in a suit. I arrive there, and it’s plus 3° and it’s snowing. Frozen as hell. I had to stop by my wife’s relatives and warm myself up. By the time I got to Verkhnaya Salda, the factory workers, together with VILS, had already solved the problem - they reduced the pressing speed in the tip zone and the defect disappeared.

In the summer of 1979, a new misfortune came, this time from Tashkent. Huge blanks of parts made from forgings of alloy D16ochT after hardening began to crack. For the first aircraft, parts are made from forgings, because... Making stamps is a long process. The Ministry assembled and urgently sent there a large Commission of representatives of VIAM, VILS and MAP. From KMZ - Shakhatuni and I. We arrived there, and about 10 blank parts were already cracked. Since the forgings are very huge, for example, for power frames about 4 m in length, 0.8 m wide, 0.3 m thick and weighing up to 3 tons, it is pre-milled, leaving only a rough allowance. This is necessary so that the cooling rate is high and the part has the required strength and corrosion properties. After familiarizing ourselves with the situation, all of us members of the commission sit at a large table and think, what kind of attack is this, what should we do? At this time, more and more messages are coming: the workpiece has cracked, and another. The count has already reached 2 tens!

I saw Elizaveta Avetovna’s face turned yellow, like parchment. I was also scared, I thought that if they didn’t shoot me, they would definitely send me to Siberia, because it was KMZ that insisted that forgings and stampings be made from D16ochT alloy. P.V. Balabuev urgently arrived. He took me aside for advice on what to do. I start to “bleat”, like we need to do it like the Americans for the S5A aircraft from the V95ochT2 alloy. By that time, we, together with institutes, had already carried out work on this alloy for forgings and stampings, and it began to be used for fighter aircraft. But Peter Vasilyeva says, “No, let them (that is, VIAM) propose and answer. We've had enough! VIAM proposed the V93pchT2 alloy. Since the tensile strength of these alloys is the same (44 kg/mm2), there was no need to change the drawings. And since the B93 alloy is quenched in hot water, quenching cracks do not occur in large-sized forgings, unlike the D16 alloy, which is quenched in cold water. The Commission wrote a Decision, where Elizaveta Avetovna nevertheless insisted that there be a point, such as continuing work on the D16ochT alloy for forgings and stampings. "400". It also described the procedure for writing off these blanks and forgings, which is about 300 tons of high-quality metal, an instruction to allocate funds for the production of new forgings from the B93 alloy, and much more. And they sent me to the MAP so that I would approve this Decision with Deputy Minister Bolbot A.V.. I arrive at the MAP, go to the 6th Main Directorate, to which KMZ was directly subordinate, to the chief engineer N.M. Orlov.. Because in the Decision there was a “slippery” point on the D16 alloy, but we hoped that Bolbot A.V. will not “see” it and sign it. N.M. Orlov put me in jail. under the office of Bolbot A.V. and says: “When you see him coming, call me right away.” I was sitting under the door of my office and suddenly Anufriy Vikentievich appeared and said: “Well, why are you sitting - come in.” I took the Solution and began to quickly read. He reached this unfortunate point and said: “I do not make technical decisions, but can only give instructions to institutions.” Corrects this paragraph and signs the Decision. I, like a “beaten dog,” go to N.M. Orlov. and I get a scolding from him that I shouldn’t have gone to Bolbot, but should have called him. He himself went to Anufriy Vikentievich to leave that point in its original form, and came out with nothing. I arrived in Kyiv and went to P.V. Balabuev. and I say that I no longer want to deal with the D16 alloy for forgings and let him tell Elizaveta Avetovna about this. To which he tells me: “Go and tell me yourself. She’s a smart woman, she’ll understand.” But Elizaveta Avetovna was offended and did not speak to me for several weeks. But then we resumed our normal industrial relations and we remained “friends” as we were.

My trips to metallurgical plants and Tashkent continued to ensure the construction of the first and then the second An-124 aircraft.

In the spring of 1982, Pyotr Vasilyevich took me to a meeting at the Ministry, which was chaired by Minister I.S. Silaev. The issue of providing semi-finished products for serial production of the An-124 aircraft was considered. Serial production was launched without waiting for the results of flight tests, because... The USSR was already far behind the United States in terms of the quantity and quality of strategic military transport aircraft. We were traveling by train to NE, and I took 0.5 Armenian cognac. We had dinner and drinks. I was dumbfounded, and Balabueva P.V. at least something. In the morning he went to his apartment to get himself in order, and I went to the MAP. We met in the conference room, where various leaders began to gather - I was “hungover”, and Pyotr Vasilyevich was like a “cucumber”. Then Pyotr Vasilyevich says, “I have work to do and I went, and you report.” I fell into a stupor. The Minister, academicians, heads of institutes and heads of metallurgical plants came and Silaev asked where the speaker was. There is nothing to do, I take the posters and go hang them up. When I was preparing posters for meetings, Elizaveta Avetovna taught me: “The bosses there, she says, are elderly and have poor vision. That’s why you write little on the posters and in large letters.” That's exactly what I did. In general, stuttering and trembling with fright, I began my report. First, I showed what alloys are used abroad and that we are lagging behind in terms of characteristics. Ivan Stepanovich turned questioningly to the leaders of VIAM and VILS, to which they began to prove that this is not so and everything is the same with us. Since no one supported me, I had to move on to the second question. I reported numerous defects in semi-finished products and a large number of defects. There was nothing left to cover here and everyone agreed. The protocol stated that the institutes carried out work and improved the quality of semi-finished products in order to significantly reduce defects, and metallurgical plants increased the number of semi-finished products produced to ensure serial production of the aircraft. But I still don’t understand why Pyotr Vasilyevich set me up like that? Perhaps he didn’t want to quarrel with the heads of the institutes?

For the first time in the industry, passports were introduced for all semi-finished products of the An-124 aircraft, which contained the entire range of properties. The test results of not only VIAM, but also KMZ were used. Also, for the first time in the industry, K1S fracture toughness control was introduced at metallurgical plants for these semi-finished products.

At the same time, over the course of 2 years, VILS has carried out extensive work to study the influence of various alloying elements on the entire complex of properties. Numerous ingots were cast and strips were pressed, and forgings were forged from malleable alloys. The technology of their production, temperature conditions and aging conditions were tested. After that, samples were made and tests were carried out for strength, service life characteristics and corrosion resistance in VILS and KMZ. Zirconium was introduced into all the studied alloys as an alloying additive, because this improved the resource properties (See the article Vovnyanko A.G., Drits A.M. “The influence of composition on fatigue resistance and crack resistance of pressed semi-finished products from alloys of the Al-Cu-Mg and Al-Zn-Mg-Cu systems. Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences Metals, 1984, No. 1). After a large amount of research, chemical compositions and manufacturing technologies were selected for industrial testing. A “Research Program...” was written and I went to Verkhnyaya Salda, where I agreed with the management to manufacture a pilot batch of long panels and large-sized forgings for the An-124 aircraft from new alloys. It was an amazing time!!! Then these semi-finished products arrived at KMZ, where samples were made from them and sent for testing to VILS, TsAGI and VIAM. The test results confirmed the advantages of these alloys in terms of the entire range of properties compared to the alloys used for the manufacture of critical power structures of the An-124 aircraft (see article Vovnyanko A.G., Drits A.M., Shneider G.I. “Monolithic structures and aluminum alloys with zirconium for their manufacture." Technology of light alloys. August, 1984).
Then Drits A.M. called. and said: “We will register copyright inventions for the specified alloy composition” and that VIAM specialists should also be included there. I was very indignant: “Why are they doing this? They didn’t do anything.” To which Alexander Mikhailovich, experienced in these matters, replied: “If we don’t include them in the team of authors, then we won’t introduce these alloys,” because without the approval of VIAM it was impossible to use anything on airplanes. I also went to Elizaveta Avetovna and suggested that she become one of the authors. At this she was very indignant and said: “What do I have to do with this? You’ve been studying, that’s enough.” I tried to prove to her that without her support none of this would have happened. But she didn’t talk to me any further. This is what a noble and intelligent person means! I knew bosses at KMZ who forced their subordinates to include themselves in the Author's List, otherwise they would not sign the documents. Dritsom A.M. applications were submitted and we received Copyright Certificates No. 1343857, registered 06/8/1987, No. 1362057, 08/22/1987, No. 1340198, 05/22/1987). Subsequently, these alloys received new names 1161, 1973 and 1933.

But this is not all the achievements of Elizaveta Avetovna. After the aircraft had already been put into production and static and, partially, fatigue tests had been carried out (by the way, on the initiative of E.A. Shakhatuni, on one copy of the aircraft, which no one in the world had ever succeeded in), Elizaveta Avetovna managed to introduce these new alloys into serial production of the An-124 aircraft! The lower wing panels began to be made of 1161T alloy, the upper ones - from 1973T2, stampings - from 1933T2. Subsequently, these alloys began to be widely used in all new aircraft An-225, An-70, An-148 and others.

In 1986, the developers of these alloys, including me, became laureates of the Prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

In 1982, I came to Elizaveta Avetovna and said that I wanted to work on airplanes, because... I had no prospects in the strength department. Shakhatuni went to Pyotr Vasilyevich and he gave the go-ahead for my transfer to the newly created service of leading designers for the An-70 aircraft. Such an amazing and bright Person was Shakhatuni Elizaveta Avetovna!

In 1985, I was appointed head of a group of leading designers to create the An-225 aircraft. And here we immediately introduced new aluminum alloys 1161T, 1972T2 and 1993T in all power structures of the wing, fuselage and tail. This made it possible to provide a payload capacity unprecedented in the world aircraft industry - 250 tons, while ensuring the resource specified in the technical specifications. There is no doubt that in the future this resource will be significantly increased by analogy with the An-124 aircraft

In the early 1990s, Drits A.M. called. and invited me to give a report at Boeing in Moscow. Leading specialists from VIAM and VILS gathered there, and Boeing recently opened its branch on the street. Tverskoy. I reported on the widespread use of milled monolithic parts in the design of Antonov aircraft, as well as their fatigue and survivability characteristics. After some time, the head of the Boeing branch for the CIS countries, S.V. Kravchenko, came to us in Kyiv. I brought him to the first deputy general designer Kiva D.S., where he proposed to do joint research work on a monolithic all-milled pressurized frame in the forward part of the fuselage (this is where the pressurized zone ends and the locator is installed in front). These pressurized frames on all aircraft, both here and abroad, were of riveted construction. Kiva D.S. said that if Boeing pays $1 million, then KMZ agrees to carry out such work. When we left, Sergei said: “I have a budget of only 3 million dollars for the entire CIS, so this is unrealistic.” As a result, they began to work with MMZ named after. Ilyushina S.V. on the luggage rack using milled parts.

In the early 1990s, Fridlyander I.N. “managed” to re-patent alloys 1161, 1973 and 1933, introducing into the basic chemical composition impurities in hundredths of a percent, which are always present in all aluminum alloys. Naturally, he forgot about us, the developers.

What we developed and applied more than 30 years ago in the An-124 aircraft is currently used by Boeing in the designs of the latest aircraft B787 Dreamliner, B747-8, etc. Even the name of the aircraft was stolen: “Dream-Dream-Mriya” , because this name was invented by P.V. Balabuev. for the An-225 aircraft. These aircraft widely use monolithic milled parts made of aluminum alloys and, especially, titanium alloys. The fact is that mechanical processing of parts with complex geometries on modern machines with the highest milling speeds turns out to be significantly cheaper to produce than manufacturing a prefabricated structure, which involves a lot of manual labor. The number of parts, work operations, workplaces, fasteners, equipment, etc. is significantly reduced. Boeing even created a joint venture with VSMOS (now AVISMA) to produce blanks and parts from titanium alloys.