Experts reconstructed the take-off scheme of the Tu-154 based on the readings of the flight recorder, the Kommersant newspaper reports. The obtained result seemed unusual to the experts - it turned out that when the navigator warned the pilots about the fall, they did not react to it in any way. The airliner's sensors did not detect the "toward" movement of the steering wheel, which was logical in the current situation.

ON THIS TOPIC

Moreover, a source close to the investigation said that “until the collision with water, they responded to the control actions of the crew in a timely and regular manner.” The pilot's emotional statement about the flaps may indicate a non-critical delay in the order to remove them, but not a technical malfunction.

Aviation experts suggested that the pilots' behavior was greatly affected by the fact that the flight took place at night. “A few seconds after leaving the well-lit and marked strip, you cross the also illuminated coastline and immediately find yourself as if in a black hole,” said one of the experts. In such a situation, the pilot must trust solely the sensor readings, and not his own vestibular system.

However, the Tu-154 onboard systems recorded that the commander manually adjusted the flight path for a long time. This indicates his loss of orientation. Many experts criticize the inaction of the co-pilot Alexander Rovensky, but his behavior is explained by the fear of taking the helm from the senior Major Volkov.

However, a number of experts deny the “illusory” version of the Tu-154 crash. They explain the resulting diagram of the tragedy by a malfunction of the parameter recording system.

Let us add that the behavior of a pilot’s body has long been studied by such a science as aviation psychology. However, experts have still not been able to determine why an aircraft captain instinctively breaks the flight path. Experts say that fatigue, stress and malaise can contribute to loss of orientation. According to statistics, every tenth plane crash in the world occurs due to illusions.

An amazing sight is a cone of steam appearing around an airplane flying at transonic speed. This amazing effect, known as the Prandtl-Gloert effect, causes the eyes to open wide and the jaw to drop. But what is its essence?

(Total 12 photos)

1. Contrary to popular belief, this effect does not appear when the plane breaks the sound barrier. The Prandtl-Gloert effect is also often associated with supersonic bang, which is also not true. Ultra-high bypass aircraft engines can create this effect at takeoff speed because the engine inlet is low pressure and the fan blades themselves operate at transonic speed.

2. The reason for its occurrence is that an airplane flying at high speed creates an area of ​​​​high air pressure in front of it and an area of ​​low pressure behind it. After the plane passes, the area of ​​low pressure begins to fill with ambient air. In this case, due to the sufficiently high inertia of air masses, first the entire low pressure area is filled with air from nearby areas adjacent to the low pressure area.

3. Imagine an object moving at transonic speed. Transonic speed is different from the speed of sound. The sound barrier is broken at a speed of 1235 km/h. Transonic speed is below, above or near the speed of sound and can vary from 965 to 1448 km/h. Therefore, this effect can occur when the aircraft is moving at a speed less than or equal to the speed of sound.

4. And yet it’s all about the sound - the “visibility” of this steam cone behind the plane depends on it. The cone shape is created by the force of sound (in the case of airplanes) moving faster than the sound waves it produces. The Prandtl-Gloert effect arises as a result of the wave nature of sounds.

5. Again, think of the plane as the source and the sound as the crest of the wave. These sound wave crests are a series or shell of overlapping circles. When the waves overlap each other, a cone shape is created, and the tip is the source of the sound. So far invisible.

6. For the effect to become visible to the human eye, one more thing is needed - humidity. When the humidity is high enough, the air around the cone condenses and forms the cloud we see. As soon as the air pressure returns to normal, the cloud disappears. The effect almost always occurs on planes flying over the ocean in the summer - the combination of water and heat gives the desired level of humidity.

7. Here you can destroy another one. Some believe that the Prandtl-Gloert effect occurs as a result of fuel combustion.

8. You can probably understand if you think that this effect is a contrail, that is, an unnatural cloud appearing from condensed water vapor produced by engine exhaust. However, this is not the same thing. The water vapor is already there - it's already in the air before the plane even passes through it.

9. Air pressure is also worth mentioning. When an airplane is moving at transonic speed, the air pressure around it is called an N-wave because when pressure varies with time, the result is similar to the letter N.

10. If we could slow down the blast wave passing through us, we would see the leading compression component. This is the beginning of the N. The horizontal stick occurs when the pressure drops, and when the normal atmospheric pressure returns to the final point, the letter N is created.

11. The effect is named after two outstanding scientists who discovered this phenomenon. Ludwig Prandtl (1875 – 1953) was a German scientist who studied the development of systematic mathematical analysis in aerodynamics. Hermann Glauert (1892 – 1934) was a British aerodynamicist.

12. Believe it or not, you can create this effect yourself. You only need two things: a whip and a day with high humidity. If you can whip a whip like Indiana Jones, you'll see a similar effect. Although, you shouldn't try this at home.

Passed the sound barrier :-)...

Before we start talking about the topic, let's bring some clarity to the question of the accuracy of concepts (what I like :-)). Nowadays two terms are in fairly wide use: sound barrier And supersonic barrier. They sound similar, but still not the same. However, there is no point in being particularly strict: in essence, they are one and the same thing. The definition of sound barrier is most often used by people who are more knowledgeable and closer to aviation. And the second definition is usually everyone else.

I think that from the point of view of physics (and the Russian language :-)) it is more correct to say the sound barrier. There is simple logic here. After all, there is a concept of the speed of sound, but, strictly speaking, there is no fixed concept of supersonic speed. Looking ahead a little, I will say that when an aircraft flies at supersonic speed, it has already passed this barrier, and when it passes (overcomes) it, it then passes a certain threshold speed value equal to the speed of sound (and not supersonic).

Something like that:-). Moreover, the first concept is used much less frequently than the second. This is apparently because the word supersonic sounds more exotic and attractive. And in supersonic flight, the exotic is certainly present and, naturally, attracts many. However, not all people who savor the words “ supersonic barrier“They actually understand what it is. I have already been convinced of this more than once, looking at forums, reading articles, even watching TV.

This question is actually quite complex from a physics point of view. But, of course, we won’t bother with complexity. We’ll just try, as usual, to clarify the situation using the principle of “explaining aerodynamics on your fingers” :-).

So, to the barrier (sound :-))!... An airplane in flight, acting on such an elastic medium as air, becomes a powerful source of sound waves. I think everyone knows what sound waves in air are :-).

Sound waves (tuning fork).

This is an alternation of areas of compression and rarefaction, spreading in different directions from the sound source. Something like circles on water, which are also waves (just not sound ones :-)). It is these areas, acting on the eardrum of the ear, that allow us to hear all the sounds of this world, from human whispers to the roar of jet engines.

An example of sound waves.

The points of propagation of sound waves can be various components of the aircraft. For example, an engine (its sound is known to anyone :-)), or parts of the body (for example, the bow), which, compacting the air in front of them as they move, create a certain type of pressure (compression) wave running forward.

All these sound waves propagate in the air at the speed of sound already known to us. That is, if the plane is subsonic, and even flies at low speed, then they seem to run away from it. As a result, when such an aircraft approaches, we first hear its sound, and then it itself flies by.

I will make a reservation, however, that this is true if the plane is not flying very high. After all, the speed of sound is not the speed of light :-). Its magnitude is not so great and sound waves need time to reach the listener. Therefore, the order of sound appearance for the listener and the aircraft, if it flies at high altitude, may change.

And since the sound is not so fast, then with an increase in its own speed the plane begins to catch up with the waves it emits. That is, if he were motionless, then the waves would diverge from him in the form concentric circles like ripples on the water caused by a thrown stone. And since the plane is moving, in the sector of these circles corresponding to the direction of flight, the boundaries of the waves (their fronts) begin to approach each other.

Subsonic body movement.

Accordingly, the gap between the aircraft (its nose) and the front of the very first (head) wave (that is, this is the area where gradual, to a certain extent, braking occurs free stream when meeting with the nose of the aircraft (wing, tail) and, as a consequence, increase in pressure and temperature) begins to contract and the faster the higher the flight speed.

There comes a moment when this gap practically disappears (or becomes minimal), turning into a special kind of area called shock wave. This happens when the flight speed reaches the speed of sound, that is, the plane moves at the same speed as the waves it emits. The Mach number is equal to unity (M=1).

Sound movement of the body (M=1).

Shock shock, is a very narrow region of the medium (about 10 -4 mm), when passing through which there is no longer a gradual, but a sharp (jump-like) change in the parameters of this medium - speed, pressure, temperature, density. In our case, the speed decreases, pressure, temperature and density increase. Hence the name - shock wave.

In a somewhat simplified way, I would say this about all this. It is impossible to abruptly slow down a supersonic flow, but it has to do this, because there is no longer the possibility of gradual braking to the speed of the flow in front of the very nose of the aircraft, as at moderate subsonic speeds. It seems to come across a subsonic section in front of the nose of the aircraft (or the tip of the wing) and collapses into a narrow jump, transferring to it the great energy of movement that it possesses.

By the way, we can say the other way around: the plane transfers part of its energy to the formation of shock waves in order to slow down the supersonic flow.

Supersonic body movement.

There is another name for the shock wave. Moving with the aircraft in space, it essentially represents the front of a sharp change in the above-mentioned environmental parameters (that is, air flow). And this is the essence of a shock wave.

Shock shock and shock wave, in general, are equivalent definitions, but in aerodynamics the first one is more used.

The shock wave (or shock wave) can be practically perpendicular to the direction of flight, in which case they take approximately the shape of a circle in space and are called straight lines. This usually happens in modes close to M=1.

Body movement modes. ! - subsonic, 2 - M=1, supersonic, 4 - shock wave (shock wave).

At numbers M > 1, they are already located at an angle to the direction of flight. That is, the plane is already surpassing its own sound. In this case, they are called oblique and in space they take the shape of a cone, which, by the way, is called the Mach cone, named after a scientist who studied supersonic flows (mentioned him in one of them).

Mach cone.

The shape of this cone (its “slimness,” so to speak) depends precisely on the number M and is related to it by the relation: M = 1/sin α, where α is the angle between the axis of the cone and its generatrix. And the conical surface touches the fronts of all sound waves, the source of which was the plane, and which it “overtook”, reaching supersonic speed.

Besides shock waves may also be annexed, when they are adjacent to the surface of a body moving at supersonic speed, or moving away, if they are not in contact with the body.

Types of shock waves during supersonic flow around bodies of various shapes.

Usually shocks become attached if the supersonic flow flows around any pointed surfaces. For an airplane, for example, this could be a pointed nose, a high-pressure air intake, or a sharp edge of the air intake. At the same time they say “the jump sits”, for example, on the nose.

And a detached shock can occur when flowing around rounded surfaces, for example, the leading rounded edge of a thick airfoil of a wing.

Various housing components aircraft create a rather complex system of shock waves in flight. However, the most intense of them are two. One is the head one on the bow and the second is the tail one on the tail elements. At some distance from the aircraft, the intermediate shocks either catch up with the head one and merge with it, or the tail one catches up with them.

Shock shocks on a model aircraft during purging in a wind tunnel (M=2).

As a result, two jumps remain, which, in general, are perceived by an earthly observer as one due to the small size of the aircraft compared to the flight altitude and, accordingly, the short period of time between them.

The intensity (in other words, energy) of a shock wave (shock wave) depends on various parameters (the speed of the aircraft, its design features, environmental conditions, etc.) and is determined by the pressure drop at its front.

As it moves away from the top of the Mach cone, that is, from the aircraft, as a source of disturbance, the shock wave weakens, gradually turns into an ordinary sound wave and ultimately disappears completely.

And on what degree of intensity it will have shock wave(or shock wave) reaching the ground depends on the effect it can produce there. It’s no secret that the well-known Concorde flew supersonic only over the Atlantic, and military supersonic aircraft reach supersonic speed at high altitudes or in areas where there are no settlements(at least it seems like they should do it :-)).

These restrictions are very justified. For me, for example, the very definition of a shock wave is associated with an explosion. And the things that a sufficiently intense shock wave can do may well correspond to it. At least the glass from the windows can easily fly out. There is ample evidence of this (especially in history Soviet aviation, when it was quite numerous and flights were intense). But you can do worse things. You just have to fly lower :-)…

However, for the most part, what remains of shock waves when they reach the ground is no longer dangerous. Just an outside observer on the ground can hear a sound similar to a roar or explosion. It is with this fact that one common and rather persistent misconception is associated.

People who are not too experienced in aviation science, hearing such a sound, say that the plane overcame sound barrier (supersonic barrier). Actually this is not true. This statement has nothing to do with reality for at least two reasons.

Shock wave (shock wave).

Firstly, if a person on the ground hears a loud roar high in the sky, then this only means (I repeat :-)) that his ears have reached shock wave front(or shock wave) from an airplane flying somewhere. This plane is already flying to supersonic speed, and not just switched to it.

And if this same person could suddenly find himself several kilometers ahead of the plane, then he would again hear the same sound from the same plane, because he would be exposed to the same shock wave moving with the plane.

It moves at supersonic speed, and therefore approaches silently. And after it has had its not always pleasant effect on the eardrums (it’s good, when only on them :-)) and has safely passed on, the roar of running engines becomes audible.

An approximate flight diagram of an aircraft at various values ​​of the Mach number using the example of the Saab 35 "Draken" fighter. The language, unfortunately, is German, but the scheme is generally clear.

Moreover, the transition to supersonic sound itself is not accompanied by any one-time “booms”, pops, explosions, etc. On a modern supersonic aircraft, the pilot most often learns about such a transition only from instrument readings. In this case, however, a certain process occurs, but if certain piloting rules are observed, it is practically invisible to him.

But that's not all :-). I'll say more. in the form of some tangible, heavy, difficult-to-cross obstacle that the plane rests on and which needs to be “pierced” (I have heard such judgments :-)) does not exist.

Strictly speaking, there is no barrier at all. Once upon a time, at the dawn of the development of high speeds in aviation, this concept was formed rather as a psychological belief about the difficulty of transitioning to supersonic speed and flying at it. There were even statements that this was generally impossible, especially since the prerequisites for such beliefs and statements were quite specific.

However, first things first...

In aerodynamics, there is another term that quite accurately describes the process of interaction with the air flow of a body moving in this flow and tending to go supersonic. This wave crisis. It is he who does some bad things that are traditionally associated with the concept sound barrier.

So something about the crisis :-). Any aircraft consists of parts, the air flow around which during flight may not be the same. Let's take, for example, a wing, or rather an ordinary classic subsonic profile.

From the basic knowledge of how lift is generated, we know well that the flow speed in the adjacent layer of the upper curved surface of the profile is different. Where the profile is more convex, it is greater than the overall flow velocity, then, when the profile is flattened, it decreases.

When the wing moves in the flow at speeds close to the speed of sound, a moment may come when in such a convex area, for example, the speed of the air layer, which is already greater than the total speed of the flow, becomes sonic and even supersonic.

Local shock wave that occurs at transonics during a wave crisis.

Further along the profile, this speed decreases and at some point again becomes subsonic. But, as we said above, a supersonic flow cannot quickly slow down, so the emergence of shock wave.

Such shocks appear in different areas of the streamlined surfaces, and initially they are quite weak, but their number can be large, and with an increase in the overall flow speed, the supersonic zones increase, the shocks “get stronger” and shift to the trailing edge of the profile. Later, the same shock waves appear on the lower surface of the profile.

Full supersonic flow around the wing profile.

What does all this mean? Here's what. First– this is significant increase in aerodynamic drag in the transonic speed range (about M=1, more or less). This resistance grows due to a sharp increase in one of its components - wave resistance. The same thing that we previously did not take into account when considering flights at subsonic speeds.

To form numerous shock waves (or shock waves) during deceleration of a supersonic flow, as I said above, energy is wasted, and it is taken from the kinetic energy of the aircraft’s motion. That is, the plane simply slows down (and very noticeably!). That's what it is wave resistance.

Moreover, shock waves, due to the sharp deceleration of the flow in them, contribute to the separation of the boundary layer behind itself and its transformation from laminar to turbulent. This further increases aerodynamic drag.

Profile swelling at different Mach numbers. Shock shocks, local supersonic zones, turbulent zones.

Second. Due to the appearance of local supersonic zones on the wing profile and their further shift to the tail part of the profile with increasing flow speed and, thereby, changing the pressure distribution pattern on the profile, the point of application of aerodynamic forces (the center of pressure) also shifts to the trailing edge. As a result, it appears diving moment relative to the aircraft's center of mass, causing it to lower its nose.

What does all this result in... Due to a rather sharp increase in aerodynamic drag, the aircraft requires a noticeable engine power reserve to overcome the transonic zone and reach, so to speak, real supersonic sound.

A sharp increase in aerodynamic drag at transonics (wave crisis) due to an increase in wave drag. Сd - resistance coefficient.

Further. Due to the occurrence of a diving moment, difficulties arise in pitch control. In addition, due to the disorder and unevenness of the processes associated with the emergence of local supersonic zones with shock waves, control becomes difficult. For example, in roll, due to different processes on the left and right planes.

Moreover, there is the occurrence of vibrations, often quite strong due to local turbulence.

In general, a complete set of pleasures, which is called wave crisis. But, the truth is, they all take place (had, concrete :-)) when using typical subsonic aircraft (with a thick straight wing profile) in order to achieve supersonic speeds.

Initially, when there was not yet enough knowledge, and the processes of reaching supersonic were not comprehensively studied, this very set was considered almost fatally insurmountable and was called sound barrier(or supersonic barrier, if you want to:-)).

There have been many tragic incidents when trying to overcome the speed of sound on conventional piston aircraft. Strong vibration sometimes led to structural damage. The planes did not have enough power for the required acceleration. In horizontal flight it was impossible due to the effect, which has the same nature as wave crisis.

Therefore, a dive was used to accelerate. But it could well have been fatal. The diving moment that appeared during a wave crisis made the dive protracted, and sometimes there was no way out of it. After all, in order to restore control and eliminate the wave crisis, it was necessary to reduce the speed. But doing this in a dive is extremely difficult (if not impossible).

The pulling into a dive from horizontal flight is considered one of the main reasons for the disaster in the USSR on May 27, 1943 of the famous experimental fighter BI-1 with a liquid rocket engine. Tests were carried out for maximum flight speed, and according to the designers' estimates, the speed achieved was more than 800 km/h. After which there was a delay in the dive, from which the plane did not recover.

Experimental fighter BI-1.

In our time wave crisis is already quite well studied and overcoming sound barrier(if required :-)) is not difficult. On airplanes that are designed to fly at fairly high speeds, certain design solutions and restrictions are applied to facilitate their flight operation.

As is known, the wave crisis begins at M numbers close to one. Therefore, almost all subsonic jet airliners (passenger ones, in particular) have a flight limit on the number of M. Usually it is in the region of 0.8-0.9M. The pilot is instructed to monitor this. In addition, on many aircraft, when the limit level is reached, after which the flight speed must be reduced.

Almost all aircraft flying at speeds of at least 800 km/h and above have swept wing(at least along the leading edge :-)). It allows you to delay the start of the offensive wave crisis up to speeds corresponding to M=0.85-0.95.

Swept wing. Basic action.

The reason for this effect can be explained quite simply. On a straight wing, the air flow with a speed V approaches almost at a right angle, and on a swept wing (sweep angle χ) at a certain gliding angle β. Velocity V can be vectorially decomposed into two flows: Vτ and Vn.

The flow Vτ does not affect the pressure distribution on the wing, but the flow Vn does, which precisely determines the load-bearing properties of the wing. And it is obviously smaller in magnitude of the total flow V. Therefore, on a swept wing, the onset of a wave crisis and an increase wave resistance occurs significantly later than on a straight wing at the same free-stream speed.

Experimental fighter E-2A (predecessor of the MIG-21). Typical swept wing.

One of the modifications of the swept wing was the wing with supercritical profile(mentioned him). It also makes it possible to shift the onset of the wave crisis to higher speeds, and in addition, it makes it possible to increase efficiency, which is important for passenger airliners.

SuperJet 100. Swept wing with supercritical profile.

If the plane is intended for passage sound barrier(passing and wave crisis too :-)) and supersonic flight, it usually always differs in certain design features. In particular, it usually has thin wing profile and empennage with sharp edges(including diamond-shaped or triangular) and a certain wing shape in plan (for example, triangular or trapezoidal with overflow, etc.).

Supersonic MIG-21. Follower E-2A. A typical delta wing.

MIG-25. An example of a typical aircraft designed for supersonic flight. Thin wing and tail profiles, sharp edges. Trapezoidal wing. profile

Passing the proverbial sound barrier, that is, such aircraft make the transition to supersonic speed at afterburner operation of the engine due to the increase in aerodynamic resistance, and, of course, in order to quickly pass through the zone wave crisis. And the very moment of this transition is most often not felt in any way (I repeat :-)) either by the pilot (he may only experience a decrease in the sound pressure level in the cockpit), or by an outside observer, if, of course, he could observe it :-).

However, here it is worth mentioning one more misconception associated with outside observers. Surely many have seen photographs of this kind, the captions under which say that this is the moment the plane overcomes sound barrier, so to speak, visually.

Prandtl-Gloert effect. Does not involve breaking the sound barrier.

Firstly, we already know that there is no sound barrier as such, and the transition to supersonic itself is not accompanied by anything extraordinary (including a bang or an explosion).

Secondly. What we saw in the photo is the so-called Prandtl-Gloert effect. I have already written about him. It is in no way directly related to the transition to supersonic. It’s just that at high speeds (subsonic, by the way :-)) the plane, moving a certain mass of air in front of itself, creates a certain amount of air behind it rarefaction region. Immediately after the flight, this area begins to fill with air from the nearby natural space. an increase in volume and a sharp drop in temperature.

If air humidity sufficient and the temperature drops below the dew point of the surrounding air, then moisture condensation from water vapor in the form of fog, which we see. As soon as conditions are restored to original levels, this fog immediately disappears. This whole process is quite short-lived.

This process at high transonic speeds can be facilitated by local shock waves I, sometimes helping to form something like a gentle cone around the plane.

High speeds favor this phenomenon, however, if the air humidity is sufficient, it can (and does) occur at fairly low speeds. For example, above the surface of reservoirs. Most, by the way, beautiful photos of this nature were made on board an aircraft carrier, that is, in fairly humid air.

This is how it works. The footage, of course, is cool, the spectacle is spectacular :-), but this is not at all what it is most often called. nothing to do with it at all (and supersonic barrier Same:-)). And this is good, I think, otherwise the observers who take this kind of photo and video might not be happy. Shock wave, do you know:-)…

In conclusion, there is one video (I have already used it before), the authors of which show the effect of a shock wave from an aircraft flying at low altitude at supersonic speed. There is, of course, a certain exaggeration there :-), but the general principle is clear. And again impressive :-)…

That's all for today. Thank you for reading the article to the end :-). Until next time...

Photos are clickable.

Conventional piston-powered aircraft with wings and tails form part of the UFO mystery. Although international laws require all aircraft to display markings and tail numbers on the planes, tail fins and fuselages, none of these mysterious aircraft obey the above rules. They are usually gloomy gray or black in color and have no identifying marks. In flap areas they can often be seen flying at low altitude, with the cockpit always brightly lit, which is not the usual practice for night flights, since the light in the cockpit interferes with the pilot's visual observation.

Since 1896, these "pirate" planes have been spotted in various places around the world. This gives reason to believe that they are interested in our entire planet as a whole. On Monday, July 22, 1968, at about 2 p.m., one of these aircraft appeared in the cloudless sky above the San Carlos de Bariloche airport in the vicinity of the city of Bahia Blanca (Argentina). It circled lazily over the airfield at 200 feet, as if preparing to land.

A large number of witnesses, including pilots, police officers and airport employees, dropped everything and began to watch the unexpected visitor. Of course, the arrival of a plane in broad daylight at a major airport is an event that is unlikely to be of much interest to anyone, but there was something strange about this car. Even very strange.

Subsequently, all witnesses in their testimony agreed that this aircraft had an unusually long fuselage, and its delta-shaped wings seemed too short to keep a car of this size in the air. And yet he flew very slowly, so slowly that it was simply incredible how he could stay in the air. One of the fundamental laws of aerodynamics states that the shorter an airplane's wings are relative to its overall length, the faster it must fly to maintain wing lift.

The airport control tower attempted to contact the aircraft by radio, but received no response. Then the green signal lights were lit, giving permission to land. However, the giant car continued to circle over the airport. Having reached the end of runway 28, the plane suddenly turned 360 degrees around its axis, almost in place. Amazed spectators, watching the maneuvers of the mysterious machine from the ground through binoculars, could not see any identifying marks on its sides, except for three small and one large black squares. None of the airport workers could even identify the type of aircraft, although they were familiar with all existing classes of aircraft from the Constellation to the U-2, not to mention the fact that they had all the necessary reference books at hand. The plane seemed to be hovering rather than flying, making a soft whistling sound. A few minutes later the car picked up speed and disappeared in a southeast direction.

Argentine authorities have been unable to provide any explanation for this incident. On July 25, 1968, this story appeared on the pages of the newspaper LA RAZON, and was later investigated by the Englishwoman Edith Grainet, an employee of the FLYING SOS REVIEW magazine. In 1968, the entire area of ​​the town of Vaia Blanca became the site of extensive UFO sightings. There were reports of both landings and contacts.

A whole formation of unidentified delta-wing machines was seen over the United States and even received special study from the untrustworthy Air Force. PROJECT BLUE BOOK REPORT 14 states the following under “Unidentified Objects”:

“A naval aviation school cadet, his wife and several other persons on Sunday, April 20, 1952, were in an outdoor summer cinema for motorists at a show that lasted from 21.15 to 22.40. During the show, they noticed nine groups of objects flying directly above them. each group contained from two to nine objects, and one group consisted of twenty objects. These objects flew a straight course, at the same time changing it with a normal airplane turn. In shape they resembled ordinary jet planes.

What was unusual about them was that each was surrounded by a red glow emanating from himself. The night was completely cloudless."

A Washington government official, whom I am not naming for obvious reasons, recently told me about an experience he had while living in Long Island in 1957. According to him, he was awakened by the barking and squealing of his dog and , leaving the house, he saw a huge delta-wing plane majestically floating above him in complete silence. The plane was surrounded by some kind of eerie crimson glow. Since he had never seen anything like this, he called the nearest air base and reported what had happened.

The next day he was called to the air base, where the officer in charge of security for the area asked him to provide some additional details, saying that they had received similar reports from other people. (Apart from a small number of prototypes, delta wing aircraft were a rarity in the fifties.) UFO enthusiasts and the organizations they create are primarily concerned with collecting information about unusually shaped objects such as discs and flying saucers. However, the Organization for the Study of Aerial Phenomena, having received an intriguing message about a mysterious aircraft, investigated it with all possible care. The witness voluntarily agreed to testify on a lie detector test and answer questions from professional psychologists. The witness's name is Wilhelm Hetzke, a rancher in Calgary (Alberta, Canada). It completely passed the detector test. An entire chapter of Jim and Karel Lorentz’s book “UFOs over America” is devoted to this incident.

One morning in October 1965, Wilhelm Hetzke was riding horseback through the grounds of the Sickle Jay Ranch when he suddenly saw what looked like a small airplane sitting on the ground. It was silver-gray in color with backward (delta-shaped) wings. Approaching closer, Hetske carefully examined the plane. It was about 16 feet long, with a wingspan of 12 feet, and the thickness of the fuselage did not exceed 4-5 feet.

According to Hetzke, the plane's skin was unusual, resembling a "wafer surface." A transparent, apparently plastic, canopy covered the cabin. Through it one could see all sorts of complex instruments, a fourteen-inch television screen and two small, glass-like, sunken seats. There were no engines, propellers, nozzles visible, as well as no identification marks or even numbers. There were no signs of life either in the plane or around it. Hetzke, who was in a hurry to get to work, was forced to leave and was unable to return to this place later.

Hetzke's description of the aircraft contained many more details than we have given here, most of them very unusual.

Although the object had very ordinary wings and a tail fin, its interior and waffle-like skin speak for themselves. (Numerous reports indicate that UFOs have rough or grooved skin. Obviously, this kind of lumpy surface is necessary for sudden braking and reducing the potential speed of the object. Newest aircraft made with such a smooth surface as technologically possible.

Even an incorrectly fitted rivet head can significantly reduce speed.) The aircraft discovered by Hetzke was clearly built for very small pilots and flew on an unknown principle that required neither propellers nor jet flow. (It should also be noted that all gliders have very long wings, while the object Heitzke discovered had very short ones.) If you saw such a plane slowly flying overhead, you probably wouldn't pay much attention to it.

Mysterious cargo planes

Several more types of mysterious aircraft are operating over the territory North America. A gigantic machine, reminiscent of the Flying Boxcar military transport aircraft, often appeared over flap areas, performing maneuvers that were completely impossible for machines of this class. A group of witnesses from a suburb of Gallipolis, Ohio, told me that they had been observing mysterious flying lights over their hills and fields for thirty years. In addition, without any leading questions on my part, they began to talk about “large cargo planes” that fly over the hills a couple of times a month, and “sometimes so low that they are about to crash into some hill.” These cargo planes are multi-engine and painted a dull gray. There are no regular military or military routes over Gallipolis. civil aviation. There are no air force bases nearby, and planes flying into the airport in Charleston, West Virginia, fly much further north. And this is quite understandable, since the reckless courage required when flying over the treacherous range of mountains in the Ohio-West Virginia region is in no way justified.

In his report to the Armed Forces Committee on the Investigation of the UFO Phenomenon (April 5, 1966), engineer Raymond Fowler focused on the results of his own investigation conducted in the Exeter (New Hampshire) area. In particular, he said: “On my first two visits to Carl Dinning Field (where UFO sightings had previously been reported), on both occasions I saw a low-flying C-19 Flying Boxcar. This happened on September 11, 1965." In my own research, I have heard from many people in areas far from each other and from Air Force bases describing C-19 aircraft.

All witnesses saw these planes flying at a very low altitude, which in itself is strange for this class of aircraft, not to mention the fact that the figures aerobatics that these aircraft demonstrated were simply impossible for them. For a while I assumed that Air Force specially equipped aircraft were sent to the flap areas for photography and various tests. But the facts forced me to part with this pleasant hypothesis, replacing it with a very unpleasant one. I came to the conclusion that aircraft resembling the C-19 actually operated in flap areas, but, alas, they had absolutely nothing to do with our Air Force.

Small single-engine aircraft have also often been spotted flying and sniffing around the sites of recent UFO sightings. As usual, these planes were painted gray and had no markings.

Knowledgeable witnesses, some of whom had binoculars, saw them over Texas, Florida and West Virginia. Like large cargo planes, these little machines fly at night with brightly lit cabins, and are seen in the air on those stormy and stormy nights when no sane pilot would dare take to the air. There are many facts confirming the love of UFOs for bad weather.

In March 1968, in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, competent observers watched for low-lying lights over Highway 62 during an overnight snowstorm. The lights were of a characteristic UFO type. Directly behind these lights was a small single-seat airplane, seemingly oblivious to the wind and snowstorm.

A year before this incident, in early April 1967, I chased a strange flying fire from an area of ​​old World War II explosives depots north of Point Pleasant to the start of a mountain range outside Henderson, West Virginia. I stopped pursuing and, getting out of the car, joined a group of people standing on the top of one of the hills, when a twin-engine plane suddenly appeared, circled, and flew straight at us, barely missing the tops of the trees. As we got closer, the plane turned off its engines, gliding literally over our heads - a completely idiotic maneuver, considering the treacherous updrafts that always surround the hills and gorges. The cabin of the plane was brightly lit, and the figure of the pilot was clearly visible in it. It was about 9 pm, very dark, and the brightly lit cabin looked doubly strange. What kind of pilot is this who not only decided to fly over the treetops in an extremely dangerous area, but also deliberately stopped the engines and blinded himself by turning on the bright lights in the cockpit?

I jumped into the car and, crossing the Ohio River, rushed to a small airfield near Gallipolis to look at this crazy pilot, since, according to my calculations, he had nowhere else to land. There was no one at the airfield; the cars parked there were covered, and the engines of none of them were warmed up. Of course, there are probably owners of private jets who like to pinch their nerves with night flights at low altitudes, but it is unlikely that among them there will be those who would risk both their license and their lives by performing such stupid and dangerous stunts over densely populated areas.

Swedish researcher Ek Frensen, recently immersed in the Stockholm newspapers of the thirties, has pieced together many forgotten fragments of the Scandinavian flap of 1932-1938. He dug up over 90 detailed messages and was kind enough to do the boring job of translating them into English language for us. These messages paint a stunning picture.

Since 1932 large planes unmarked aircraft began to appear over northern Sweden, Norway and Finland. All descriptions of these cars indicate that they were gray in color. They often appeared during terrible snowstorms over cities, railway stations, forts and ships at sea. Often, while circling over some object, they turned off their engines. Many of them were described as huge, multi-engine machines. One group of five witnesses reported sightings of a huge eight-engine aircraft. From many reports it is clear that these cars repeatedly appeared in threes.

In those years there were almost no private jets in Scandinavia. The giant China Clipper was still being built in the United States, and the lumbering three-engine Ford, just beginning production, was used on the numerous commercial airlines then in existence. In 1926, Admiral Bide and Floyd Bennett flew from Spitsbergen to the North Pole in a three-engine Fokker.

Their flight was widely covered by the Scandinavian press, and a photograph of the Fokker circulated in all newspapers.

Six years later, when mysterious planes began to appear over Scandinavia, many witnesses compared them to Baida's Fokker.

The Swedish government took these reports very seriously. In 1934, no fewer than 24 Swedish Air Force biplanes were sent to patrol remote and sparsely populated areas of the country where "flying ghosts" were reported to be appearing. A thorough search was organized on land, sea and in the air. The operation was carried out in unfavorable weather conditions, which resulted in the loss of two Swedish aircraft.

I will try to summarize here some of the main cases of this flop.

The sources are the following newspapers: DABENS NEWHETER, STOCKHOLMOTIDNINGEN, VASTERBOTTENSKU RIREN, NORRBOTTENS ALLEMANDA, HUDIKSVALS TIDNINGEN and THE NEW YORK TIMES.

“Piteo.” The parish priest from Landtresk reported that over the past two years he had often seen some mysterious planes in this area. Last summer, “flying ghosts” flew over their town twelve times, always following the same route and direction - from the south -west to northeast.

Four times the planes appeared at a very low altitude, but no identification marks were visible on them.

In one case, the plane's altitude was only a few meters above the dome of the parish church. For a few seconds, the two pilots in the cockpit were clearly visible. The car was a gray monoplane.

The priest did not report this earlier because he thought that the authorities already knew about it from other sources."

Before December 1933, very few reports were published, but the experience of the 1909 flop over New England gives every reason to believe that there were already enough reported sightings before they made their way to the press.

The first note in our possession describes a UFO sighting on Christmas Eve: “December 24, 1933 Calix. The mysterious plane appeared from the sea at about 6 p.m. Passed over Kalix and disappeared in a western direction. A beam of light from a searchlight directed from an airplane illuminated the area.” On December 27, 1933, THE NEW YORK TIMES devoted nearly an entire column to the appearance of a “mysterious airplane during a violent snowstorm” just above New York City. At 9:30 a.m. on December 26, people throughout Manhattan clearly heard the sound of an airplane, apparently circling the city in the blinding shroud of a snowstorm. Radio station NBS noted this incident in the latest news, telephone calls with messages fell on the editorial offices of newspapers. THE TIMES continues:

“A comparison of various reports indicates that the pilot flew to 72nd Street, circled Central Park and then headed for the Bronx area (231st Street and Sedwick Avenue). There were no further reports for some time, but at about 2:25 p.m., the sound of an engine was reported from the area of ​​155th Street, near the causeway across the Hudson... All airfields in the Metropolitan area reported that there were no flights and no aircraft landing at them all day , making our way through the snowstorm."

The planes of 1933 were simply unable to fly in such difficult weather conditions, and it is very doubtful that even now any plane could remain in the air for five or six hours during a snowstorm. But the plane that appeared over Manhattan did just that, and, of course, no one ever found out anything about the plane.

In February 1934, exactly the same incident occurred over the capital of Great Britain (see NEW YORK TIMES, February 4, 1934).

In Scandinavia, “flying ghosts” immediately after Christmas began to be extremely active. (Remember that the 1909 flop also happened during Christmas week.) There was a report of an unknown aircraft flying back and forth along the Swedish-Norwegian border, and the report came from two places - from Ternaby (Sweden) and from Langmo Vefon (Norway) . On December 28, 1935, the 4th Air Corps of the Swedish Air Force was ordered to fly to Ternaby to investigate the incident.

The mystery took on a tragic twist when Lieutenant Georg Engelhard of an artillery regiment in Gotland set out on skis from Tennas to Storlien, a route that led through forested areas where the flying ghosts were reported to be most common. The lieutenant did not arrive at Storlien. Search parties, including Norwegian Air Force aircraft, tried in vain to locate him. On January 4, 1934, a group of three skiers followed Engelhard's supposed path and did not return. A new search group was organized to find them.

Even the NEW YORK TIMES became interested in this escalating mystery. On January 10, 1934, the Times correspondent from Stockholm reported:

“The Swedish Air Force has already lost two aircraft in its persistent efforts to locate the bases of the mysterious aircraft. Everyone's attention is now focused on the fate of Lieutenant Engelhard-Wanberg, who went missing on Christmas Eve, and the three skiers who disappeared while trying to find the lieutenant. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense told reporters that the search for all four missing soldiers has not yet yielded any results.”

Three missing skiers suddenly appeared on January 12 at the New Style railway station. The newspapers gave no explanation for their long absence. If they gave an interview to anyone, it has not yet been possible to find its publication.

Finally, on January 17, Lieutenant Engelhard’s tent was discovered, and two miles from it, the frozen body of the officer himself. Despite the storm raging in the area, the lieutenant left his skis and fur jacket in the tent and set off on foot into the mountains to meet his death. No further details about this case have been released.

What made the most experienced skier and hunter leave his skis and warm clothes in the tent and hike into the mountains through a furious snowstorm? We will probably never know.

While in the mountains northern Norway They were looking for the unfortunate Engelhard, the flying ghosts continued their flights over the three Scandinavian countries. About a third of all published messages for January-February 1934 occurred on Sundays. Swedish officials openly referred to these cases as “Sunday cases.” Several reports of landings of mysterious machines came from areas remote from each other. They all happened on Wednesday.

The prints found in the snow at the landing sites were traces of airplane skis.

That year there were many mass sightings of cities and towns with mysterious cars flying over them. Planes often flew during snowstorms, sometimes circling low over villages, illuminating the ground with powerful searchlights.

We will take the liberty of citing a few facts about these incidents, gleaned from the above-mentioned newspapers;

1. Sunday, December 31, 1933 - Olaf Hellund - "a serious man of good reputation" - saw "a large gray plane that was larger than any military aircraft he knew." The plane made three circles over the Sorsel railway station at 3.45 am. The car was a monoplane and completely enclosed, which resembled a passenger plane. It was equipped with floats or skis of some special design... No identification marks were visible. (It was a full moon, the night was clear.) During the flight over the station, the aircraft engine did not work.

2. Wednesday, January 10, 1934 - At 6 o'clock in the evening, residents of the city of Tarn noticed a sparkling object at an altitude of 1000 feet. The object turned and headed towards Arjeplog. 15 minutes later, residents of Arjeplog, hearing the noise of an aircraft engine, poured out of their houses to look at the plane. The plane then appeared over Rortrask, north of Norse, and witnesses claim that the plane's engine stopped three times as it flew over their town... The car flew so low that the entire forest was flooded with light."

3. Wednesday, January 10, 1934 Trondheim, Norway. - “Two landings of flying ghosts were reported in northern Norway on Wednesday evening. One car landed near the island of Gjeslingen on the parallel of Rorvik, the other in the Namndala area, in a place called Kvala. A report from Gjeslingen said that residents saw a huge beam of light and heard the noise of a powerful engine. The car landed and remained on the water for about an hour and a half, illuminating the sea around it with a searchlight.”

The Norwegian cruiser Eagle was sent to the island, but it arrived too late.

4. Sunday, January 21, 1934 - “On Sunday, at 6 o'clock in the evening, many residents of Bengtoforsen (Scotland) saw a very bright light in the sky.

It was about the size of the moon at full moon and moved at high speed. The sound of a running engine could be clearly heard... In Indal, west of Bengtoforsen, the light appeared at the beginning of seven. Many people watched as the fire circled over the village for ten minutes and then disappeared in a westerly direction."

Much to the displeasure of the Swedish military authorities, these mysterious machines liked to circle over railway stations and forts, especially Fort Boden, not neglecting other important strategic sites. Many observed only a blinding beam from the light, and our old friend “spotlight” began to appear in one message or another.

When a large gray plane began to circle the Norwegian ship Tordenkskiold off the coast of Tromsø on Tuesday, January 23, 1934, it was flying at low altitude, scanning the deck with a powerful searchlight. Captain Sigvard Olsen said the pilot was clearly visible in the brightly lit cockpit. He was wearing a helmet with large flying glasses.

But the real flop began on Saturday, January 6, when a significant number of sightings were recorded simultaneously throughout Sweden. Then the flap peaks were: Monday January 8th, Wednesday January 10th, Saturday January 20th, Sunday January 21st, Tuesday January 23rd, Thursday January 25th, Tuesday February 6th and Sunday February 11th.

The number of published reports dropped sharply when army and counterintelligence representatives were sent to the areas of the most frequent sightings for a thorough investigation. The military ministries of Sweden, Norway and Finland already had their own, and very gloomy, point of view on this whole matter.

Territorial air space their countries was violated in the most blatant manner, and not by one or two planes, but by an entire air armada operating with suspicious persistence. These aircraft were larger in size than any combat vehicle and could operate in any weather over any, even the most dangerous, mountainous territory. Such a global operation necessarily required the presence of well-equipped bases with a large number of technical personnel, with a well-thought-out system for supplying fuel and other necessary equipment, such as warehouses with spare parts, food, a repair base, etc. But despite careful searches undertaken by the armed forces of three states, nothing resembling such a base, of course, was found.

Aircraft carriers in 1934 were still in their infancy and could only produce and receive a large number of small biplanes.

In 1942, the US Navy slightly modernized the Hornet aircraft carrier in order to deliver General Doolittle's twin-engine B-25 bombers closer to the shores of Japan (The author is mistaken: in 1942, James Doolittle, who commanded the famous flight over Tokyo, was not a general, but a lieutenant colonel. - approx. per.).

With great difficulty, these bombers took off from the aircraft carrier and carried out a purely symbolic raid on Tokyo, but they could no longer land on the aircraft carrier and were forced to fly to the unoccupied part of mainland China.

In 1934, Hitler was still gaining strength, and the Luftwaffe simply did not exist yet.

The Soviet Union had no aircraft and, more importantly, no reason for such senseless moves over Scandinavia. After all, there was a huge risk of causing an unprecedented international scandal. If even one of these planes had crashed or been captured and it had been proven that it belonged to some foreign power, then the actions of the entire armada could not be regarded other than the beginning of hostilities.

Based on some information known, probably only to the editorial staff of the NEW YORK TIMES, this newspaper suggested that the Japanese were to blame for the entire Scandinavian history. But not a single Scandinavian newspaper, despite the large number of speculations discussed, even hinted at blaming Japan. And the justice of this is absolutely obvious - Japan, which was resolving its problems in China at that time, had neither the capabilities nor the reasons to carry out such an operation.

At the very beginning of the flap, Swedish newspapers consoled themselves with a completely frivolous conclusion about alcohol smugglers delivering alcohol to the Scandinavian countries. It makes no sense to refute it; we only note that even the official investigation left no stone unturned...

As during the flaps of 1896-1897 and 1909, during the flap of 1934 there were random flights at low altitudes of objects, in principle familiar to people, and hundreds of high-altitude flights of mysterious lights that seemed to be they were controlled, judging by the maneuvers they performed. The mysterious planes were “hard” objects and were used to support the actions of a much larger number of “soft” objects, which for some reason deployed their operations in northern latitudes. Witnesses reported seeing planes displaying red, green and white lights. When these sparkling lights were seen at high altitudes, it was assumed that the planes were flying to connect with flying ghosts hiding somewhere much higher.

The mysterious planes could perform amazing maneuvers. They switched off their engines, sometimes at an altitude of no more than 100 feet, and without any visible energy made three or four circles over some object.

Try to perform such a maneuver on a regular plane, and you will end up in its wreckage. On April 30, 1934, Major General Reutersvard, commander of the district in Norland (Sweden), issued the following statement to the press:

“A comparison of all the reports leaves no shadow of doubt about the illegal inspection from the air of our secret strategic areas. Many reports received from completely reliable people give an almost detailed description of these mysterious machines, and in each case one common detail attracts attention: neither no identifying marks were noticed on one of these cars... It is absolutely impossible to explain all these cases by fantasy or hallucination. And then the questions arise: “who are they?”, “and why are they violating our airspace?”

If all the flying ghost courses of 1934 are plotted on a map, then their route seems to become clear. It seems that day after day they flew in a huge arc with fanatical constancy. Flying south from northern Norway, they passed over Sweden and turned north again over Finland. If we make a complete circle from this arc, then its upper part will fall on the area of ​​​​the sparsely populated island of Spitsbergen in the North Arctic Ocean, and the western one - to the northern tip of the island of Greenland. By the way, a lot of interesting observations took place over Greenland. (In Chapter 1 we talked about a case in which a whole array of unidentified objects was detected by radar while flying over Greenland.) Hundreds of reports of UFO sightings come from the Arctic regions and thus seem to confirm the theory, very popular, that flying saucers appear from holes over the North Pole. The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization has an advanced theory that objects enter Earth's polar regions from space to avoid an intense radioactive belt concentrated over temperate zones.

Radio signals from eternity

During the flying ghosts' flights over Scandinavia, mysterious radio signals were received throughout Sweden and Norway. This issue was also widely discussed in the press. On January 11, 1934, one of the newspapers in the city of Umeå (Sweden) noted the following:

“Officers at the Air Force headquarters believe that the mysterious aircraft have radio transmitters and radio navigation devices on board... It is certain that these aircraft are representatives of some extraordinary organization.”

“Radio listeners in the city of Umeå intercepted communications from flying ghosts on their receivers, from which we can conclude that their intelligence service is at the very high level... The radio conversations took place on the wave of a popular music program in the city of Umeå, and their topic was a discussion of the rendezvous of several flying ghosts. At the end of the negotiations, the time for the next contact was announced.” (Correspondents investigating a claim of UFO contact in 1956-1957 by a certain Howard Menger from New Jersey allegedly discovered a strange radio transmitter on his farm. This transmitter did not emit its own signals, but used signals “stolen” from a local radio station. Swedish reports suggest that someone in Umeå in 1934 was using the same equipment, when the "output" of a regular radio station was used as a source of energy for "pirate" signals.) On January 25, 1934, a worker in Nyrbyskara (Sweden) named Galmar Hedstrom received the following message on his receiver, transmitted on short waves: “The sea is calm, the temperature is two degrees Celsius. You have to get on the water and catch what we were talking about. Be in touch again at 19.45.” The message also contained data on wind direction, location coordinates and other information. Although all negotiations were conducted in Swedish, Hedstrom could not remember much.

Another radio amateur from the city of Hedesund picked up a similar message on the same day. An additional message was also intercepted at the specified time - 19.45.

Some messages were received at a wave of 900 m, others in the range of 230-275 m.

The vast majority of sightings in 1934, regardless of location, occurred around 6 p.m. In March, the flap began to wane, but periodic reports were received throughout the thirties.

"Reports are coming from various places about mysterious lights being seen in the sky. A correspondent for the Norwegian Telegraphic Agency collected some of these reports during a trip to the Sixth District. Almost all sightings were reported by residents to the police, whose representative gave a detailed information to the correspondent. A sighting was also reported mysterious lights around Tromso on Tuesday evening.

Flying ghosts returned to Scandinavia in 1936, exactly repeating the beaten paths of 1934. Once again, their appearance was accompanied by mysterious radio signals. The NEW YORK TIMES correspondent, who in 1934 tried to blame Japan for everything that happened, this time accused Germany of transmitting mysterious radio signals. But again, as in 1934, the Scandinavian press did not attach any significance to these fabrications.

When a brightly sparkling object was chased across the midwestern prairie by. train in 1937, the NEW YORK TIMES in its August 15 issue, citing astronomers, attributed the incident to the influence of the planet Venus.

It is hardly necessary to point out that the inhabitants of northern Scandinavia are very well acquainted with the northern lights and other common astronomical and atmospheric phenomena. It is doubtful that they paid much attention to anything that they thought could have a natural explanation.

We have at our disposal two messages from different parts of Europe that deserve to be cited in this book. On Thursday, February 11, 1937, the Norwegian fishing trawler "Fram" left Kvalovik at about 9 o'clock in the evening. While rounding the mountainous cape separating Kvalovik harbor from the ocean, the trawler's crew noticed a large seaplane sitting on the water.

Deciding that the plane had crashed, the captain of the trawler changed course and headed towards it. The green and red warning lights on the wings of the vehicle were clearly visible, but as the ship began to approach, the lights suddenly went out. At the same moment, the plane was enveloped in clouds of smoke and disappeared.

At noon the next day, Friday February 12, 1937, an unknown plane appeared over the capital of Austria, Vienna, and began circling over the city. The unusual nature of this case was widely noted in the European press. Obviously, there were some reasons to doubt the origin of this aircraft.

Scandinavia: 1946

On June 10, 1946, an object resembling a German V-2 rocket passed over Finland. Over the next two weeks, UFO-like lights, cylindrical objects and unidentified winged vehicles were seen by thousands of people in Sweden and Norway. The vast majority of sightings were concentrated in the cold, sparsely populated northern regions of both countries. The European press gave them due attention - the “ghost rockets” replaced the flying ghosts of 1934. They were seen far to the south, over Greece and over the mountains of Switzerland, where they confidently flew over gorges and canyons. They were intercepted by radar and photographed. (One such photograph, showing an arrow-shaped streak of light, was published by the London MORNING POST on September 6, 1946.) The speed of these objects was measured to be between 400 and 1000 miles per hour.

Some of the objects seemed to explode in the air, some threw out shards of metal that looked like ordinary slag.

English and Scandinavian newspapers openly accused the Soviet Union of testing new types of combat missiles in the airspace of northern Europe. Moscow categorically denied this fact. In September, bright green orbs were spotted over Portugal. A “huge shell with a fiery tail” swept over Casablanca. A huge flaming sphere whistled through the sky over Oslo and exploded with a terrifying roar. On Wednesday, July 3, 1946, a mysterious explosion rocked a small town in central Scotland, shattering glass in the windows and killing one person (apparently from shell shock). No one could explain the cause of this explosion. Swedish authorities have collected more than 2,000 reports of “ghost missiles.” Although this flop was very sparingly covered by the American press, General James Doolittle flew to Stockholm to participate in the investigation. London was also shaken by a series of explosions, the origin of which no one could explain.

At the end of August 1946 the lid slammed shut. On August 22, the London newspaper DAILY TELEGRAPH reported: “To prevent the leakage of technical information about the launch of missiles flying over Denmark, the Danish government asked correspondents not to indicate those areas of the country where these missiles were seen...”. On August 31, 1946, the DAILY TELEGRAPH correspondent in Oslo reported:

“Starting Wednesday, Norwegian newspapers stopped any discussion about missile flights over Scandinavia. Today, the Norwegian General Staff issued a memorandum for the press, demanding that no information about the appearance of missiles over Norwegian territory be published in the press and that all reports on this topic be directed to the General Staff Intelligence Directorate ...

In Sweden it is also prohibited to mention in the press about flights and explosions of missiles over the country's territory."

In a short 50 years, we went from mysterious inventions to espionage and smuggling, and then to Russian secret weapons. Since none of these explanations can be taken seriously, and the phenomenon continues to be observed, we seem to be left with the only acceptable hypothesis: the arrival of aliens from outer space on Earth. For a long time now, members of the Fortian Society, admirers and followers of the late Charles Fort, have been fueling this hypothesis with their irresponsible publications. They haven't yet been asked a question, but they already have an answer ready for anything. Their thought goes in this direction: in 1945 we dropped atomic bombs on Japan. The energy of atomic explosions was recorded in space by instruments of some alien supercivilization.

This super-civilization was terribly shocked by the fact that such a nonentity as man had discovered the secret of atomic energy. To investigate this sad fact, an expedition to Earth was organized. However, a certain superintelligent navigator made a small mistake and, instead of leading the spaceship to the damaged Japan, flew to Scandinavia.

It's a shame if that's the case.

Mysterious helicopters

Thousands of observations for the period 1896-1938. ghostly airships and mysterious planes lead us to the next inevitable conclusion; the true substance of a phenomenon is such that it can give itself any desired form of its own choosing. And this raises a very important question: do these things really exist? Or are all the thousands of messages nothing more than examples of mass hysteria, correspondent jokes and incorrect interpretation of natural phenomena?

It is impossible to have two points of view. Either we must recognize the overwhelming percentage of messages as true, or they are all pure nonsense.

If I were writing a book about, say, the Civil War, I would use the same sources, i.e., old newspapers, historical documents, letters from participants in the events, and as a result, the book I created would be accepted by scholars and historians with little or no no questions at all. But flying saucers have been so discredited by all sorts of amateur theories and fans of the alien version that skeptics, who easily find obvious nonsense in all their hypotheses, have reason to claim the same about all other data about UFOs.

If a farmer from the sixties of the last century who participated in the battles Civil War, left behind a pack of crumpled letters, where he describes the events he experienced, then historians, like tigers, rush to these letters in order to repeatedly quote them in their scientific works. But if the same farmer saw some kind of unusual object and reported this in a letter to a local newspaper, then why cannot this letter be considered a historical document today? No, skeptics will find fault with every word of such a letter, and if there is nothing to find fault with, they will question the sanity of the author.

My strong opinion is that we should stop asking the question: “can such things really happen?”, and start asking another: “what could this all mean?”

The gullible may get caught up in stories about amazing spaceships from distant galaxies, and everything will become clear to them. But what will they say about the numerous stories associated with seemingly completely ordinary planes and helicopters? Yes, there are also ghost helicopters!

On Tuesday, October 11, 1968, a bright flying fire danced over drinking water reservoirs in New Jersey. There had been enough strange sightings in that area before, but this case was doubly strange. A few minutes after the blinding bright object disappeared, a whole formation of mysterious helicopters appeared.

“This thing blinded me so much that I could not find my car,” one of the witnesses to the incident, police sergeant Ben Thompson, told Dr. Berthold Schwartz. “It was as if I was looking straight into a spotlight to see the sockets of reflective lamps... After that, I saw absolutely nothing for about twenty minutes.”

About 15 minutes after the blinding object disappeared, a squad of helicopters appeared and began circling at low altitude. A group of ten or twelve jets appeared a little above them. Hundreds of cars filled with stunned spectators drove up to this place. They, of course, saw helicopters, but not in such numbers. Police Sergeant Robert Gordon described his confusion this way: “I’ve never seen seven helicopters in the air at once in my entire life... And I’ve lived here for forty years.”

Science journalist Lloyd Mellen investigated this case. He made inquiries at all nearby Air Force bases, airports and even the Pentagon. Nobody knew anything about these helicopters and planes. The Civil Aviation Bureau was as amazed as anyone else. No one was able to lift the veil of secrecy. I don’t really believe that this was the Air Force’s reaction to the appearance of a sparkling object above the tanks. Firstly, because no one reported this directly to the Air Force, and secondly, because the nearby McCuire and Stewart airbases never had such a large detachment of helicopters, and if they did, then, given their slowness, it is unlikely that within 15 minutes they would have appeared over the scene of the incident. Of course, we must not forget that the existing opinion about the shameless lies of representatives of the Air Force about everything related to UFOs may not be without foundation.

Residents of New Jersey claim to have seen these helicopters and jets. So they're all lying? But what's the point of such a lie? And if this is true, then where, where and why did these cars fly? And who controlled them?

The North Vietnamese have a tiny number of aircraft and even fewer helicopters. However, at the end of June 1968, a whole formation of strange lights appeared over the Ben Hai River, and one of the mysterious helicopters was reported to have even been shot down. NEWSWICK Vietnam correspondent Robert Stocke was at the scene. Here is his message (NEWSWICK July 1, 1968):

"Captain William Bates was on duty at the radio transmitter at the regimental headquarters in the village of Dong Ha. At 2300, the Marine forward patrol radioed that their observer had detected thirteen yellow-white lights through an electronic telescope, floating in a westerly direction at an altitude of 500 to 1000 feet above Ben Hai River, which flows through the middle of the demilitarized zone. Bates immediately contacted the command to find out whether there were any aircraft or helicopters in the observation area. Having received a negative answer, the captain contacted the anti-aircraft radar station Alpha 2, the northernmost military unit 1 building Less than a minute later, a response came from the station about strange glare at all 360 degrees of all-round visibility.

Around 1 a.m., Air Force and Marine aircraft were already over Da Nang and began pursuing unidentified objects. 45 minutes later, a Marine pilot reported that the helicopter had been destroyed. However, when a reconnaissance aircraft equipped with infrared equipment flew over the area, it did not detect burning debris anywhere."

In June, these objects were intercepted almost every night by radar over the demilitarized zone. And it was never possible to identify them, and there is hardly any reason to consider them really Vietnamese planes or helicopters. If this were the case, it would be surprising why Northern Vietnam suddenly stopped using them because they no longer appeared after June 1968.

A few weeks after this series of incidents, mysterious helicopters appeared over Maryland. At about 8:20 p.m. on Tuesday, August 19, 1968, an oval object surrounded by red and white sparkling lights hung over the Rosecroft Retreat near Phelps Constance, Maryland. One of the many witnesses, Geese E. Donovan, stated that she also saw at least seven helicopters circling the object. “I noticed this,” she said, “because I’ve never seen so many helicopters in the air.”

Maybe our Air Force is secretly hunting for flying saucers in helicopters, having found nothing better? We, of course, often, albeit unsuccessfully, use fighters to chase unidentified objects, but neither I nor many Air Force officers with whom I spoke had ever heard of the use of helicopters for this purpose, even by rumor.

Helicopters are very expensive cars and difficult to manage. It is for these reasons that the prediction from the Second World War that “helicopters will be in every garage” did not come true. UFO hunting operations require multiple helicopters to be kept in a constant state of readiness for immediate departure. I snooped around many of our air bases and did not find even a hint of such operations.

I have come to the conclusion that the unidentified helicopters are in the same category as the flying ghosts of 1934 and the tiny airplane in Calgary.

They are part of the entire UFO phenomenon, and not at all proof of our hunt for unidentified objects.

Do flying saucers really exist?

Since 1982, thousands of UFO photographs have been taken. Many of them recorded vague spots and streaks of light, but many were clearly “solid” objects, similar to cars of some kind with windows, hatches and other clearly visible parts. And here another problem arises. With very few exceptions, no two UFO images are alike. I have received hundreds of photographs in the mail and have collected hundreds of others during my travels. Since photographs are so easily forged, I have generally avoided taking much care either of the photographs themselves or of their authors. However, I myself took two very similar photographs in two different areas.

Over the past three years, I have interviewed thousands of eyewitnesses in person, by telephone, and by mail. At the same time, many of those who gave descriptions of sparkling, changing “soft” objects said the same thing. But I have rarely heard two independent witnesses describe in one word the “solid” object they saw. I have heard of tiny saw-saw-like objects circling the mines in Ohio, and of giant gondola-shaped machines with many rows of windows hovering over the Kaitatini Mountains of northern New Jersey. And it seems there were as many different forms of objects as there were witnesses. However, I am reassured over and over again that the witnesses were reliable and were simply being honest about what they saw.

And if we assume that the witnesses are telling the truth, then we can safely assume that UFOs appear in billions of different sizes and shapes. Or they have no shape at all. And this brings us back to the old psychological warfare gambit. If there are continuous contradictions in the description of objects, then few will take this phenomenon seriously, but if people, say, in Brazil, Iowa and Australia begin to give the same testimony, then this may immediately alert both scientists and the military.

PROJECT BLUE BOOK REPORT 14 attempted to address this problem. Air Force specialists put 434 reports of unidentified objects into a computer, trying to obtain a basic model. They received 12 main types of objects. From the thousands of reports that are available, one could equally well obtain 1,200 or 1,200,000 different types of UFOs. And those 12 types of objects that are described in REPORT 14 were no longer observed at all after 1955.

Then maybe there are no types of UFOs at all?

Our catalog of UFO types currently contains flying cubes, triangles, hexagons, cones, spheres, objects resembling giant metal insects and flying jellyfish. We have UFOs with wheels, wings, antennas, with convex domes, flat windows and without them at all. We have objects of all colors of the spectrum. There are giant “cigars” with many portholes that spew blue fire from their tail. (“A base that produces flying saucers,” as proponents of the alien version assure us.) We have wheelless cars driving around deserted areas a few inches above the ground. We also have unmarked piston and jet planes and unidentified helicopters roaming the flap areas. In other words, we have everything except the basic model, which would appear regularly in different years and in different places. And all this forces us to make two inevitable conclusions to choose from:

1. All witnesses are either mistaken or lying.

2. Some unknown super-civilization produces thousands of different types of flying cars and sends them to our planet.

Governments of all countries of the world stubbornly adhere to the first conclusion, UFO enthusiasts - to the second.

As for me, I adhere to neither one nor the other. Moreover, I suggest a third alternative. I believe that some "solid" objects definitely only exist as temporary transmog. They are disco and cigar shaped. They leave distinct marks on the ground after planting.

Witnesses touched them and even went inside. These “hard” objects are nothing more than bait, just like the airships and airplanes of yesterday, the purpose of which is to cover and ensure the actions of a huge number of “soft” objects. Therefore, my main interest is in “soft” objects.

They are the key to solving the whole mystery.

There are countless reports of objects changing size and shape right before the eyes of witnesses, or splitting into several small objects, each of which flew off in a different direction. In some cases, the reverse process occurred: several small objects merged into one large one, which then calmly continued its flight.

Many times witnesses have said to me, in a mysterious lowering of their voice: “You know, I believe that those things that I saw were not cars. I got the strong impression that they were alive.”

Researchers such as John Bessor and Ivan T. Sanderson have openly discussed the possibility that some UFOs are indeed living creatures. Of course, there is no direct evidence; this statement can be disputed, like any other. Make your own choice. Each point of view has its strengths, but after all the data has been analyzed, none of them can be accepted without very legitimate doubts.

Illustration copyright Airbus Image caption An example of what the power package of an Airbus aircraft might look like in the future. Instead of the usual “skeleton” of frames, stringers and spars - a lightweight mesh of complex shape

Is it possible for the very concept of flight to change completely? It is possible that this will be the case in the future. Thanks to new materials and technologies, passenger drones may appear, and supersonic airliners will return to the skies. The BBC Russian service analyzed information about latest projects Airbus, Uber, Toyota and other companies to determine which direction aviation will take in the future.

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City sky

Nowadays, a fairly large layer of the atmosphere up to a kilometer high remains relatively free over cities. This space is used by special aviation, helicopters, as well as individual private or corporate aircraft.

But in this layer a new type of air transport is already beginning to develop. It has many names - urban or personal aviation, the air transport system of the future, sky taxi, and so on. But its essence was formulated at the beginning of the 19th century by futurist artists: everyone will have the opportunity to use a small aircraft to fly short distances.

Illustration copyright Hulton Archive Image caption This is how the artist imagined the future in 1820. An individual aircraft was present in such pictures even then

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Engineers never gave up on this dream. But until now, the lack of durable and lightweight materials and imperfect electronics, without which many small devices cannot be launched, have been hampered. With the advent of high-strength, lightweight carbon fiber and the development of portable computers, everything changed.

The current stage of creating urban airmobile transport is somewhat reminiscent of the 1910s, the very beginning of the history of aircraft construction. Then the designers did not immediately find the optimal shape of the aircraft and boldly experimented, creating bizarre designs.

Now the common task - to make an aircraft for the urban environment - also allows us to build a wide variety of devices.

The Airbus corporation, for example, is developing three large projects at once - the manned single-seat Vahana, which, according to the corporation's plans, will be able to fly next year, and by 2021 will be ready for commercial flights. Two other projects: CityAirbus, an unmanned quadcopter taxi for several people, and Pop.Up, which the corporation is developing together with Italdesign. This is a single-seat unmanned module that can be used on a wheeled chassis for trips around the city, as well as suspended from a quadcopter for flights.

Airbus Pop.Up and CityAirbus use the quadcopter principle, and Vahana is a tiltrotor (that is, a device that takes off like a helicopter, and then turns its engines and then moves like an airplane).

Quadcopter and tiltrotor designs are now the main ones for passenger drones. Quadcopters are much more stable during flight. And tiltrotors allow you to reach higher speeds. But both schemes allow you to take off and land vertically. This is a key requirement for urban aviation, since conventional aircraft require a runway. This means that the construction of additional infrastructure for the city will be required.

Other notable projects include the Volocopter from the German company eVolo, which is a multicopter with 18 propellers. This is the most successful air taxi project so far; testing has already begun in Dubai in the fall of 2017. In June, Dubai's transport management company talks about this with eVolo.

Illustration copyright Lilium Image caption Lilium is propelled by 36 electric turbines installed in a row on planes and in two blocks at the front of the device

Another project from Germany - Lilium - is interesting due to its unusual layout. This is an electric tiltrotor with 36 small turbines installed in two blocks along the wing, and with two more blocks in the front of the device. The company has already begun test flights in unmanned mode.

Japanese automaker Toyota is investing in the Cartivator project.

And the online taxi service Uber is also developing its own unmanned system; in this project, it is working closely with NASA to develop technology and software for the service in cities with high population density.

Illustration copyright Ethan Miller/Getty Images Image caption The EHang 184 passenger drone, created by the Chinese company Beijing Yi-Hang Creation Science & Technology Co., Ltd. in 2016

There are many aviation experts who are supporters of unmanned urban passenger transportation, and skeptics.

Among the latter is Avia.ru editor-in-chief Roman Gusarov. The main problem, in his opinion, is the low power of electric motors and batteries. And efficient passenger drones are unlikely to appear in the foreseeable future, despite the fact that a lot of money is being invested in their development.

“The technologies are still quite crude and the systems created using them are subject to technical failures,” Denis Fedutinov, editor-in-chief of the uav.ru portal, noted in an interview with the BBC.

According to him, such projects may simply be a nice publicity stunt and an opportunity to show that the company is engaged in cutting-edge research. He also does not rule out that, against the background of enthusiastic publications in the press, many startups may arise that, having found investor money, will not be able to create a flying passenger drone.

Executive Director of Infomost Consulting (a company engaged in consulting in the field of transport) Boris Rybak believes that so far the biggest problem in this area is fear. People will be afraid to trust their lives to an aircraft without a pilot for a long time.

“When the first self-propelled gasoline carts appeared, they rode next to the horses with smoke, smoke and roar, and people ran away. But this is normal, it was scary then, and it’s scary now,” Rybak said.

Between the houseamiand birdsami

Currently, NASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration are working on the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) program. It is within the framework of this program that Uber is collaborating with NASA and the FAA.

The development of technologies in this area is far ahead of the development of rules for their regulation. The American program began to be developed in 2015, but in " road map“its development has not yet even marked the deadline for creating rules for flights in densely populated urban areas.

Illustration copyright Italdesign Image caption The Pop.Up passenger capsule can be used on a wheeled chassis or attached to a quadcopter

This refers to drone flights for mail delivery and news video recording. But the program says nothing at all about the transportation of passengers.

Judging by data from presentations studied by the BBC Russian Service, in the future, flights of passenger drones in cities will be regulated through the formation of routes in air corridors. The same principle applies in modern civil aviation. In this case, the drones will actively interact with each other and monitor the airspace around them to avoid collisions with other drones and other objects in the air (for example, birds).

However, as Boris Rybak believes, a system built on the principle of free flight, where routes would be built by computers taking into account the location of all aircraft in the air, would be much more effective.

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Will Russia remain on the sidelines?

In Russia, authorities are also trying to take cautious steps to regulate drone flights in urban environments. Thus, Rostelecom has been interested in drones for a long time. It is a contractor for the Russian Space Systems company, which in November 2015 won the Roscosmos competition for 723 million rubles ($12.3 million) to create the infrastructure of the Federal Network Operator.

Illustration copyright Tom Cooper/Getty Images Image caption Another supersonic business jet project - XB-1 from the American company Boom Technology

This infrastructure will have to provide surveillance of transport and unmanned vehicles (including aircraft), ground and water manned and unmanned transport, by rail, explained a representative of Rostelecom. The operator is creating a prototype of infrastructure that will control the movement of vehicles, primarily drones, and is ready to spend about 100 million rubles ($1.7 million) on subcontractors.

Deputy head of the Moscow Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship Andrei Tikhonov told the BBC that the Russian capital does not yet have the conditions for the appearance of passenger drones.

"Firstly, it is not fully developed normative base for unmanned aerial and ground vehicles. Secondly, the Moscow infrastructure is not yet adapted for mass transportation of goods and passengers unmanned vehicles. Thirdly, most vehicles intended for transporting people and large loads are still at the testing stage and must receive the appropriate documentation to operate in urban environments. Again, questions of compulsory passenger insurance and many others arise,” he explained.

True, according to him, these problems do not so much stop the city authorities as force them to look for ways to solve them.

Faster than sound

Another area that many aircraft manufacturing corporations are working on is supersonic passenger transportation.

This idea is not new at all. November 22 marks the 40th anniversary of the start of regular commercial flights between New York, Paris and London on Concorde aircraft. In the 1970s, the idea of ​​supersonic transportation was implemented by British Airways together with Air France, as well as Aeroflot on the Tu-144. But in practice it turned out that the technologies of that time were not suitable for civil aviation.

As a result, the Soviet project was canceled after seven months of operation, and the British-French one after 27 years.

Illustration copyright Evening Standard Image caption Concorde, like the Tu-144, was ahead of its time, but showed how difficult it is to make a supersonic passenger plane

Finance is usually cited as the main reason why the Concorde and Tu-144 projects were cancelled. These planes were expensive.

The engines of such devices consume much more fuel. For such aircraft it was necessary to create its own infrastructure. The Tu-144, for example, used its own type of aviation fuel, which was much more complex in composition; it required special maintenance, which was more thorough and expensive. For this aircraft it was even necessary to maintain separate ramps.

Another serious problem, in addition to the complexity and cost of maintenance, was noise. During flight at supersonic speed, a strong air seal occurs at all leading edges of the aircraft elements, which generates a shock wave. It reaches behind the plane in the form of a huge cone, and when it reaches the ground, the person through whom it passes hears a deafening sound, like an explosion. It is because of this that Concorde flights over US territory at supersonic speed were prohibited.

And it is noise that designers are now primarily trying to combat.

After the cessation of Concorde flights, attempts to build a new, more efficient supersonic passenger aircraft did not stop. And with the advent of new technologies in the field of materials, engine building and aerodynamics, people began to talk about them more and more often.

Several large projects in the field of supersonic civil aviation are being developed around the world. Basically, these are business jets. That is, designers initially try to target that market segment where the cost of tickets and service plays a lesser role than in route transportation.

Illustration copyright Aerion Image caption Aerion is developing the AS2 aircraft in partnership with Airbus

NASA, together with Lockheed Martin Corporation, is developing a supersonic aircraft, trying, first of all, to solve the problem of the sound barrier. QueSST technology involves searching for a special aerodynamic shape of the aircraft, which would “smear” the hard sound barrier, making it blurry and less noisy. Currently, NASA has already developed the appearance of the aircraft, and its flight tests may begin in 2021.

Another notable project is AS2, which is being developed by Aerion in partnership with Airbus.

Airbus is also working on the Concord 2.0 project. This aircraft is planned to be equipped with three types of engines - a rocket in the tail section and two conventional jet engines, with the help of which the aircraft will be able to take off almost vertically, as well as one ramjet, which will already accelerate the aircraft to a speed of Mach 4.5.

True, Airbus deals with such projects quite carefully.

“Airbus continues to research in the field of supersonic/hypersonic technologies, we are also studying the market to understand whether these types of projects will be viable and feasible,” Airbus said in an official commentary to the BBC Russian Service. “We do not see a market for such aircraft now and in the foreseeable future due to the high costs of such systems. This may change with the advent of new technologies, or with changes in the economic or social environment. In general, for now this is more of an area of ​​study, rather than a priority direction."

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Is it possible to revive Concorde?

It is really difficult to predict whether there will be a demand for such aircraft. Boris Rybak notes that information technologies have also developed in parallel with aviation, and now a businessman who needs to quickly resolve an issue on the other side of the Atlantic can often do this not in person, but via the Internet.

“It’s six hours to fly business class or a business jet from London to New York. Otherwise, technically you’ll spend four, well, three and forty. Is this [game] worth the price?” - said Rybak regarding supersonic flights.

Based on the experience of the Tu-144

However, other Russian aviation experts think differently. Supersonic aircraft will be able to take their place in the market, says the rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute, Mikhail Pogosyan, the former head of the United Aircraft Corporation.

“A supersonic aircraft makes it possible to reach a qualitatively different level; it allows you to save global time - a day. Market forecasts indicate that the introduction of this kind of technology and this kind of project will be associated with the cost of such a flight. If such a cost is acceptable and will not times different from the cost of a flight on a subsonic aircraft, then I assure you that there is a market,” he told the BBC Russian Service.

Pogosyan spoke at the Aerospace Science Week forum at the Moscow Aviation Institute, where he, in particular, spoke about the prospects for creating supersonic aircraft with the participation of Russian specialists. Russian enterprises (TsAGI, MAI, UAC) are participating in the large European research program Horizon 2020, one of the directions of which is the development of a supersonic passenger aircraft.

Poghosyan listed the main properties of such an aircraft - a low level of sonic boom (otherwise the aircraft will not be able to fly over populated areas), a variable cycle engine (it needs to work well at subsonic and supersonic speeds), new heat-resistant materials (at supersonic speeds the aircraft gets very hot), artificial intelligence, as well as the fact that such an aircraft can be controlled by one pilot.

At the same time, the rector of MAI is convinced that the supersonic aircraft project can only be created at the international level.

Illustration copyright Boris Korzin/TASS Image caption According to Sergei Chernyshev, Russia has preserved the school of creating supersonic passenger aircraft

The head of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI) Sergei Chernyshev told at the forum that Russian specialists are participating in three international projects in the field of supersonic passenger aviation- Hisac, Hexafly and Rumble. All three projects do not aim to create a final commercial product. Their main task is to investigate the properties of supersonic and hypersonic vehicle. According to him, now aircraft manufacturers are only creating the concept of such an aircraft.

In an interview with the BBC, Sergei Chernyshev said that the strength of Russian aircraft manufacturers is their experience in creating supersonic aircraft and their operation. According to him, this is a strong aerodynamic school, extensive experience in testing, including in extreme conditions. Russia also has a “traditionally strong school of materials scientists,” he added.

“My subjective forecast: on the horizon of 2030-35 a [business jet] will appear. Academician Pogosyan believes that between 2020 and 2030. He gave them ten years. This is true, but still closer to 2030,” - said Sergei Chernyshev.

"Ordinary" unusual liners

The main task of aircraft designers today is to achieve an increase in the fuel efficiency of the aircraft, while reducing harmful emissions and noise. The second task is to develop new control systems where the computer will perform more and more tasks.

Nowadays, no one will be surprised by the fly-by-wire control system of an aircraft, when signals from the control stick or steering wheel, pedals and other organs are transmitted to the rudders and other mechanization elements in the form of electrical signals. Such a system allows the on-board computer to control the pilot’s actions, making adjustments and correcting errors. However, this system is already yesterday.

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As Kirill Budaev, vice-president of the Irkut corporation for marketing and sales, told the BBC, the Russian company is working on a system where only one pilot will fly the plane, and the functions of the second during takeoff and landing will be performed by a specially trained senior flight attendant. During an airplane flight at flight level, one pilot is quite enough, Irkut believes.

According to the laws of nature

Another major innovation that has emerged in the last decade is composite materials. The development of lightweight, durable plastic can be compared to the use of aluminum in post-war aviation. This material, along with the advent of efficient turbojet engines, changed the face of aircraft. Now exactly the same revolution is happening with composites, which are gradually displacing metal from aircraft structures.

Aircraft design is increasingly using 3D printing, which allows it to create more complex shapes with high precision. And strive to reduce fuel consumption.

For example, Airbus and Boeing use the latest LEAP family engines manufactured by CFM International. The injectors in these engines are 3D printed. And this increased fuel efficiency by 15%.

In addition, the aviation industry has now begun to actively embrace bionic design.

Bionics is an applied science that studies the possibilities of practical application in various technical devices of principles and structures that appeared in nature thanks to evolution.

Illustration copyright Airbus Image caption Bracket designed using bionic technology

Here's a simple example - the picture above shows a bracket similar to the one used on an Airbus aircraft. Pay attention to its shape - usually such an element is a solid piece of triangular metal. However, by calculating on a computer the forces that would be applied to its various parts, the engineers figured out which parts could be removed and which could be modified in such a way as to not only lighten, but also strengthen such a component.

Much more complex work was carried out by a group of scientists led by Professor Niels Aage of the Technical University of Denmark. In October 2017, they published a report in the journal Nature in which they described how they calculated the force set of a Boeing 777 airliner wing on the French Curie supercomputer - a complex structure of rather thin jumpers and struts.

As a result, according to the researchers, the weight of the aircraft's two wings could be reduced by 2-5% without losing strength. Considering that both wings weigh a combined 20 tons, this would result in savings of up to 1 ton, which corresponds to an estimated reduction in fuel consumption of 40-200 tons per year. But this is already significant, isn’t it?

At the same time, bionic design in the future, as aircraft manufacturing corporations believe, will be used more and more. The plane in the first illustration to this text is just a sketch by Airbus engineers, but it already shows on what principle the powertrain of future aircraft will be created.

Electricity

The engine is the most important and most expensive part of the aircraft. And it is he who determines the configuration of any aircraft. Currently, most aircraft engines are either natural gas or internal combustion, gasoline or diesel. Only a very small part of them runs on electricity.

According to Boris Rybak, throughout the decades of the existence of jet aviation, the development of fundamentally new aircraft engines was not carried out. He sees this as a manifestation of the lobby of oil corporations. Whether this is true or not, during the entire post-war period an effective engine that did not burn hydrocarbon fuel never appeared. Although even atomic ones were tested.

The attitude towards electricity in the global aviation industry is currently changing dramatically. The concept of a “More Electric Aircraft” has emerged in global aviation. It implies greater electrification of the units and mechanisms of the device compared to modern ones.

In Russia, technology within the framework of this concept is carried out by the Technodinamika holding, part of Rostec. The company is developing electric reverse drives for the future Russian PD-14 engine, fuel system drives, and landing gear retraction and extension drives.

“In the long term, we are, of course, looking at large commercial aircraft projects. And in these large aircraft we will most likely use a hybrid propulsion system before going completely electric,” Airbus said in a commentary. “The point is that the attitude "The power-to-weight ratio of today's batteries is still very far from what we need. But we are preparing for a future where this is possible."