supersonic

Military

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

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

Civil

Tu-144LL in flight

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

• USSR - Tu-144, first flight on December 31, 1968, passenger transportation began on November 1, 1977, June 1, 1978 was decommissioned after another disaster. 16 units were built, 2 took part in the transportation of passengers, 55 flights were made, 3194 passengers were transported. On all flights, the crew commanders were test pilots from the Tupolev Design Bureau.
• Great Britain, France - Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde, first flight March 2, 1969, start of operation January 21, 1976, decommissioned November 26, 2003. 20 machines were built, 14 were actively operated, more than 3 million passengers were transported, the average flight time was 17,417 hours. One was lost in a crash on July 25, 2000, with 11,989 hours of flight time, with the longest of all aircraft being 23,397 (serial no. 210, registration G-BOAD, located at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum).

Description of the design of the MiG-9 fighter

The MiG-9 is an all-metal single-seat fighter aircraft equipped with two turbojet engines. It is made according to the classical scheme with a mid-wing and a tricycle retractable landing gear.

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

A trapezoidal wing with flaps and ailerons.

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

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

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

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

The engines were installed in the redanium part of the fuselage, the nozzles were adjustable, they could be set in four positions: “start”, “takeoff”, “flight” or “high-speed flight”. The control of the nozzle cone was electrically remote.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Main types at present

USSR/Russia

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

Western countries

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

The principle of operation of a jet engine

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

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

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

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

How a jet engine works

Figure 3 - Scheme of the jet engine

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

• oxidizer for fuel combustion;
• unit cooler.

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

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

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

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

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

Brief history of jet aircraft development

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

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

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

In our era, it is hardly possible to surprise someone with technological innovations. Moreover, now, when the momentum of the development of technology has gained such speed, which in past eras was simply not dreamed of. The same applies to aircraft. Now with turbojet engines it's a common thing. And once people could not even dream of such a thing.

The world's first passenger jet aircraft appeared only in the middle of the last century, when the development of aviation continued actively. Of course, in connection with the Second World War, special attention was paid primarily to the military, so after it ended, engineers and inventors turned their attention to passenger liners.

First, let's define what kind of aircraft it is? This is an aircraft whose engine is jet.

The principle of its operation is to use a mixture of air taken from the atmosphere and products of fuel oxidation with oxygen that are in the air. Due to the oxidation reaction, the working fluid heats up and, expanding, is ejected from the engine very quickly, while producing jet thrust.

First models

Aircraft, which then became prototypes for passenger liners, were developed then in Germany, or rather in the Third Reich, and in Great Britain. The pioneers in this area are the Germans.

Heinkel He 178- is considered the first aircraft with a jet engine. It was first tested on August 27, 1939. The aircraft showed quite encouraging results, but the higher leadership in the face of the Reich Ministry of Aviation considered that this technology was not interesting. And the main direction then was precisely military aviation equipment.

The British were also not far behind the Germans. And in 1941 the world saw the Gloster E.28/39. The engine designer was Frank Whittle.

Gloster E.28/39.

It was these prototypes that showed everyone which way aviation would go in the future.

The first jet passenger aircraft

The first jet aircraft for passengers is considered to be created by the British, "Comet-1". He was tested July 27, 1949. He had 4 turbojet engines, and the salon was calculated for 32 passengers. In addition, it was installed 2 accelerators for hydrogen peroxide. It was used on routes to Europe and Africa. For example, Johannesburg with stops along the way. The total flight time was 23.5 hours.

Later, "Kometa-2" and "Kometa-3" were developed, but they did not live up to expectations and were discontinued due to metal fatigue and insufficient strength of the fuselage. And yet, some modifications are still used to design RAF fighters.

Six years later, the USSR introduced the TU-104. The first Soviet jet passenger aircraft. The first time he took to the air June 15, 1955 A.N. Tupolev took as the basis of his project bomber with jet engines TU-16. He simply increased the fuselage, lowered the wing under it, and placed 100 seats for passengers. Since 1956 it was put into mass production.

For the next two years, he was the only jet aircraft in the world., which was used to transport civilians. He had 2 turbojet engines. Its maximum speed reached 950 km / h, and he could fly up to 2700 km.

It also introduced such novelties for the USSR, like meals on board, beautifully dressed stewardesses and fit pilots.

Nevertheless, for 4 years of its operation, there were 37 accidents involving this aircraft. This is the largest number of accidents among all Russian aircraft. It is not surprising that N.S. Khrushchev refused to even approach him. Despite the fact that it was removed from production, it was still used until 1979 for flights.

In 1958 out on the passenger lines. He could take on board from 90 to 180 passengers. On different models engines of various capacities were installed. The aircraft was intended for routes of medium and long distances. However, there were much more accidents with it than with TU-104.

SE.210 Caravelle 1.

A breakthrough in world aviation was the creation of the French SE.210 Caravelle 1. He started flying in 1959, mainly in the colonies of France, in Africa. He also had 2 turbojet engines, but Rolls-Royce, in the tail of the aircraft. This helped to achieve the fact that both aerodynamics improved, and noise in the cabin was minimized, and the reliability of the air intakes was increased.

And the ladder was also made in a different way than other aircraft of that time - in the form of a descending part of the fuselage. In the cabin, too, innovations were carried out: portholes have become larger, and the passageway has been widened. It was used on routes only of medium range.

A total of 12 aircraft of this type were produced, but still he could not stand the competition with Boeing, and further production was stopped.

In June 1955, an experimental aircraft "104" developed by Tupolev Design Bureau took off from the airfield near Moscow in Zhukovsky. Factory tests of the machine began, which by the autumn of the same year will turn into a Tu-104 jet airliner - the third in the world, the second put into operation and the first in the USSR.

The very theme of the "104th" moved forward only after the death of Stalin, although proposals for the creation of a jet passenger fleet were repeatedly put forward under him. But the leader, with his inherent frugality and penchant for repeated reinsurance, inexorably "cut down" such ideas. The country had just overcome the post-war devastation and could not afford significant "non-core" spending, and reactive passenger aviation in the early 50s, however, was not a problem of prime necessity for the Soviet national economy.

There is a common joke among railway students: "Soviet cars are not designed to carry passengers, they are adapted for it." When creating the first Soviet jet liner, the Tupolev Design Bureau used a similar principle, but seriously and competently. The successful Tu-16 bomber was taken as a basis (the “104” aircraft even at one time bore the Tu-16P index - “passenger”) in order to gain resources and time on the general development of the design.

Thus, the task of training flight personnel was also facilitated, and they also saved on ground maintenance and repair equipment.

As one of the arguments in favor of creating such an aircraft, A.N. Tupolev cited the possibility of flying at high altitude, “above the weather” - propeller-driven passenger aircraft, which had a small ceiling, suffered mercilessly from chatter. But it was there that the first jet liner was guarded by a new, as yet unknown danger.

When it comes to a passenger aircraft, the first thing that seriously starts to worry potential passengers is reliability. Who in the USSR has not heard the black song: "Tu-104 is the fastest plane: it will take you to the grave in two minutes"? For all its offensiveness, it somewhat reflected the harsh reality. The plane was made in a hurry. The accident rate of the new car exceeded reasonable - by today's standards - indicators. Over the entire history of operation, 37 cars suffered serious accidents - 18% of the total number of vehicles produced. At the same time, it should be noted that the 104th behaved much more decently in flight than its English competitor, De Havilland's Comet (23% of lost cars), which had an unhealthy habit of falling apart in the air due to fatigue loads in a carelessly designed fuselage.

The first Tu-104 aircraft flew in early November 1955. Thus, the development took quite a bit of time. During this flight, there were some problems: during the flight, the plane unexpectedly tossed up, after which the control of the machine was lost for a while. The pilots called this condition "pickup". The reason for this phenomenon could not be determined. Despite this, the operation of the aircraft was continued, and the tests did not stop.

Khrushchev liked the Tu-104 so much that he even decided to fly it to Great Britain in 1956. Since the problems with the aircraft could not be resolved, he was persuaded to abandon such a flight. But it was necessary to demonstrate to the world the successes of the Soviet aircraft industry. Therefore, on the orders of Khrushchev, the Tu-104 was driven to the British capital.

The arrival of the Soviet airliner, according to the British press, had an effect comparable to the landing of a UFO. The next day, a second copy of the Tu-104 flew to London, with a different number. A report appeared in the British newspapers that it was the same plane, and the "Russian priests" were "repainting the numbers on their experimental aircraft." "Russian priests" are Russian pilots dressed in all black. Chief designer A.N. Tupolev was offended and, firstly, ordered the pilots to allocate funds to dress in something fashionable and not black, and the next day - March 25, 1956 - to send three Tu-104s to London at once, which was done.

It was a triumph for the Soviet Union - after all, at that time no other country in the world had operating jet passenger airliners did not have.

The Tu-104 made its first regular flight on September 15, 1956. And in 1958, a black streak began.

As the further development of events showed, the problems with the "pickup" were not resolved. In August 1958, the Tu-104 crashed out of control, killing 64 people. The designer Tupolev denied in every possible way that there were any problems, and the catastrophe, according to him, was the fault of the crew. There is a version that the plane simply did not have enough fuel. But after some time, the second Tu-104 also crashed, going into a tailspin and crashing into the ground.

And two months later, exactly the same situation developed near Kanash.

On October 7, 1958, the new Tu-104A with tail number CCCP-42362, operated by the crew of the most experienced pilot Harold Kuznetsov, was flying Beijing - Omsk - Moscow. The flight altitude was 12 kilometers. In the cabin were mostly foreign citizens - a delegation of Chinese and North Korean Komsomol activists.

The weather in Moscow was bad, at the Gorky alternate airfield, too, and after flying over Kazan, the controller ordered to turn around and proceed to Sverdlovsk, suitable for landing. During a turn at an altitude of 10,000 meters, the aircraft most likely got into a zone of strong turbulence and a "pickup" occurred - a spontaneous increase in the pitch angle uncontrolled by the crew. Suddenly, the plane was thrown up sharply, and with such force that such a huge colossus flew up two kilometers, left the echelon up, lost speed, fell on the wing and went into a tailspin.

In the situation that arose, the crew did everything possible to save the aircraft. But the lack of elevator travel did not allow the car to be taken out of lethal mode. Harold Kuznetsov, knowing that the Birobidzhan story might be repeating itself, ordered the radio operator to broadcast his words to the ground.

Crew commander Harold Kuznetsov and co-pilot Anton Artemiev tried to level the plane, taking the helm to the stop. But it did not help. Then the plane went down sharply, not obeying the controls. Thus, the aircraft went into a steep uncontrolled dive. At supersonic speed, almost vertically, the plane rushed to the ground.

Here the crew accomplished the almost impossible: the commander Harold Kuznetsov, in two minutes of falling from a height of 13 kilometers, managed to transmit over the radio the features of the behavior of the car. Communication worked almost until the very moment of impact with the ground. The last words of the commander were: “Goodbye. We're dying."

The plane crashed in the Vurnarsky district of Chuvashia, a few tens of meters from the canvas railway Moscow - Kazan - Sverdlovsk, near the village of Bulatovo. 65 passengers and 9 crew members died.

According to the results of the work of the state commission, the accident lasted no more than two minutes.

The information transmitted by Kuznetsov was of great value, since all previous incidents remained unsolved. None of the investigations conducted by specialists from the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet, the Air Force, the State Research Institute, as well as the Tupolev Design Bureau itself, could shed light on what really happened. Numerous suggestions have been put forward: technical failure, defects in design, bad weather conditions, crew errors.

All the bumps, of course, fell on the heads of the pilots, since no one doubted the technical characteristics of the aircraft. But the information transmitted by Kuznetsov dotted the "i". From the information received, the commission concluded that the liner fell into a huge ascending air stream. None of the designers could even imagine that this was possible at an altitude of more than 9 kilometers, since simple piston machines could climb to a much lower height. Therefore, such a phenomenon as turbulence was considered a trifle. Until tragedy struck.

Kuznetsov's crew hit the very center of the vertical air flow. Later, in the process of reproducing the flight, the designers managed to determine its parameters: the width of the air flow was about 2 kilometers, the length was about 13, and the thickness was about 6 kilometers. At the same time, its speed was approaching 300 kilometers per hour.

It was urgent to find a way to deal with such a dangerous natural phenomenon. As a result, the maximum flight altitude was reduced, the structure itself was modernized, new methods of machine alignment were developed, but still the problem was not completely solved. The high accident rate remained at the same level, but what was the cause - whether design errors, or unpreparedness of the pilots - was difficult to determine.

The transferred information was enough to find and fix the problem. The rules for centering the aircraft were changed, the angle of installation of the stabilizer was changed and the elevator was finalized. has also been reduced maximum height flight. The tendency of the aircraft to "pick up" has been greatly reduced.

After that, the Tu-104 carried passengers for another three decades, and although there were some catastrophes (after all, about 200 aircraft were built and flew), their reasons were already different. The Tu-104 became for a long time the main passenger aircraft of Aeroflot: for example, in 1960, a third of passenger air transportation in the USSR was carried out on the Tu-104. Over 23 years of operation, the Tu-104 aircraft fleet has carried about 100 million passengers, spent 2,000,000 flight hours in the air and completed more than 600,000 flights.

Much credit for this belongs to Harold Kuznetsov and his crew. Here are their names:

Kuznetsov Harold Dmitrievich - FAC instructor
Artemov Anton Filimonovich - FAC
Rogozin Igor Alexandrovich - co-pilot
Mumrienko Evgeny Andreevich - navigator
Veselov Ivan Vladimirovich - flight engineer
Fedorov Alexander Sergeevich - radio operator
Smolenskaya Maya Filippovna - flight attendant-translator
Goryushina Tatyana Borisovna - flight attendant
Maklakova Albina - flight attendant

It is not surprising that the aircraft acquired a bad reputation. In 1960, the Tu-104 liner was discontinued, and the Il-18 turboprop liners took its place for a while. And since a long strip was needed to disperse the Tu-104, it was used on domestic flights infrequently.

There was a need to create new passenger aircraft. Tupolev decided not to retreat from the intended path. As a result, the first modification of the Tu-104, the Tu-124, was created, which also had a high accident rate. Therefore, another version was created - the Tu-134. This aircraft was more successful, therefore, since the start of operation in 1967, it still makes flights on domestic airlines. And only in 1972 the first Tu-154 jet liner appeared, which was not converted from a military vehicle, but was originally designed as a passenger one. This is one of the favorite aircraft of domestic experienced pilots.

Aeroflot removed the last Tu-104s from regular airlines only in 1979. But the plane by that time had firmly taken root in military aviation- it was used for training pilots of naval missile carriers, as a flying laboratory, for meteorological research and as a staff aircraft. The flights of the 104s were finally stopped only at the beginning of 1981, after an overloaded car belonging to the USSR Navy crashed at a military airfield near Leningrad. It almost completely killed the command staff Pacific Fleet- 52 people, including 17 admirals and generals, including the commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Emil Spiridonov, who had the ill-fated car at his disposal.

Such a bitter experience forced domestic designers to think of new aerodynamic forms that could withstand air currents.

Officially, the last flight of the Tu-104 took place in November 1986. But some people claim that at the very end of the 80s they saw "104s" on the platforms of regional airports and even in flight. The son of a warrior and the grandfather of Soviet jet airliners did not want to retire, remaining a sort of kind ghost in an impoverished, but comfortably inhabited castle of Russian civil aviation.

Near Moscow, on the Kiev highway, at the turn to Vnukovo airport, a Tu-104B was met, standing on a high pedestal. As it turned out, this aircraft was installed in 2006, before it there was another Tu-104B in Vnukovo, which, on someone's stupid order, was cut down in 2005. Board number the car is not real, the number USSR-L5412 was worn by the first Tu-104, which performed the first flight with passengers.

It is difficult for modern youth, and even mature citizens, to understand what delight these flying machines, which seemed fantastic at that time, caused. Silvery droplets, rapidly dissecting the blue sky behind them, excited the imagination of young people in the early fifties. The wide left no doubt about the type of engine. Today, only computer games like War Thunder, with their offer to purchase a promotional jet aircraft of the USSR, give some idea of ​​this stage in the development of domestic aviation. But it started even earlier.

What does "reactive" mean?

There is a reasonable question about the name of the type aircraft. In English, it sounds short: Jet. The Russian definition hints at the presence of some kind of reaction. It is clear that this is not about fuel oxidation - it is also present in conventional carbureted aircraft, the same as in rockets. The reaction of a physical body to the force of the ejected gas jet is expressed in giving it an oppositely directed acceleration. Everything else is already subtleties, which include different technical specifications systems such as aerodynamic properties, layout, wing profile, engine type. Here are possible options that engineering bureaus came up with in the course of their work, often finding similar technical solutions, independently of each other.

It is difficult to separate rocket research from aviation research in this aspect. In the field of powder boosters, installed to reduce the length of the takeoff run and afterburner, work was carried out even before the war. Moreover, an attempt to install a compressor engine (unsuccessful) in a Coanda airplane in 1910 allowed the inventor Henri Coanda to claim Romanian priority. True, this design was initially inoperable, which was confirmed by the very first test, during which the aircraft burned down.

First steps

The first jet aircraft capable of spending a long time in the air appeared later. The Germans became the pioneers, although some successes were achieved by scientists from other countries - the USA, Italy, Britain and then technically backward Japan. These samples were, in fact, the gliders of conventional fighters and bombers, which were equipped with a new type of engine, devoid of propellers, which caused surprise and distrust. In the USSR, engineers also dealt with this problem, but not so actively, focusing on proven and reliable propeller technology. Nevertheless, the jet model of the Bi-1 aircraft, equipped with a turbojet engine designed by A. M. Lyulka, was tested immediately before the war. The apparatus was very unreliable, the nitric acid used as an oxidizing agent was eating through the fuel tanks, there were other problems, but the first steps are always difficult.

Hitler's "Sturmvogel"

Due to the peculiarities of the Fuhrer's psyche, who hoped to crush the "enemies of the Reich" (to which he ranked the countries of almost the rest of the world), in Germany, after the start of World War II, work began on the creation of various types of "wonder weapons", including jet aircraft. Not all areas of this activity were unsuccessful. Successful projects include the Messerschmit-262 (aka Sturmvogel) - the first mass-produced jet aircraft in the world. The device was equipped with two turbojet engines, had a radar in the bow, developed a speed close to sound (more than 900 km / h), and turned out to be quite an effective means of combating the high-altitude B-17 ("Flying Fortresses") of the Allies. Adolf Hitler's fanatical faith in the extraordinary capabilities of the new technology, however, paradoxically played a bad role in the combat biography of the Me-262. Designed as a fighter, he, at the direction of "above", was converted into a bomber, and in this modification he did not fully prove himself.

"Arado"

The principle of a jet aircraft was applied in mid-1944 to the design of the Arado-234 bomber (again by the Germans). He managed to demonstrate his extraordinary combat capabilities by attacking the positions of the allies who landed in the area of ​​the port of Cherbourg. A speed of 740 km / h and a ten-kilometer ceiling did not give anti-aircraft artillery a chance to hit this target, and American and British fighters simply could not catch up with it. In addition to bombing (very inaccurate for obvious reasons), "Arado" produced aerial photography. The second experience of using it as a strike tool took place over Liege. The Germans did not suffer losses, and if Nazi Germany had more resources, and the industry could produce more than 36 Ar-234s, then the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition would have had a hard time.

Yu-287

German developments fell into the hands of friendly states during the Second World War after the defeat of Nazism. Western countries already during the final stage of hostilities, they began to prepare for the coming confrontation with the USSR. The Stalinist leadership took countermeasures. It was clear to both sides that the next war, if it took place, would be fought by jets. The USSR at that time did not yet have a strike nuclear potential, only work was underway to create a technology for the production of an atomic bomb. But the Americans were very interested in the captured Junkers-287, which had unique flight data (combat load 4000 kg, range 1500 km, ceiling 5000 m, speed 860 km / h). Four engines, negative sweep (the prototype of the future "invisibles") made it possible to use the aircraft as a nuclear carrier.

The first post-war

Jet aircraft did not play a decisive role during World War II, so the bulk of Soviet production capacity focused on improving the design and increasing the production of conventional propeller-driven fighters, attack aircraft and bombers. The issue of a promising carrier of atomic charges was difficult, and it was resolved promptly by copying the American Boeing B-29 (Tu-4), but countering possible aggression remained the main goal. To do this, first of all, fighters were required - high-altitude, maneuverable and, of course, high-speed. How the new direction developed can be judged from the letter of the designer A.S. Yakovlev to the Central Committee (autumn 1945), which found a certain understanding. A simple study of captured German technology was considered by the party leadership to be an insufficient measure. The country needed modern Soviet jet aircraft, not inferior, but superior to the world level. At the parade of 1946 in honor of the anniversary of the October Revolution (Tushino), they had to be shown to the people and foreign guests.

Temporary Yaks and MiGs

There was something to show, but it did not work out: the weather failed, there was fog. The demonstration of the new aircraft was postponed to May Day. The first Soviet jet aircraft, produced in a series of 15 copies, were developed by the Design Bureau of Mikoyan and Gurevich (MiG-9) and Yakovlev (Yak-15). Both samples were distinguished by a redan scheme, in which the tail section is washed from below by jet streams produced by nozzles. Naturally, to protect against overheating, these sections of the skin were covered with a special layer made of refractory metal. Both aircraft differed in weight, number of engines and purpose, but on the whole they corresponded to the state of the Soviet aircraft building school of the late forties. Their main purpose was the transition to a new type of power plant, but other important tasks were also carried out: training of flight personnel and working out technological issues. These jet aircraft, despite the large volumes of their production (hundreds of pieces), were considered as temporary and subject to replacement in the very near future, immediately after the appearance of more advanced designs. And soon that moment arrived.

Fifteenth

This plane has become a legend. It was built in series unprecedented for peacetime, both in combat and in a paired training version. Many revolutionary technical solutions were used in the design of the MiG-15, for the first time an attempt was made to create a reliable pilot rescue system (catapult), it was equipped with powerful cannon armament. The speed of the jet aircraft, small but very effective, allowed it to win over armadas of heavy strategic bombers in the skies of Korea, where war broke out soon after the introduction of a new interceptor. The American Saber, built according to a similar scheme, became a kind of analogue of the MiG. During the fighting, equipment fell into the hands of the enemy. The Soviet plane was hijacked by a North Korean pilot tempted by a huge monetary reward. The downed "American" was pulled out of the water and delivered to the USSR. There was a mutual "exchange of experience" with the adoption of the most successful design solutions.

Passenger jets

The speed of a jet aircraft is its main advantage, and it is applicable not only to bombers and fighters. Already at the end of the forties, the Comet liner, built in Britain, entered international airlines. It was created specifically for the transportation of people, it was comfortable and fast, but, unfortunately, it was not very reliable: seven accidents happened within two years. But progress in the field of high-speed passenger transportation was already unstoppable. In the mid-fifties, the legendary Tu-104 appeared in the USSR, a conversion version of the Tu-16 bomber. Despite the numerous flight accidents that occurred with the new aircraft, jet aircraft increasingly took over the airlines. The appearance of a promising liner and ideas about how it should be gradually formed. propellers) were used by designers less and less.

Generations of fighters: first, second ...

Like almost any technique, jet interceptors are classified by generation. There are currently five of them in total, and they differ not only in the years of production of models, but also in design features. If the concept of the first prototypes was based on a well-established base of achievements in the field of classical aerodynamics (in other words, only the type of engine was their main difference), then the second generation had more significant features (a swept wing, a completely different shape of the fuselage, etc.) there was an opinion that air combat would never again be of a maneuverable nature, but time showed the fallacy of this opinion.

... and from the third to the fifth

The dogfights of the sixties between Skyhawks, Phantoms and MiGs in the skies over Vietnam and the Middle East indicated the course of further development, marking the arrival of the second generation of jet interceptors. Variable wing geometry, multiple sound capability and missile armament, combined with powerful avionics, have become hallmarks of the third generation. At present, the Air Force fleet of the most technologically advanced countries is based on fourth-generation aircraft, which have become a product of further development. Even more advanced models are already being put into service, combining high speed, super-maneuverability, low visibility and electronic warfare equipment. This is the fifth generation.

Dual circuit engines

Outwardly, even today, jet aircraft of the first samples do not look, for the most part, as anachronisms. The appearance of many of them is quite modern, and specifications(such as ceiling and speed) are not too different from modern ones, at least at first glance. However, with a closer look at the performance characteristics of these machines, it becomes clear that in recent decades a qualitative breakthrough has been made in two main directions. First, the concept of a variable thrust vector appeared, creating the possibility of a sharp and unexpected maneuver. Secondly, today they are able to stay in the air much longer and cover long distances. This factor is due to low fuel consumption, that is, efficiency. It is achieved by using, in technical language, a bypass scheme (low degree of bypass). It is known to those skilled in the art that said fuel combustion technology provides more complete combustion.

Other features of the modern jet aircraft

There are several. Modern civil jets are characterized by low engine noise, increased comfort and high flight stability. Usually they are wide-body (including multi-deck). Models of military aircraft are equipped with means (active and passive) to achieve low radar visibility and In a sense, the requirements for defense and commercial models today intersect. Aircraft of all types need efficiency, however, for different reasons: in one case, to increase profitability, in the other, to expand the combat radius. And today it is necessary to make as little noise as possible for both civilians and the military.

It's always hard to be first, but it's interesting

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

“The era of propeller-driven airplanes should be followed by the era of jet airplanes…” – these words of the founder of jet technology K.E. By this time, it became clear that a further significant increase in aircraft flight speed due to an increase in the power of piston engines and a more perfect aerodynamic shape was practically impossible. Airplanes had to be equipped with engines whose power could not be increased without an excessive increase in engine mass. So, in order to increase the speed of a fighter flight from 650 to 1000 km / h, it was necessary to increase the power of the piston engine by 6 (!) Times.

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

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

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

In the USSR, however, practical work on "reactive" topics was carried out mainly in the direction of liquid rocket engines. V. P. Glushko was the founder of rocket engine building in the USSR. In 1930, then an employee of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) in Leningrad, which at that time was the only design bureau in the world for the development of solid-propellant rockets, he created the first domestic LRE ORM-1. And in Moscow in 1931-1933. scientist and designer of the Jet Propulsion Study Group (GIRD) F. L. Zander developed the OR-1 and OR-2 rocket engines.

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

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

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

But on June 30, 1939, the German pilot Erich Warzitz took off the world's first jet aircraft with a rocket engine designed by Helmut Walter "Heinkel" He-176, reaching a speed of 700 km / h, and two months later the world's first jet aircraft with a turbojet engine "Heinkel" He-178, equipped with a Hans von Ohain engine, "HeS-3 B" with a thrust of 510 kg and a speed of 750 km / h.

In May 1941, the British Gloucester Pioneer E.28 / 29 made its first flight with the Whittle W-1 turbojet engine designed by Frank Whittle.

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

In 1938, the RNII was renamed NII-3, now the "royal" rocket plane "218-1" began to be designated "RP-318-1". New leading designers engineers A. Shcherbakov, A. Pallo replaced the LRE ORM-65 V. P. Glushko with a nitrogen-acid-kerosene engine "RDA-1-150" designed by L. S. Dushkin.

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

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

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

Massive Luftwaffe raids on British cities and the lack of a sufficient number of radar stations in the Soviet Union revealed the need to create a fighter-interceptor to cover especially important objects, on the project of which young engineers A. Ya. Bereznyak and A. M. Isaev began to work in the spring of 1941 from the Design Bureau of the designer V. F. Bolkhovitinov. The concept of their Dushkin-powered missile interceptor or "close-range fighter" was based on Korolev's proposal put forward as early as 1938.

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

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

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

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

In order to reduce the time of creating an interceptor at the request of the Deputy People's Commissar of the aviation industry for pilot aircraft construction A. S. Yakovlev, the airframe of the BI aircraft was studied in a full-scale wind tunnel of TsAGI, and at the airfield, test pilot B. N. Kudrin began jogging and approaching in tow . The development of the power plant had to be pretty tricky, since nitric acid corroded tanks and wiring and had a harmful effect on humans.

However, all work was interrupted due to the evacuation of the design bureau to the Urals in the village of Belimbay in October 1941. There, in order to debug the operation of the LRE systems, a ground stand was mounted - the BI fuselage with a combustion chamber, tanks and pipelines. By the spring of 1942, the ground test program was completed.

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

The morning of May 15, 1942 entered the history of Russian cosmonautics and aviation forever, with the takeoff from the ground of the first Soviet aircraft with a liquid propellant engine. The flight, which lasted 3 minutes 9 seconds at a speed of 400 km/h and a rate of climb of 23 m/s, made a strong impression on all those present. Here is how Bolkhovitinov recalled it in 1962: “For us, standing on the ground, this takeoff was unusual. Unusually quickly picking up speed, the plane took off from the ground in 10 seconds and disappeared from sight in 30 seconds. Only the flames of the engine told where he was. Several minutes passed like that. I will not hide, my hamstrings were shaking.

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

A day after the tests, a solemn meeting and rally was arranged in Bilimbay. A poster hung over the presidium table: "Greetings to Captain Bakhchivandzhi, the pilot who flew into the new!"

The decision of the State Defense Committee to build a series of 20 BIVS aircraft soon followed, where, in addition to two cannons, a bomb cassette was installed in front of the cockpit, which housed ten small anti-aircraft bombs weighing 2.5 kg each.

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

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

The disaster hit the reputation of the Bolkhovitinov Design Bureau painfully - all the unfinished BI-VS interceptors were destroyed. And although later in 1943-1944. a modification of the BI-7 was designed with ramjet engines at the ends of the wing, and in January 1945 pilot B.N. Kudrin completed the last two flights on the BI-1, all work on the aircraft was stopped.

The concept of a rocket fighter was most successfully implemented in Germany, where since January 1939 in the special “Department L” of the Messerschmitt company, where Professor A. Lippisch and his employees moved from the German Glider Institute, work was underway on the “X project” - “ object" interceptor "Me-163" "Komet" with a rocket engine operating on a mixture of hydrazine, methanol and water. It was an unconventional “tailless” aircraft, which, for the sake of maximum weight reduction, took off from a special trolley and landed on a ski that was pulled out of the fuselage. The test pilot Ditmar performed the first flight at maximum thrust in August 1941, and already in October, for the first time in history, the mark of 1000 km / h was overcome. It took more than two years of testing and refinement before the "Me-163" was put into production. It became the first LRE aircraft to take part in combat since May 1944. Although more than 300 interceptors were produced by February 1945, no more than 80 combat-ready aircraft were in service.

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

Messerschmitt Me.262 (German Messerschmitt Me.262 "Schwalbe" - "swallow")

The leadership of the Soviet aircraft industry in 1941-1943. was focused on the gross output of the maximum number of combat aircraft and the improvement of serial samples and was not interested in the development of promising work on jet technology. Thus, the BI-1 disaster put an end to other projects of Soviet missile interceptors: Andrey Kostikov's 302, Roberto Bartini's R-114 and Korolev's RP.

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

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

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

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

In November 1945, the order to build the RM-1 was signed by Minister A.I. Shakhurin, but in January 1946 the order to build the RM-1 was canceled by Yakovlev. Similar Cheranovsky BICH-26 (Che-24) supersonic project a fighter based on a "flying wing" with a rudder and a variable sweep wing was also canceled.

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

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

“... It is terrible to remember how little I knew and understood then. Today they say: "discoverers", "pioneers". And we walked in the dark and stuffed hefty cones. No special literature, no methodology, no well-established experiment. Stone Age jet aircraft. We were both complete mugs! .. ”- this is how Alexei Isaev recalled the creation of BI-1. Yes, indeed, due to their colossal fuel consumption, aircraft with liquid-propellant rocket engines did not take root in aviation, forever giving way to turbojet ones. But having taken their first steps in aviation, rocket engines have firmly taken their place in rocket science.

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

I-270 (according to NATO classification - Type 11) - an experienced Mikoyan Design Bureau fighter with a rocket engine.

Received a clue and the mystery of the death of Bakhchivandzhi. In 1943, the high-speed wind tunnel T-106 was put into operation at TsAGI. It immediately began to conduct extensive studies of aircraft models and their elements at high subsonic speeds. A model aircraft "BI" was also tested to identify the causes of the disaster. According to the test results, it became clear that the "BI" crashed due to the peculiarities of the flow around the straight wing and tail at transonic speeds and the resulting phenomenon of dragging the aircraft into a dive, which the pilot could not overcome. The BI-1 disaster on March 27, 1943 was the first that allowed Soviet aircraft designers to solve the problem of the “wave crisis” by installing a swept wing on the MiG-15 fighter. 30 years later, in 1973, Bakhchivandzhi was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Yuri Gagarin spoke of him this way:

"... Without the flights of Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, it would probably not have happened on April 12, 1961." Who could have known that exactly 25 years later, on March 27, 1968, like Bakhchivandzhi at the age of 34, Gagarin would also die in a plane crash. They were really united by the main thing - they were the first.