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Ivo Valuch

Ivo Valuch

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Experimental aircraft MiG-21I (A-144)

A special unarmed modification of the MiG-21S frontline fighter aircraft to test the aerodynamic properties, flight characteristics, stability and handling of the tailless aircraft.

🕔︎ 08.10.2022 👁︎ 6.636

Alexey Dmitrievich Charomsky

Alexey Dmitriyevich Charomsky was an outstanding scientist, engineer, organizer, educator.

🕔︎ 14.01.2023 👁︎ 5.905

Armoured attack aircraft BS-2 (CKB-55)

In connection with the unsuccessful Spanish experience with the combat use of reconnaissance aircraft and fighters for direct air support of troops in conditions of strong enemy air defence, on 16 December 1937 the chief of armament and material - technical supply of the VVS KA in the creation of a plan of experimental aircraft design for 1938 and experts - military engineer 1. P.A. Losyukov and P.V. Rudintsev, a military engineer of the 2nd degree, raised with all their sharpness the question of the immediate inclusion in the plan of the construction of a special attack aircraft, "... operating at low altitude and possessing powerful offensive and defensive weapons and with an engine that develops maximum power near the ground ..."

🕔︎ 31.05.2021 👁︎ 10.908

Diesel engine V-2

The V-2 engine was installed before the war on Soviet BT-7M light tanks, T-34 medium tanks, KV-1 and KV-2 heavy tanks, as well as on the Voroshilovets heavy tracked artillery tractor. During the war it was installed on T-34 medium tanks, heavy KV and IS tanks, as well as on cars derived from them. In the post-war years this engine was modernized and its direct descendants are modern tank engines.

🕔︎ 14.01.2023 👁︎ 6.917

Experimental aircraft NM-1 (RSR)

In the first half of the 1950s, many of the country's design teams were involved in the design and construction of aircraft, particularly the fighter class. They were bound together by a common desire to achieve flight speeds twice the speed of sound in the next five years, and separated by a desire to be first, and with as much panache as possible. It would seem that everything was a given, everything was according to plan, when suddenly against this background in 1954 a group of not very well known aviation specialists put forward a stunning proposal. They decided to create a new aircraft in the spirit of the not new, but not officially removed, Stalinist slogan: "Fly faster than others, higher than others and further than others!!!".

🕔︎ 09.12.2022 👁︎ 6.090

Experimental fighter Yak-140

The Yak-140 is an experimental fighter developed by the Yakovlev design bureau. Created in the mid-1950s, the Yak-140 fighter remained a mystery to both Western and domestic aviation historians until recently. And this is not surprising, because the machine not only did not take part in air shows, which were held regularly at that time, but never even took off, although it was built and taxied at the LII airport in Zhukovsky. Further interest in the Yak-140 is due to the fact that this light first-line fighter could compete well with the well-known MiG-21.

🕔︎ 03.09.2022 👁︎ 7.469

F-104 Starfighter against MiG-21

Thanks to the efforts of the SMI, the F-104 Starfighter has a reputation for failure. Some nicknames are worth it: "flying coffin", "husband's killer", "widow maker" and so on. He is believed to have hopelessly lost air combat with the MiG-21. However, the attitude towards the F-104 was not always negative everywhere. In Pakistan, for example, he was given the rather reasonable nickname "hooligan". Canadian pilots sometimes called it "flying phallus," which, as you can see, is much better than "flying scrap," as the MiG-21 was called at the time.

🕔︎ 16.10.2021 👁︎ 14.145

From BMW-III to AM-47

The Great War continues and planes fly everywhere. They fly low because, although it is already known about aircraft engine blowers and even turbochargers, they are not used for engines and at that time they have no special meaning. But everyone wants to climb higher! To fly higher without supercharging systems, we need to give the cylinders more air. The basic solution is to increase the volume of the cylinder. In this case, however, the weight of the engine and its dimensions increase. Is it possible to prevent this?

🕔︎ 01.05.2021 👁︎ 7.462

From BMW-VI to M-17

The Achilles heel of the Soviet aviation industry was the production of aircraft engines. Until 1917, the technical policy of the Russian government was based on the purchase of aircraft engines abroad and on the licensed production of French engines. Engines of our own design were practically not produced. During the civil war, the situation in this area deteriorated sharply due to the lack of qualified engineers and workers and the economic blockade of the country by Western states.

🕔︎ 01.05.2021 👁︎ 5.666

I-350 fighter

After exceeding the speed limit of a thousand kilometers on a MiG-15 fighter (I-310, C) in 1948, the OKB-155, led by chief designer AI Mikoyan, together with CAGI specialists, almost immediately outlined measures to further increase it. As early as July 26, 1949, a prototype MiG-17 fighter (I-330, SI) ascended into the air.

🕔︎ 28.04.2021 👁︎ 8.212

IL-2I heavy fighter

Armoured fighter aircraft, prototype only. Its concept was based on several air battles between Il-2 and Luftwaffe bombers. The aircraft proved to be unpromising, because in the air it could only catch up with the old bombers of the German Air Force.

🕔︎ 07.10.2022 👁︎ 6.762

MiG Je-8

The first prototype of the Je-8 (MiG-23) became known as the Je-8/1 (red 81) and left the OKB MiG prototype workshop on 5 March 1962. As this machine lacked a fighter radar installation, its fuselage was fitted with a sheet metal nose. Its interior was then filled with test apparatus.

🕔︎ 14.01.2023 👁︎ 6.407

MiG-9 fighter

The development of turbojet engines (TRD turbojet boosters) in the USSR began almost simultaneously with similar work abroad. The English engineer Frank Whittle began to realize his project in 1936, and A.M.Lulka designed the project of the first domestic jet engine in 1937. Already in May 1941, Lulka's RD-1 engine with a design thrust of 530 kg was 70% made in metal, the combustion chamber and turbine were working on the bench and the compressor was in test production. However, with the start of World War II, work on the RD-1 had to be curtailed. Before the evacuation from besieged Leningrad, technical documentation as well as finished parts and engine assemblies were buried on the territory of the Kirov plant. In the evacuation, A. M. Ljulka was reassigned to tank engines.

🕔︎ 03.09.2022 👁︎ 7.956

Piston aircraft engine M-5 (Liberty 12)

The Ikar plant proposed to organize the production of powerful engines and in 1922 received an order for their production, and the American Liberty-12 and the French Hispano-Suiza 8Fb (M-6) with 400 and 300 hp were selected as samples. The Liberty-12 was an American aircraft engine manufactured since the end of 1917.

🕔︎ 01.05.2021 👁︎ 8.157

R-5M medium-range ballistic missile

The R-5 medium-range rocket, became the first strategic missile in the Soviet fleet, capable of flying beyond 1,000 kilometers and carrying a nuclear warhead.

🕔︎ 14.01.2023 👁︎ 4.169

Soviet pilots - air victories in the Korean War 1950-1953

During the Korean War, 54 Soviet pilots became aces and won 5 or more victories. They wrote a glorious page in the annals of Russian aviation. In total, during the Korean War, 12 Soviet fighter divisions (26 regiments), 4 anti-aircraft artillery divisions (10 regiments), 2 separate (night) fighter aviation regiments, 2 anti-aircraft searchlight regiments, 2 aviation technical divisions and other aviation support units of the VVS and PVO of the Soviet Army, and 2 fighter aviation regiments of the VVS VMF were successively relieved. For successful completion of the government task, 3,504 orders and medals were awarded to members of the 64th IAK in the USSR. As part of the corps, 57 heroes of the Soviet Union fought in the skies of Korea and China, 22 of whom received this high decoration in 1951-1953.

🕔︎ 07.10.2023 👁︎ 8.052

Soviet Sabre

The history of Soviet aviation contains many interesting pages, one of which is an attempt to copy the American fighter F-86 Sabre, undertaken in the USSR in 1952-53. 

🕔︎ 30.04.2021 👁︎ 10.597

Su-15 interceptor aircraft

The Sukhoi Su-15 (NATO code name "Flagon") was a Soviet twin-engine interceptor aircraft of the mid-1960s, the first prototype of which flew on 30 May 1962. It entered service in 1967, replacing the Su-9 and Su-11 types. Over time, the aircraft was gradually upgraded and various versions were produced. It remained in service until the 1990s.

🕔︎ 12.02.2022 👁︎ 10.081

T-34. A machine according to Soviet rules

Contrary to popular belief, the truth never lies in the middle. Under the pressure of irrefutable evidence, it moves in favor of one angle or another, which often dissolves somewhere in the fourth dimension, beyond our comprehension. The path to truth is thorny and blooming, and the result achieved is far from the prevailing notions of "good" and "bad" principles of this world.

🕔︎ 31.05.2021 👁︎ 12.676

TR-1 jet engine

Even before A.M. Ljulka started working on the jet engine, similar work was done in England and Germany, that the first jet engines were tested here in 1937 and the first flight of the jet engine took place in Germany in 1939. But all this happened in deep secrecy. So A.M. Ljulka went this route alone and is rightly considered the founder of the development of jet engines in the USSR.

🕔︎ 01.05.2021 👁︎ 7.606

TU-95

In the second half of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet aerospace industry was given the task of creating a high-speed high-altitude and high-altitude bomber that would correspond in its flight to the latest American long-range bomber, the B-29 Superfortress. Research and development work, which began in 1943, led to the development of several domestic projects for aircraft of similar purpose.

🕔︎ 30.04.2021 👁︎ 14.342

Turboprop NK-12 (TV-2, TV-12)

The Kuznetsov NK-12 is a Soviet turboprop engine of the 1950s, designed by the Kuznetsov design bureau. The NK-12 drives two large four-bladed contra-rotating propellers, 5.6 m (18 ft) diameter (NK-12MA), and 6.2 m (20 ft) diameter (NK-12MV). It is the most powerful turboprop engine to enter service.

🕔︎ 08.10.2022 👁︎ 6.971

V-2 tank engine

The V-2 engine was installed before the war on Soviet light tanks BT-7M, medium tanks T-34 and heavy KV-1 and KV-2, as well as on a heavy crawler artillery tractor Voroshilovec. During the war, it was installed on medium tanks T-34, heavy KV and IS, as well as on cars derived from them. In the post-war years, this engine was modernized and its direct descendants are modern tank engines.

🕔︎ 01.05.2021 👁︎ 12.598

Who was the designer of the T-34?

The history of the T-34 tank fell on the period of "great terror" and was in many ways tragic for their creators. According to canonical Soviet historiography, the creation of the T-34 is associated exclusively with the name of the chief designer Mikhail Koshkin, who in December 1936 replaced the convicted Afanasiy Firsov. It should be noted that a design genius was needed to develop a groundbreaking tank design, and Koshkin was not.

🕔︎ 28.04.2021 👁︎ 12.577

Why was the Czech modernization of the T-72 more successful than the Soviet and Russian ones?

Recently, information has emerged about the renewal of the Czech modernization program T-72, which took place in the late 90's. After that, 35 tanks for the Czech Army, which received the designation T-72M4 CZ, were modernized under this program by 2006, and the program was stopped for financial reasons. Now the Czech Republic is considering modernizing several hundred vehicles for its army and possibly for export.

🕔︎ 31.05.2021 👁︎ 15.930

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