This book is designed according to the successful formula set by its predecessor volumes on Pan American World Airways, Lufthansa, and Delta Air Lines. The same standards of accuracy, relevance, and balance have been set, but inevitably, some problems arose.
With the aircraft specifications, we have been conscious of the dangers of misrepresenting performance by associating, for example, the maximum range with maximum passenger and/or cargo load. The term normal, where used, therefore, is not a retreat to a broad generalization, but normality correctly expressed. A Tupolev Tu-114, for example, could fly 10,000km (6,000mi), but could not do so with a full payload.
Spelling presented real difficulties. Transliteration from the Russian, a language with vowel and consonant sounds different from most others, has been and still is interpreted in English in several ways. Aeroflot’s predecessor airline has been spelled Dobroliot, Dobrolyot, Dobriolot, and the generally accepted Dobrolet, which latter, in fact, is misleading, because it omits the у sound. We have done our best to be consistent.
Some place names have changed according to political decree, and several major cities, Leningrad, Kuibyshev, and Sverdlovsk, for example, changed back to their pre-Revolution names (St Petersburg, Samara, and Ekaterinberg, respectively) even while this book was being written. We have attempted, in the text, the tables, and the maps, to be contemporarily correct.
With a current fleet alone in the region of 11,000 aircraft, it was impossible to attempt to include individual aircraft details as in the previous volumes—even if they were available. Instead, emphasis has been placed on the pre-war non-Soviet aircraft, and selected post-war types where the
listing did not preclude essential text, photographs, drawings, or other tabular data.
The computerized layout of the text and final design according to Ron Davies’s original plan was fashioned and polished by Kimberley Fisher, of Fisher & Day; and Paladwr Press is much indebted to her and Brian Day for their enthusiastic support and professional advice. Printing, once again, was accomplished under the professional direction of Scott Piazza of The Drawing Board. — John Wegg.
 
Feeling Its Way
Following the exhausting civil war, Russian aviation had struggled to pick up the pieces of a shattered industry. Carefully, almost methodically, it had begun to rebuild. Between 1918 and 1922, several exploratory flights were made with foreign-made aircraft, Farmans, L. V.G. s, and British types, not only from Moscow but in other parts of Russia and Central Asia. From 16 to 20 September 1922, B. K. Bellint made a round-trip in a Russian-built Junkers Ju 13 from Moscow to the Crimea, and from 20 May to 1 June 1923 flew another Ju 13 to Tashkent, as a prelude to Dobrolet’s pioneering activities there (see page 18).
From 10 to 22 July, 1924, piloting an AK-1 — the first successful all-Soviet transport design — A. N. Tomashevskya flew from Moscow to Kazan; and from 29 September to 1 October of the same year, P. Kh. Mezheraup, in a Polikarpov R-l, flew to Kabul, Afghanistan. From 2 February to 8 April the next year, V. Ch. Kopilov, in a Junkers Ju 13, made a 10,400km (6,500mi) round-trip circuit in the northeastern and eastern regions of European Russia. And this kind of activity increased in intensity throughout the year, culminating on 10 June 1925 when six aircraft (two R-ls, two Ju 13s, an R-2, and an AK-1) took off from Moscow to Peking (Beijing), China. Piloted by Mikhail M. Gromov (R-l), N. E. Nadenov (Ju 13), M. A. Volkovoynov (R-l), A. N. Ekatov (R-2), E. K. Polyakov (Ju 13), and A. E. Tomashevsky (AK-1), all six aircraft covered the 6,476km (4,025mi) in a little more than a month, arriving on 17 July. Gromov capped the performance by flying on to Tokyo, via Manchuria and Korea, from 30 August to 2 September.
Circuit of Europe
As if to emphasize that the products of TsAGI amounted to more than drawings and announcements, the Russians began to show their metal in western Europe where, because of the dearth of information emanating from Moscow, foreign politicians, press, and public alike were understandably skeptical about reports of aircraft construction in the brave new world of the Soviet Union. On 31 August 1926, Mikhail M. Gromov made a courageous demonstration which was quite literally a proving flight, as it proved to the skeptics that the Russians did have flying hardware.
Gromov took his ANT-3 from Moscow to Konigsberg, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Prague, Vienna, Warsaw, and then back to
Moscow. The Proletarii (Proletariat) completed this European circuit on 2 September, having covered the 7,150km (4,444mi) in 34hr 15min of flying time, at an average speed of 209km/h (130mph) (see map, p. 23).
Across the World
The following year, the ANT-3 made another important flight that must have given encouragement to the design team at TsAGI. On 20 August 1927, S. A. Shestakov flew an ANT-3 (RR-INT Osoaviakhim SSSR Nash Otvet (Our Answer) from Moscow to Tokyo, arriving there on 1 September. The 22,000km (13,670mi) round-trip was completed in 153 flying hours, at a leisurely speed of 144km/h (89mph) and both the pilot and his mechanic, D. V. Fufaev, were awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Two years later, with gaining confidence, Shestakov made a more ambitious flight, this time with an ANT-4 (URSS-300 Strana Sovyetov (Land of Soviets). Between 23 August and 2 November 1929, he made an historic flight from the U. S.S. R. to the U. S.A., via the Pacific northern rim. As with most longdistance flights, high speed was not the objective. The 21,200km (13,200mi, about the same as the Moscow — Tokyo round-trip) were covered in 137 flying hours, at an average speed of 155km/h (96mph). The twin-engined aircraft was fitted with floats at Khabarovsk for the occasion, and the arrival in the U. S. was on Lake Washington, Seattle.
|
A NT – 4 (Strana Sovyetov – Soviet і Seward 23 Aug-і Nov
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Ж V Khabarovsk yje^ ^ Spaasku
YancjyanyA
ANT-3(Nash 0tvet-0ur Answer) t>-®
-D 20 Aug.- 1 Sep. 1927 Okayama TOKYO
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
  
 
The Antonov An-8
Oleg Antonov’s post-war Antonov An-2, whose versatility as a small maid-of-all-work for feeder and bush operations gave it a longevity which keeps it in production even today (pages 42-43), was the harbinger of greater things to come. For in 1956, the Soviet industry sprang another of its surprises and put on display a new military aircraft that had first flown a year earlier.
Though little known, and rarely seen outside its native land, the twin-engined Antonov An-8 deserves recognition as one of the design trend-setters in aircraft construction development history. Its main purpose was to carry troops, military vehicles, and equipment into small unprepared fields for front-line support, and as such, design aspects were directed without compromise to this objective. The An-8’s wing was on top of the fuselage and the landing gear housed in fuselage fairings so that loading through its wide rear ramp/door did not require special ground equipment. The high tail permitted the rear-loading ramp plenty of space for ancillary loading ground equipment. The twin tandem main wheels, four on each side, distributed the load to aid the rough field performance requirements. Antonov perfected the design for specialized freighter aircraft (pages 68-69).
The Ukraina
While the An-8 was strictly a military aircraft (although it appeared in Aeroflot markings), a larger variant, the four – engined, pressurized Antonov An-10, at first called the Ukraina, started to come off the production line in 1959. The general aerodynamic lines were cleaned up, the outer sections of the wing were anhedral — a pronounced feature of later developments of the breed — and behold, a new 90-seat airliner was ready for Aeroflot.
An-lOA SSSR-11219 displays the definitive configuration with two vertical fins and no endplate tailplane fins. (Courtesy John Stroud)
The military Antonov An-8, progenitor of subsequent all-purpose commercial aircraft with the same basic design criteria. Although Aeroflot never operated An-8s, aircraft appeared with the airline’s titles, (photo: Paul Duffy)
An-10 SSSR-11158 in original configuration with single vertical fin and endplate fins on the tailplane. (Courtesy John Stroud)
Consolidation of Domestic Routes
As noted on the page opposite, the developed Antonov 10A, the most successful of the basic type, was quickly brought into service, on 10 February 1960, on the routes from Moscow and Leningrad to the south. Production of modern aircraft was now in full swing at the Antonov, Ilyushin, and Tupolev factories and assembly plants scattered throughout the U. S.S. R., and Aeroflot seemed to have come of age at last. The fleet strength at this time was reported to be 1,900 aircraft, of which about 120 were Tupolev Tu-104s, 60 Ilyushin Il-18s, 30 Antonov An-lOs. A Tu-104 flew to Toronto for an aviation Expo on 6 September 1959, and an An-10 flew to the U. S.A. on 24 December. The 11-18 began service to London, and in April 1960 started non-stop flights to Cairo. The Moscow-Leningrad intercity service was upgraded to a frequency of 15 daily flight on 1 June 1960, and Aeroflot was now carrying more than 20 million passengers a year.
Aeroflot to the Arctic
Coinciding with this widespread traffic upsurge, Aeroflot expanded its route network. On 3 February 1960, all the operations of Polar Aviation (see pages 26-27) were transferred to the state airline. An-lOs were deployed to the northern wastelands, cargo flights starting on 5 April 1960. Then in August, an An-10 had the honor of pioneering the great circle route from Moscow to Khabarovsk, via Syktyvkar, Noril’sk), and Yakutsk. By June 1961, it had become the standard aircraft for the polar air routes, replacing the Lisunov Li-2 and the Ilyushin 11-14.
    
Antonovs For Ever
In an area of Siberia much larger than the United States, where no railways exist and roads are a rare luxury, the Antonov An-2 is the only link with civilization itself. Many hundreds of the versatile 12-seater carry people to work, to school, to the shops, and to visit friends and relatives. The maps and the photographs on this page provide a glimpse of such aerial bus services in the Far East Region of Aeroflot.
In the areas of Russia where the snows seem to be ever-present, aircraft are painted red for better visibility. (Paul Duffy)
 Four of tire local Antonov An-2 networks in the Far East Region of the Soviet Union, where 120 towns and villages are served by about the same number of aircraft. More than 60 such networks link about 2,000 communities throughout the vast U. S.S. R., now the CIS.
193 SEATS ■ 875km/h (540mph)
|
|
|
General Electric CF6-80C2A8 (2 x 26,760kg st, 59,0001b st) ■ MTOW 164,000kg (361,5601b) ■ Normal Range 6,550km (4,050mi)
|
|
Development History
The first truly European airliner project, the wide-bodied 250/280-seat Airbus A300B made its maiden flight on 28 October 1972, and entered service with Air France in May 1974. After a slow start, the order book began to fill up after the twin had proved its economic worth and operational reliability. To compete effectively with US manufacturers, Airbus built up a family of twin-jet derivatives of the A300B, each incorporating the most modem technology.
Launched in spring 1979, the 200/220-seat A310-200 (originally called A300B10), designed for short-to-medium-range routes, featured a two-crew digital or so-called ‘glass cockpit’ and an advanced wing. A long-range version, the A310-300, which incorporated an additional fuel tank in the tailplane, made its first flight on 8 July 1985 and proved to be a popular choice with airlines as ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operations), pioneered by Airbus, became commonplace.
Aeroflot’s First Western Jetliner
Although much improved over the original model, the Il-62M’s long-range nonstop capability was limited (see page 55) and Aeroflot turned to the West to solve the problem. In October 1989, it announced its intention to order five A310-300s (plus five options) and confirmed its plan on the following January 24, with deliveries between November 1991 and June 1992. Following guarantees by the Russian government to the French creditors, the first aircraft was handed over on 2 July 1992.
Following a period of crew familiarization (some pilots had already been trained in anticipation of the lease arrangement), the A310 entered service with Aeroflot on 4 August 1992 on European routes. Eleven days later it flew the inaugural service from Moscow to Hong Kong.
 The five Aeroflot АЗ10-308s were originally painted at Toulouse with Aeroflot’s blue-winged hammer – and-sickle logo on the forward fuselage as shown in this photo ofF-OGQR (the fourth aircraft delivered to Aeroflot). Before handover to Aeroflot, a small Russian flag was applied to the tip of the rudder, but the third aircraft (F-OGQQ Tchaikovski), illustrated in Mike Macliat’s sideview above, adopted the new double-eagle logo of Aeroflot-Russian International Airlines, (photograph: Airbus Industrie)
Aeroflot traces its direct ancestry back to 1923, but its mission began in 1930, with the proclamation of the first Soviet Five Year Plan, which, among other objectives, charged the airline with providing an air service for all the people, an obligation as essential as public housing, public utilities, or an urban subway system. Profit-making was irrelevant. Aeroflot received its aircraft, fuel, airport facilities, and ground services from the State; and in return it performed a public service for the State.
Business travel no longer existed as there were no private businesses. First-class service was therefore not required. Indeed, it was politically undesirable, although senior officials usually received preferential treatment. As Aeroflot grew, it was able to offer extremely cheap travel to tens of millions of Soviet people, in the equivalent of America’s Greyhound Bus, and just as affordable for the ordinary citizen.
Such a true People’s Airline, with fares set low, with passengers paying only for the transport, not for meals and amenities, has been alien to the minds of many western commentators. In the West, air travel was at first the privilege of the rich, with very high fares, and only filtered down to economy-class and group travel levels in later years. In the Soviet Union, the reverse was the case. Only when the airline expanded its horizons into the western world, mainly during the past three decades, did it need to cope with first-class cabin standards. But the people’s airbus service, for politicians and peasants alike, Aeroflot has done its job superbly.
Aeroflot Director-Generals
1930-33 B. l. Baranov 1957-59 P. F. Shigarev 1933-35 I. S. Unshlikht 1959-70 Ye. F. Loginov 1935-38 I. F. Tkachev 1970-87 B. P. Bugaev 1938-42 V. S. Molokov 1987-90 A. N. Volkov
1942-47 F. A. Astakhov 1990-91 B. Ye. Paniokov
1947.49 G. F. Baidukov 1991-92 A. A. Larin 1949-57 S. F. Zhavaronkov
 Igor Sikorsky — Aviation Genius
For many years during the early development of the commercial airliner, little notice was taken of, or little credit given to, the remarkable achievements of the Russian designer, Igor Sikorsky. Less than ten years after the historic flight of the Wright brothers on 17 December 1903, and while designers in other countries were still dabbling with single-engined light aircraft, Sikorsky built a multi-engined giant that began to carry respectable loads of passengers, in acceptable comfort, on demonstrations and test flights over the city of St Petersburg.
Born in Kiev in 1889, Sikorsky was the son of a professor at the Imperial University of St Vladimir, and was fortunate in being able to study at Kiev Polytechnic Institute and also in Paris. He quickly embraced the science of aeronautics, then in its embryo stage and, early in 1912, was able to propose the idea of a multi-engined aircraft to Mikhail Shidlovsky, chairman of the Russo-Baltic Wagon Company at St Petersburg. Sikorsky advocated more than one engine because of the notorious unreliability of power plants at that time. Shidlovsky was impressed, and authorized construction of the world’s first four-engined aircraft on 30 August 1912.
|
|
M-22 (1 х 480hp) ■ MTOW 3,600kg (7,9001b) ■ Normal Range 820km (500mi) ■ Length 16m (52ft) ■ Span 20m (66ft)
The Elliptical Wing
Some Kalinin aircraft pictures strongly suggest Dornier ancestry, and clearly the designer drew some inspiration from the German company, which was closely associated with Ukrvozdukhput, the Ukrainian airline which was based at Kharkov, and used Dornier Komets, some of which were assembled in its workshops. Kalinin shared floor space in these shops.
But in one important respect, the Kalinin aircraft differed. Whereas both the leading and the trailing edge of the Dornier and Merkur aircraft were parallel, a plan view of the Kalinin wing showed an almost perfect ellipse.
Early work
Konstantin Alekseyevich Kalinin was born in December 1889 at Valuki, near Kharkov. In 1905 he was arrested for suspected revolutionary activities, but by 1912 he had entered the Military School at Odessa. After serving in the Russian Army in the Great War, he entered the Air Training School at Gatchina, near Petrograd, in 1916. When the 1917 Revolution broke out, he was with the 26th Corps Aviation Squadron on the Romanian front. Emerging from the civil war, he studied aviation, first at the Red Army’s Aviation Institute, then at the prestigious Zhukovskiy Academy.
After many a brush with bureaucratic interference, Kalinin was finally able to design his first aircraft, aided by some like-minded friends at Kiev. The K-l made its first flight on 26 July 1925, was flown to Moscow on 11 April 1926, and used by Dobrolet for crop-spraying, aerial photography, and as an air ambulance. Kalinin then transferred his base to Kharkov, and successive designs followed (see table), using all-metal construction, rather than welded steel framework, with wood and fabric.
The Kalinin K-4
During the summer of 1928, Kalinin demonstrated the moderately successful K-4, which was not used for passengers until the summer of 1929.
But on 27 June 1929, the K-4 inaugurated service on the important route from Moscow to Tashkent; and in August, the Chervona Ukraina (Heart of Ukraine), piloted by M. A. Chyegirev, demonstrated its performance and reliability by flying round-trip from Kharkov to Irkutsk, via
KALININ TYPES USED IN SERVICE
Moscow, a distance of 10,800km (6,700mi). Twenty-two K-4s were built and used extensively on Dobrolet’s routes until the early 1930s.
The Kalinin K-5 and the End of the Line
Kalinin’s finest aircraft was the K-5, first flown by Chyegirev on 7 November 1929. It had various engines, the Russian 450hp M-15 (for the prototype), the Pratt & Whitney Hornet, the 480hp M-22 radial based on the Bristol Jupiter, and the 730hp M17F water-cooled in-line, which gave the K-5 a cruising speed of 170km/h (105mph). Of welded construction, it had dual controls, a toilet, and baggage compartment. It could fly across the Caucasus, reducing the Moscow – Tblisi distance by several hundred miles. Two hundred and sixty aircraft were built, retiring only at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941.
As shown in the table, Kalinin built other types after the K-5, but none went beyond the prototype stage. Of special mention is the K-7, a seven-engined twin-boom monster, designed to carry 120 passengers. Chyegirev first flew it on 11 August 1933, made a few test flights, then crashed on its ninth flight on 21 November, killing him and 14 of the total of 20 on board. Seven years later, Kalinin himself was to die on 24 April 1940, a victim of Stalin’s purges.
| | | |
The ground staff at Molodezhnaya must have heard the story of the English gardener who, when asked by an American tourist how he had produced such a perfect lawn, suggested that it may have been the result of mowing it once a week, and rolling it once a week… for 500 years. Overcoming difficulties of alternate melting during long summer days of unbroken sunshine and crusting of surfaces with repeated freezing, the ground staff rolled and rolled and rolled the runway… for a whole year. The 11-76 landed and took off successfully.
Metamorphosis
