BICh-11, RP-1

Purpose: To test rocket engine in flight. Design Bureau: B I Cheranovskii.

The BICh-11 was designed in 1931 as a bungee-launched glider to see if the concept of using wingtip rudders could be made to work. The glides may have been too brief to be useful, because in 1932 Cheranovskii added a small British engine more powerful than the Tomtit used for BICh-3. In 1933 this aircraft was selected by MosGIRD, the Moscow-based experimental rocket-engine
group, as a suitable test-bed with which to fly a small liquid-propellant rocket engine, which began bench-testing on 18th March 1933. The aircraft was again modified, with the rocket engine(s) and their supply and control system and a new wing of increased span. It was then judged that the propulsion system was too dangerous to fly. Note: some accounts say the piston engine was installed after the removal of the rocket engine(s), but drawings show the piston-engined aircraft to have had the original wing.

The BICh-11 was another wooden aircraft with fabric covering, with a single seat, hinged canopy and trailing-edge elevators and ailerons. It appears to have had no land­ing gear other than a centreline skid. On the wingtips were rudders, under which were skids. In its powered form the engine was an ABC Scorpion with two air-cooled cylinders, rated at 27/35hp. The rocket engine was the GIRD OR-2, designed by a team led by FATsander, with a single thrust chamber burning petrol (gasoline) and liquid oxygen.