BICh-18 Muskulyot

Purpose: To attempt once more to fly on human muscle power.

Design Bureau: B I Cheranovskii.

Undeterred by the total failure of BICh-16, Cheranovskii persevered with the idea of fly­ing like a bird and designed the totally different BICh-18. The name meant ‘muscle-power’. On 10 th August 1937 pilot R A Pishchuchev, who weighed 58kg (1281b), glided 130m (4261/2ft) off a bungee launch, without ped­alling. He then did a pedalling flight, achieving six wing cycles. He reported ‘noticeable for­ward thrust’, and flew 450m (1,476ft). Sus­tained flight was considered impossible.

The BICh-18 vaguely resembled a perfor­mance sailplane with a cockpit in the nose and conventional tail. Much of the structure was balsa. There were two wing sets, com­prising the lower left and upper right wings forming one unit and the upper left and lower right forming the other. Both sets were mounted on pivots on top of the fuselage and arranged to rock through a ±5° angle by cock­pit pedals. As the wings rocked, their tips never quite touching, the portion of each wing aft of the main spar was free to flap up and down to give propulsive thrust. One re­port states that the outer trailing-edge por­tions were ailerons.

If the evidence is correct this odd machine was one of the few human-powered aircraft to have achieved anything prior to the 1960s.

Dimensions

Span 8.0m 26 ft 3 in

Length 4.48m 14 ft 814 in

Wing area 10.0m2 108ft2

Weights

Empty 72 kg 1591b

Loaded 130kg 287 Ib

Purpose: To test a small sporting aircraft of tailless design.

Design bureau: B I Cheranovskii.

This attractive little machine was rolled out on skis in late 1937 and first flown in 1938. Later in that year it was fitted with a more powerful engine, and with wheel landing gear. Extensive testing, which included sus­tained turns at about 35° bank at different heights, showed that the BICh-20 was stable and controllable, and also could land very slowly.

This aircraft was again a wooden structure, with ply over the leading edge and the vesti­gial fuselage. The wing marked a further change in aerodynamic form: having started with ‘parabola’ designs, Cheranovskii switched to delta (triangular) shapes, and with the BICh-20 adopted a more common form with straight taper, mainly on the lead­ing edge. Trailing-edge controls comprised inboard elevators and outboard ailerons, with prominent operating levers. To enter the cockpit the pilot hinged over to one side the top of the fuselage and integral Plexiglas canopy which formed the leading edge of the fin. The aircraft was completed with Chera – novskii’s ancient British 18hp Blackburne en­gine, in a metal cowling, and with sprung ski landing gear. It was later fitted with wheels, including a tailwheel, and a 20hp French Aubier-Dunne engine.

All known records suggest that this aircraft was completely successful.

Dimensions Span Length, original re-engined Wingarea	6.9m 3.5m 3.56m 9.0 nf	22fl8in Ilft6in 11 ft 8H in 97ft2
Weights
Empty, original	176kg	38815
re-engined	181kg	399 Ib
Loaded, original	280kg	6171b
re-engined	287kg	633 Ib
Performance
Maximum speed, original	160km/h	99 mph
re-engined	166km/h	103 mph
Service ceiling	4,000 m	13,120ft
Range	320km	199 miles
Landing speed	49km/h	30 mph

BICh-21.

Dimensions Span Length Wing area 6.75m 4.74m 9.0m2 22 ft K in 15ft63/Un 97.0 ft2 Weights Empty 526kg l,1601b Fuel/oil 37kg 81.6 Ib Loaded 643kg l,4181b Performance Max speed at sea level, 385 km/h 239 mph at 4,000m (13,120 ft) 417km/h 259 mph Landing speed 80 km/h 50 mph

Purpose: To use the tailless concept in a more powerful aircraft for racing.

Design Bureau: B I Cheranovskii.

By the late 1930s Cheranovskii was confident that he could apply his unusual configuration, with no separate horizontal tail, to aircraft in­tended to reach much greater speeds. For the big All-Union race organised by Osoaviakhim to take place in August 1941 he designed a minimalist aircraft broadly like the BICh-20 but with a far more powerful engine. Also designated SG-1, from Samolyot Gonochnyi, aeroplane for racing, it was completed in 1940, but not flown until June 1941. The Ger­
man invasion of 22nd June resulted in the race being cancelled.

With a configuration almost identical to that of the BICh-20, the BICh-21 was likewise all-wood, with polished shpon skin except over the metal engine cowl and cockpit canopy. Unlike the BICh-20 the wing was made as a centre section (with anhedral) and outer panels. This in turn resulted in a differ­ent arrangement of trailing-edge controls, these having reduced chord, with a signifi­cant portion ahead of the trailing edge of the wing, with the elevators divided into two
parts on each side. The engine was an MV-6, the Bessonov licence-built Renault with six aircooled cylinders, rated at 270hp. It drove an imported Ratier two-blade two-pitch (fine or coarse) propeller. A small fuel tank was in­side each side of the centre section. Immedi­ately outboard of these were the landing gears, which retracted backwards under pneumatic pressure.

No records survive of this aircraft’s han­dling or of its fate.

Purpose: To investigate a new aerodynamic configuration.

Design Bureau: B I Cheranovskii, by this time working at the MAI (Moscow Aviation Institute).

From 1947 Cheranovskii headed an OKB at the MAI, whose excellent facilities he used in a series of tailless projects. This glider was de­signed in winter 1948-49, and test flown by IA Petrov at Tushino from 17th July 1949.

Having progressed from the ‘parabola’ to a form of delta and then to a wing of normal ta­pered shape, this glider comprised a broad flat lifting fuselage, to which were attached conventional wings with modest sweepback. A further innovation was to use more con­ventional trailing-edge controls, mounted on the wing instead of below it. The original Che – 22 drawings show no vertical surfaces what­ever, but later fixed fins were added on the wingtips.

Flight testing appeared to go well, and in late 1949 the DOSAV repair shops tooled up to put the Che-22 into production. Unfortunate­ly, while testing the first to come off the as­sembly line Petrov crashed and was killed, and production was abandoned.

Performance

Not recorded, but ‘aerodynamic efficiency’ (lift/drag ratio) was 18.