Russian Flying Fortress: Kalinin K-7

[BikerBabe]

English Russia Russian Flying Fortresses

In 1930s Russian army was … by the idea of creating huge planes. At that times they were proposed to have as much propellers as possible to help carrying those huge flying fortresses into the air, jet propulsion has not been implemented at those times yet.

Not much photos were saved since that times, because of the high secrecy levels of such projects and because a lot of time passed already. Still on the photo below you can see one of such planes – a heavy bomber K-7.

Now modern history lovers in Russia try to reconstruct according the plans left in once to be top-secret Russian army archives their look in full color. This is one example based on ideas of Russian aviation engineers of that times.









Please see more photos in the page that are linked to.

Cheers,

Maria.

[herman1rg]

K-7, Airplane-Giant

[Thorlifter]

How about this version of it? That would be some kind of ground attack plane!

[herman1rg]

LOL
Firstly imagine trying to juggle all the throttles of those engines and then trimming for the recoil when one of those heavy guns fired!

[mikewint]

Good Grief! did that thing actually fly? Looks more like it was designed to roll along the ground and/or float.

[The Basket]

The aircraft existed although without the naval guns!

Konstantin Kalinin was executed for espionage so the design didn't get further than a crashed prototype.

Stalin mustn't like fugly airplanes.

[pbfoot]

If you compare the photo to the artists representation you'll note artwork is substantially larger aircraft either that or they used giant people for the photos

[ivanotter]

Those impressive photo's are not from the real aircraft. Those are later "fantasies".

However, the Kalinin K-7 was reality, but crashed and killed 14 people.

The inventor, Mr. Kalinin, was executed as "enemy of the state". I think it was because his machine didn't work, not espionage.

Now, how'z't for incentive to get the F-35 to work (giggle).

[pbfoot]

Those impressive photo's are not from the real aircraft. Those are later "fantasies".

However, the Kalinin K-7 was reality, but crashed and killed 14 people.

The inventor, Mr. Kalinin, was executed as "enemy of the state". I think it was because his machine didn't work, not espionage.

Now, how'z't for incentive to get the F-35 to work (giggle).

id its the same one I'm thinking about it was lost in a collision with a escort which was doing aerobatics around it

[tyrodtom]

I think that's the Ant-20 Maxim Gorky, that's how it met it's end. One of it's escorts looped around it and collided. Thirty + died.
The Maxim Gorky was even bigger than the K-7, over 200 ft wingspan.
8 engines I think.

[ivanotter]

Nearly,

The Maxim Gorky was a tupolev Antono design. Amazing, it was apparantly a flying concept, whereas the K-7 wasn't:

Wki:

K-7 first flew on 11 August 1933. The aircraft completed seven test flights before a crash due to structural failure of one of the tail booms on November 21, 1933.[3] The accident killed 14 people aboard and one on the ground.[4] Although two more prototypes were ordered in 1933, the project was cancelled in 1935 before they could be completed.[1]

In 1938 Kalinin was executed as an enemy of the state. [5]

[DBII]

It would be a nice model build.

DBII

[BombTaxi]

Makes you wonder if a formation of these would actually be able to fend off a fighter attack. I suspect, like unescorted B-17s, they would have been fairly easy prey for a cannon-armed fighter. The defensive fire arcs would have been pretty limited with big, thick wings, the massive undercarriage assemblies, and a boxy fuselage in the way. While they would have been tough to bring down due to sheer size, a good burst into that big crew area would probably seal it's fate. And being none too quick, it wouldn't have been a hard target to line up on, from any angle.