First flight with a jet engine. Modern jet aircraft

It is difficult for today's youth, and even for mature citizens, to understand what delight these, then fantastic, flying machines evoked. Silvery droplets, rapidly dissecting the blue sky behind them, excited the imagination of young people of the early fifties. The wide one left no doubt about the type of engine. Today, only computer games like War Thunder, with their offer to purchase a jet aircraft of the USSR, give some idea of ​​this stage in the development of Russian aviation. But everything began even earlier.

What does "reactive" mean?

A reasonable question arises about the name of the type of aircraft. In English, it sounds short: Jet. The Russian definition hints at the presence of some kind of reaction. It is clear that we are not talking about fuel oxidation - it is also present in conventional carbureted aircraft, the same as in a rocket. The reaction of a physical body to the force of the ejected gas jet is expressed in giving it an oppositely directed acceleration. Everything else is just subtleties, which include various technical parameters of the system, such as aerodynamic properties, layout, wing profile, engine type. Here the options are possible, which engineering bureaus have come to in the process of work, often finding similar technical solutions, independently of each other.

It is difficult to separate rocket research from aviation research in this aspect. In the field of gunpowder boosters, installed to reduce the length of the takeoff and afterburner, work was carried out even before the war. Moreover, an attempt to install a compressor engine (unsuccessful) on a Coanda airplane in 1910 allowed the inventor Henri Coanda to claim Romanian priority. True, this design was initially inoperable, which was confirmed by the very first test, during which the aircraft burned out.

First steps

The first jet aircraft capable of staying in the air for a long time appeared later. The Germans became pioneers, although scientists from other countries - the United States, Italy, Britain and then technically backward Japan - achieved certain successes. These samples were, in fact, gliders of conventional fighters and bombers, on which engines of a new type were installed, devoid of propellers, which caused surprise and disbelief. In the USSR, engineers also dealt with this problem, but not so actively, focusing on proven and reliable screw technology. Nevertheless, the jet model of the Bi-1 aircraft, equipped with a turbojet engine designed by A. M. Lyulka, was tested immediately before the war. The machine was very unreliable, the nitric acid used as an oxidizing agent was eating up the fuel tanks, there were other problems, but the first steps are always difficult.

Hitler's "Sturmvogel"

Due to the peculiarities of the Fuhrer's psyche, who hoped to crush the "enemies of the Reich" (to which he ranked the countries of almost the rest of the world), in Germany after the outbreak of World War II, work began on the creation of various types of "miracle weapons", including jet aircraft. Not all areas of this activity have been unsuccessful. Successful projects include the Messerschmitt-262 (aka Sturmfogel), the world's first serially produced jet aircraft. The device was equipped with two turbojet engines, had a radar in the bow, developed a speed close to sound (more than 900 km / h), and proved to be a fairly effective means of dealing with high-altitude B-17 ("Flying Fortresses") of the allies. Adolf Hitler's fanatical belief in the extraordinary capabilities of the new technology, however, paradoxically played a nasty role in the combat biography of the Me-262. Designed as a fighter, it was converted into a bomber by orders from “above”, and in this modification did not fully manifest itself.

"Arado"

The principle of the jet plane was applied in mid-1944 to the design of the Arado-234 bomber (again by the Germans). He managed to demonstrate his extraordinary combat capabilities by attacking the positions of the allies who landed in the area of ​​the port of Cherbourg. A speed of 740 km / h and a ten-kilometer ceiling did not give anti-aircraft artillery a chance to hit this target, and American and British fighters simply could not catch up with it. In addition to bombing (very inaccurate for obvious reasons), "Arado" made aerial photography. The second experience of using it as a strike tool took place over Liege. The Germans did not suffer losses, and if fascist Germany had more resources, and the industry could produce more than 36 Ar-234s, then the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition would have had a hard time.

"U-287"

German developments fell into the hands of friendly states during the Second World War after the defeat of Nazism. Western countries already in the course of the final stage of hostilities began to prepare for the upcoming confrontation with the USSR. The Stalinist leadership took countermeasures. It was clear to both sides that the next war, if it took place, would be fought by jet planes. At that time, the USSR did not yet have a nuclear strike potential, only work was underway to create a technology for the production of an atomic bomb. But the Americans were very interested in the captured Junkers-287, which had unique flight data (combat load 4000 kg, range 1500 km, ceiling 5000 m, speed 860 km / h). Four engines, negative sweep (the prototype of future "invisibles") made it possible to use the aircraft as an atomic carrier.

The first post-war

Jet aircraft did not play a decisive role during World War II, so the bulk of Soviet production facilities focused on improving designs and increasing the production of conventional propeller driven fighters, attack aircraft and bombers. The issue of a promising carrier of atomic charges was difficult, and it was resolved promptly by copying the American Boeing B-29 (Tu-4), but the main goal was to counter possible aggression. For this, first of all, fighters were required - high-altitude, maneuverable and, of course, high-speed ones. How the new direction developed can be judged from the letter of the designer A.S. Yakovlev to the Central Committee (autumn 1945), who found a certain understanding. The party leadership considered it insufficient to simply study captured German equipment. The country needed modern Soviet jet aircraft, not inferior, but superior to the world level. At the 1946 parade in honor of the anniversary of the October Revolution (Tushino), they had to be shown to the people and foreign guests.

Provisional Yaks and MiGs

There was something to show, but it did not work out: the weather failed, there was a fog. The demonstration of new aircraft was moved to May Day. The first Soviet jet aircraft, produced in a series of 15 copies, were developed by the Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau (MiG-9) and Yakovlev (Yak-15). Both samples were distinguished by a reduced scheme, in which the tail section was washed from below by jet jets emitted by nozzles. Naturally, to protect against overheating, these sections of the cladding were covered with a special layer made of refractory metal. Both aircraft differed in weight, number of engines and purpose, but on the whole they corresponded to the state of the Soviet aircraft-building school of the late forties. Their main purpose was the transition to a new type of power plant, but in addition to this, other important tasks were carried out: training of flight personnel and development of technological issues. These jet aircraft, despite the large volumes of their production (hundreds of pieces), were considered as temporary and subject to replacement in the very near future, immediately after the appearance of more advanced designs. And soon this moment came.

Fifteenth

This plane has become a legend. It was built in series unprecedented for peacetime, both in combat and in a paired training version. Many revolutionary technical solutions were used in the design of the MiG-15, for the first time an attempt was made to create a reliable pilot rescue system (catapult), it was equipped with powerful cannon armament. The speed of the jet, small but very efficient, allowed it to defeat armadas of strategic heavy bombers in the skies of Korea, where war broke out shortly after the arrival of a new interceptor. The American Saber, built according to a similar scheme, became a kind of analogue of the MiG. In the course of hostilities, equipment fell into the hands of the enemy. The Soviet plane was hijacked by a North Korean pilot, tempted by a huge monetary reward. The knocked down "American" was pulled out of the water and brought to the USSR. There was a mutual "exchange of experience" with the adoption of the most successful design solutions.

Passenger jet

The speed of a jet is its main advantage, and it applies not only to bombers and fighters. Already in the late forties, the British-built Kometa liner entered international airlines. It was created specifically for the transportation of people, was comfortable and fast, but, unfortunately, it was not very reliable: seven accidents happened in two years. But progress in the field of high-speed passenger transportation could no longer be stopped. In the mid-fifties, the legendary Tu-104 appeared in the USSR, a conversion version of the Tu-16 bomber. Despite numerous accidents involving new aircraft, jet aircraft increasingly took over the airlines. Gradually, the appearance of a promising liner and an idea of ​​what it should be was formed. movers) were used by designers less and less.

Generations of fighters: first, second ...

Like almost any technique, jet interceptors are classified by generation. There are currently five of them, and they differ not only in the years of production of models, but also in design features. If the concept of the first samples basically had a developed base of achievements in the field of classical aerodynamics (in other words, only the type of engine was their main difference), then the second generation had more significant features (swept wing, completely different shape of the fuselage, etc.) In the fifties there was an opinion that air combat would never be maneuverable, but time has shown that this opinion is wrong.

... and from the third to the fifth

The sixties 'dog dumps' between Skyhawks, Phantoms and MiGs in the skies over Vietnam and the Middle East set the stage for further development, heralding the arrival of the second generation of jet interceptors. Variable wing geometry, repetitive sound and missile armament combined with powerful avionics became the hallmarks of the third generation. Currently, the basis of the Air Force fleet of the most technically advanced countries is made up of fourth-generation aircraft, which have become the product of further development. Even more advanced models are already entering service, combining high speed, super-maneuverability, low visibility and electronic warfare. This is the fifth generation.

By-pass engines

Outwardly, even today, jet aircraft of the first samples do not look for the most part anachronistic. Many of them look quite modern, and the technical characteristics (such as ceiling and speed) are not too different from modern ones, at least at first glance. However, with a closer look at the performance characteristics of these machines, it becomes clear that in recent decades a qualitative breakthrough has been made in two main directions. First, the concept of a variable thrust vector appeared, which creates the possibility of a sharp and unexpected maneuver. Secondly, today they are able to stay in the air much longer and cover long distances. This factor is due to low fuel consumption, that is, efficiency. It is achieved by using, in technical terms, a two-circuit scheme (low degree of two-circuit). Specialists know that the specified fuel combustion technology ensures its more complete combustion.

Other signs of a modern jet plane

There are several of them. Modern civil jet aircraft are characterized by low engine noise, increased comfort and high flight stability. Usually they are wide-body (including multi-deck). Models of military aircraft are equipped with means (active and passive) for achieving low radar signature and In a sense, the requirements for defense and commercial models overlap today. Aircraft of all types need efficiency, albeit for various reasons: in one case, to increase profitability, in the other, to expand the combat radius. And today it is necessary to make noise as little as possible for both civilians and military men.

In our time, there is hardly a single person left who does not know about jet planes and did not fly on them. But few people know what a difficult path engineers from all over the world had to go through to achieve such results. There are even fewer people who know exactly what modern jet aircraft are and how they work. Jet aircraft are advanced, high-powered passenger or military vessels powered by an air-jet engine. The main feature of a jet aircraft is its incredible speed, which favorably distinguishes the propulsion mechanism from the outdated propeller-driven one.

In English, the word "jet" sounds like "jet". Hearing it, thoughts associated with any reaction immediately appear, and this is not fuel oxidation at all, because such a propulsion system is acceptable for cars with carburetors. As for airliners and military aircraft, their principle of operation is somewhat reminiscent of a rocket taking off: the physical body reacts to the ejected powerful jet of gas, as a result of which it moves in the opposite direction. This is the basic principle of jet aircraft. Also, an important role in the operability of the mechanism that sets such a large machine in motion is played by aerodynamic properties, wing profile, type of engine (pulsating, direct-flow, liquid, etc.), circuit.

The first attempts to create a jet aircraft

The search for a more powerful and faster engine for the military, and in the future and civil aircraft began back in 1910. The rocket research of the past centuries was taken as a basis, which described in detail the use of powder boosters, which could significantly reduce the length of the afterburner and takeoff run. The chief designer was the Romanian engineer Anri Coanda, who created an aircraft based on a piston engine.

What differentiated the first jet aircraft in 1910 from the standard models of the time? The main difference was the presence of a vane compressor, which is responsible for setting the aircraft in motion. The Coanda airplane was the first, but a very unsuccessful attempt to create an airplane with a jet engine. In the course of further tests, the device burned out, which confirmed the inoperability of the structure.

Subsequent studies have identified possible reasons for the failure:

1. Poor engine location. Due to the fact that it was located in the front of the structure, the danger to the pilot's life was very high, since the exhaust gases would simply not allow a person to breathe normally and would cause suffocation;
2. The emitted flame hit directly on the tail of the airplane, which could lead to a fire in this area, fire and the fall of the aircraft.

Despite the complete fiasco, Henri Coanda claimed that it was he who owned the first successful ideas regarding a jet engine for aircraft. In fact, the first successful models were created immediately before the start of the Second World War, in the 30-40s of the XX century. Having made work on the mistakes, engineers from Germany, USA, England, USSR created aircraft that did not threaten the pilot's life in any way, and the structure itself was made of heat-resistant steel, thanks to which the hull was reliably protected from any damage.

Supplement italny information. An engineer from England can rightfully be called the discoverer of the jet engine.–Frank Whitl, who proposed the first ideas and received his patent for them at the end XIX century.

The beginning of the creation of aircraft in the USSR

For the first time, they started talking about the development of a jet engine in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The theory of the creation of powerful airplanes capable of developing supersonic speed was put forward by the famous Russian scientist K.E. Tsiolkovsky. The talented designer A.M. Lyulka managed to bring this idea to life. It was he who designed the first Soviet jet aircraft powered by a turbojet engine.

The engineer said that this design could develop a speed unprecedented for those times up to 900 km / h. Despite the fantastic nature of the proposal and the inexperience of the young designer, the engineers of the USSR took up the project. The first airplane was almost ready, but in 1941 hostilities began, the entire team of designers, including Arkhip Mikhailovich, were forced to start work on tank engines. The very same bureau with all aviation developments was taken out into the depths of the USSR.

Fortunately, A.M. Lyulka was not the only engineer who dreamed of creating an aircraft with a jet aircraft engine. New ideas about creating a fighter-interceptor, the flight of which would be provided by a liquid-type engine, were proposed by designers A.Ya.Bereznyak and A.M. Isaev, who work in the Bolkhovitinov Engineering Bureau. The project was approved, so the developers soon began to work on the creation of the BI-1 fighter, which, despite the war, was built. The first tests over the rocket fighter began on May 15, 1942, at the helm was the brave and brave test pilot E.Ya.Bakhchivandzhi. The tests were successful, but continued for the next year. Demonstrating a maximum speed of 800 km / h, the aircraft became uncontrollable and crashed. It happened at the end of 1943. The pilot did not manage to survive, and the tests were stopped. At this time, the countries of the Third Reich were actively engaged in developments and took off more than one jet aircraft, so the USSR was losing a lot on the air front and was completely unprepared.

Germany - the country of the first jet vehicles

The first jet aircraft were developed by German engineers. The creation of projects and production were carried out in secret in disguised factories located in deep forest thickets, so such a discovery came as a kind of surprise to the world. Hitler dreamed of becoming a world ruler, so he involved the best designers in Germany to create the most powerful weapons, including high-speed jet aircraft. There were, of course, both failures and successful projects.

The most successful of these was the first German jet aircraft Messer-schmitt Me-262 (Messerschmitt-262), which was also called Sturmvogel.

This aircraft became the first in the world that successfully passed all the tests, took off freely and after that began to be mass-produced. Great "destroyer of the enemies of the third Reich "Had the following features:

• The device had two turbojet engines;
• A radar was located in the bow of the airliner;
• The maximum speed of the aircraft reached 900 km / h, while the instructions indicated that it was extremely undesirable to bring the ships to such speeds, since control over control was lost, and the car began to make steep dives in the air.

Thanks to all these indicators and design features, the first jet aircraft "Messerschmitt-262" acted as an effective means of fighting against allied aircraft, high-altitude "B-17", nicknamed "flying fortresses". Sturmofogels were more high-speed, so they were "free hunting" for aircraft of the USSR, which were equipped with piston engines.

Interesting fact. Adolf Hitler was so fanatical in his desire for world domination that with his own hands he reduced the effectiveness of the Messer-schmitt Me-262. The fact is that the structure was originally designed as a fighter, but at the direction of the ruler of Germany, it was converted into a bomber, because of this, the engine power was not fully disclosed.

This course of action did not suit the Soviet authorities at all, so they began to work on the creation of new aircraft models that could compete with German aircraft. The most talented engineers A.I. Mikoyan and P.O. Sukhoi got down to work. The main idea was to add an additional piston engine by K.V. Kholshchevnikov, which would give the fighter acceleration at the right time. The engine was not very powerful, so it worked no more than 5 minutes, because of this, its function was - acceleration, and not constant work throughout the entire flight.

New creations of the Russian aircraft industry could not help resolve the war. Despite this, the super-powerful German Me-262 aircraft did not help Hitler to turn the course of military events in his favor. Soviet pilots demonstrated their skill and victory over the enemy even with conventional piston ships. In the post-war period, the following jet aircraft of the USSR were created by Russian designers. , which later became prototypes of modern airliners:

• The I-250, better known as the legendary MiG-13, is a fighter that AI Mikoyan worked on. The first flight was made in March 1945, at that time the car showed a record speed indicator, reaching 820 km / h;

• A little later, namely in April 1945, for the first time, a jet plane took off into the sky, rising and supporting flight due to an air-jet motor-compressor and piston engine, which was located in the tail of the structure, P.O. Sukhoi "Su-5". Speed ​​indicators were no lower than those of its predecessor and exceeded 800 km / h;
• The innovation of engineering and aircraft construction in 1945 was the RD-1 liquid-jet engine. For the first time it was used in the model of the aircraft designed by P.O. Sukhoi - "Su-7", which was also equipped with a piston engine, which performs the main pushing, driving function. G. Komarov became the tester of the new aircraft. In the first test, it was noted that the additional motor increased the average speed indicator by 115 km / h - this was a great achievement. Despite the good result, the RD-1 engine became a real problem for Soviet aircraft manufacturers. Similar aircraft equipped with this model of a liquid-jet engine - "Yak-3" and "La-7R", on which engineers S.A. Lavochkin and A.S. Yakovlev worked, crashed during the test due to constantly emerging failure of the motor;
• After the end of the war and the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union got the German aircraft with jet engines "JUMO-004" and "BMW-003" as trophies. Then the designers realized that they were indeed several steps behind. Among the engineers, the motors were called "RD-10" and "RD-20"; on their basis, the first jet aircraft engines were created, on which A. M. Lyulka, A. A. Mikulin, V. Ya. Klimov worked. At the same time, P.O. Sukhoi was developing a powerful twin-engined aircraft equipped with two RD-10 engines located directly under the wings of the aircraft. The interceptor jet was named SU-9. The disadvantage of this arrangement of motors can be considered a strong drag during flight. The advantages are excellent access to the engines, making it easy to get to the mechanism and fix the breakdown. The design feature of this model of the aircraft was the presence of starting powder boosters for take-off, brake parachutes for landing, guided missiles of the "water-to-air" type and a booster-amplifier, which facilitates the control process and increases the maneuverability of the apparatus. The first flight of the "Su-9" was carried out in November 1946, but it never came to mass production;

• In April 1946, an air parade took place in the city of Tushino. It featured new aircraft from the Mikoyan and Yakovlev aviation design bureaus. Jet aircraft "MiG-9" and "Yak-15" were immediately put into production.

In fact, Sukhoi "lost" to competitors. Although, it's hard to call it a loss, because his fighter model was recognized, and during this time he was able to practically finish work on a new, more modern project - "SU-11", which became a real legend in the history of aircraft construction and a prototype of modern powerful airliners.

Interesting f Act. In fact, the SU-9 jet was hard call it a simple fighter. TO the designers among themselves called it "heavy", because the cannon and bomb armament of the aircraft was at a fairly high level. It is generally accepted that the SU-9 was the prototype of modern fighter-bombers. For all the time, approximately 1100 pieces of equipment were manufactured, while it was not exported. More than once the legendary "Sukhoi Ninth" was used to intercept a reconnaissance aircraft in the air. new aircraft. V the first this happened in 1960, when airplanes burst into the airspace of the USSR " LockheedU -2 ".

First world prototypes

Not only Germans and Soviet designers were involved in the development, testing and production of new airliners. Engineers from the USA, Italy, Japan, Great Britain have also created many successful projects that cannot be ignored. The first developments with various types of engines include:

• "Non-178" - German aircraft with a turbojet power plant, which took off in August 1939;
• GlosterE. 28/39 "- an aircraft originally from Great Britain with a turbojet engine, first took to the skies in 1941;
• "He-176" - a fighter created in Germany using a rocket engine, made its first flight in July 1939;
• "BI-2" - the first Soviet aircraft, which was propelled by means of a rocket power plant;
• "CampiniN.1" is a jet aircraft created in Italy, which became the first attempt of Italian designers to move away from the piston analogue. But something went wrong in the mechanism, so the liner could not boast of high speed (only 375 km / h). The launch took place in August 1940;
• "Oka" with a Tsu-11 engine - a Japanese fighter-bomb, the so-called disposable aircraft with a kamikaze pilot on board;
• BellP-59 is an American airliner with two rocket-type jet engines. Production became serial after the first flight in the air in 1942 and long tests;

• GlosterMeteor - a jet fighter manufactured in Great Britain in 1943; played a significant role during the Second World War, and after its end served as an interceptor for German V-1 cruise missiles;
• The Lockheed F-80 is a US-made jet aircraft using an AllisonJ engine. These aircraft have participated in the Japanese-Korean War on more than one occasion;
• B-45 Tornado - the prototype of modern American B-52 bombers, created in 1947;
• "MiG-15" - a follower of the recognized jet fighter "MiG-9", which actively participated in the military conflict in Korea, was produced in December 1947;
• The Tu-144 is the first Soviet supersonic jet airliner, which became famous for a series of accidents and was discontinued. A total of 16 copies were produced.

This list is endless, every year airliners are improving, because designers from all over the world are working to create a new generation of aircraft that can fly at the speed of sound.

Some interesting facts

Now there are liners capable of accommodating a large number of passengers and cargo, of enormous size and unimaginable speed of over 3000 km / h, equipped with modern military equipment. But there are some truly amazing designs; record-breaking jet aircraft include:

1. The Airbus A380 is the most capacious aircraft capable of accommodating 853 passengers on board, which is ensured by a double-deck structure. He is also one of the most luxurious and expensive airliners of our time. Emirates Airline offers numerous amenities to its customers, including a Turkish bath, VIP suites and cabins, sleeping rooms, bars and an elevator. But such options are not available in all devices, it all depends on the airline.

1. "Boeing 747" - for more than 35 years was considered the most passenger double-decker airliner and could accommodate 524 passengers;
2. AN-225 Mriya is a cargo aircraft that boasts a carrying capacity of 250 tons;
3. The LockheedSR-71 is a jet aircraft that reaches a speed of 3529 km / h during flight.

Video

Thanks to modern innovative developments, passengers can get from one point of the world to another in just a few hours, fragile goods that require prompt transportation are quickly delivered, and a reliable military base is provided. Aviation research does not stand still, because jet aircraft are the basis of the rapidly developing modern aviation. Several Western and Russian manned, passenger, and unmanned jet-powered airliners are currently under design and are scheduled for release in the next few years. Russian innovative developments of the future include the 5th generation fighter PAK FA "T-50", the first copies of which will arrive at the troops presumably in late 2017 or early 2018 after testing a new jet engine.

In June 1955, an experimental plane "104" developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau took off from an airfield near Moscow in Zhukovsky. Factory tests of the aircraft began, which by the fall of the same year will turn into a Tu-104 jet airliner - the third in the world, the second commissioned and the first in the USSR.

The very theme of "104th" got off the ground only after Stalin's death, although proposals for the creation of a jet passenger fleet were repeatedly put forward under him. But the leader, with his inherent parsimony and a penchant for repeated reinsurance, inexorably “hacked” such ideas. The country had just overcome the post-war devastation and could not afford substantial "non-core" spending, and jet passenger aviation in the early 1950s was still not an essential problem for the Soviet national economy.

A common joke among railway students is: "Soviet cars are not designed to carry passengers, they are adapted for it." When creating the first Soviet jet liner, the Tupolev Design Bureau used a similar principle, but seriously and competently. A successful Tu-16 bomber was taken as a basis (the plane "104" even at one time bore the Tu-16P index - "passenger") in order to gain resources and time for general development of the structure.

Thus, the task of training flight technical personnel was also facilitated, and they also saved on ground maintenance equipment.

As one of the arguments in favor of creating such an aircraft, A.N. Tupolev cited the possibility of flying at high altitude, “over the weather” - screw passenger aircraft, which had a small ceiling, suffered mercilessly from turbulence. But it was there that the first jetliner was guarded by a new, as yet unknown danger.

When it comes to a passenger plane, the first thing that seriously worries potential passengers is reliability. Who in the USSR has not heard the black song: "Tu-104 is the fastest plane: it will take you two minutes to the grave"? For all its offensiveness, it somehow reflected the harsh reality. The plane was made in a hurry. The accident rate of the new car exceeded reasonable - by today's standards - indicators. Over the entire history of operation, 37 cars have suffered serious accidents - 18% of the total number produced. At the same time, it should be noted that the 104th behaved much more decently in flight than its English competitor Comet, the De Havilland company (23% of lost vehicles), which had an unhealthy habit of falling apart in the air due to fatigue loads in a carelessly designed fuselage.

The first Tu-104 aircraft flew at the beginning of November 1955. Thus, it took very little time to develop. During this flight, there were some problems: during the flight, the plane was unexpectedly thrown up, after which control of the machine was lost for some time. The pilots called this condition "catch". It was not possible to determine the reason for this phenomenon. Despite this, the operation of the aircraft was continued, and the tests did not stop.

Khrushchev liked the Tu-104 plane so much that he even decided to fly it to Great Britain in 1956. Since the problems with the plane could not be resolved, he was persuaded to abandon such a flight. But it was necessary to demonstrate to the world the successes of Soviet aircraft construction. Therefore, by order of Khrushchev, the Tu-104 was driven to the British capital.

The arrival of the Soviet airliner, according to the British press, had an effect comparable to the landing of a UFO. The next day, a second copy of the Tu-104 flew to London, with a different number. British newspapers reported that it was one and the same plane, and the "Russian priests" "were repainting the numbers on their experimental plane." "Russian priests" are Russian pilots dressed in all black. Chief Designer A.N. Tupolev was offended and, firstly, ordered to allocate funds to the pilots to dress in something fashionable and not black, and the next day - March 25, 1956 - send three Tu-104s to London at once, which was done.

It was a triumph for the Soviet Union - after all, at that time no other country in the world had operating jet passenger airliners.

The Tu-104 made its first regular flight on September 15, 1956. And in 1958, a black streak began.

As the further development of events showed, the problems with the "pickup" were not resolved. In August 1958, the Tu-104, having lost control, crashed, as a result of which 64 people died. Designer Tupolev denied in every possible way that there were any problems, and the disaster, according to him, was due to the fault of the crew. There is a version that the plane simply did not have enough fuel. But after a while the second Tu-104 also crashed, entering a tailspin and crashing into the ground.

And two months later, exactly the same situation developed near Kanash.

On October 7, 1958, the new Tu-104A with the tail number CCCP-42362, operated by the crew of the most experienced pilot Harold Kuznetsov, performed the flight Beijing - Omsk - Moscow. The flight altitude was 12 kilometers. In the salon were mainly foreign citizens - a delegation of Chinese and North Korean Komsomol activists.

The weather in Moscow was bad, and at the Gorky alternate airfield, too, and after the flight over Kazan, the dispatcher ordered to turn around and go to Sverdlovsk, suitable for landing. During the turn at an altitude of 10,000 meters, the aircraft most likely got into a zone of strong turbulence and a "catch" occurred - a spontaneous increase in the pitch angle uncontrolled by the crew. Suddenly, the plane was thrown up sharply, and with such force that such a huge colossus flew up two kilometers, left the echelon up, lost speed, fell onto the wing and went into a tailspin.

In the situation that arose, the crew did everything possible to save the aircraft. But the lack of elevator travel prevented the car from being taken out of lethal mode. Harold Kuznetsov, knowing that the Birobidzhan story might be repeating itself, ordered the radio operator to broadcast his words to the ground.

The commander of the crew, Harold Kuznetsov, and the co-pilot, Anton Artemyev, tried to level the plane, taking the steering wheel all the way. But it did not help. Then the plane went down sharply, disobeying control. Thus, the plane entered a steep uncontrollable dive. At supersonic speed, almost vertically, the plane was heading towards the ground.

Here the crew accomplished the almost impossible: Commander Harold Kuznetsov, in two minutes of falling from a height of 13 kilometers, managed to transmit the features of the vehicle's behavior by radio. The connection worked almost until the very moment of the collision with the ground. The last words of the commander were: “Goodbye. We are dying. "

The plane crashed in the Vurnarsky region of Chuvashia, a few tens of meters from the Moscow-Kazan-Sverdlovsk railroad, not far from the village of Bulatovo. Killed 65 passengers and 9 crew members.

According to the results of the work of the state commission, the accident lasted no more than two minutes.

The information conveyed by Kuznetsov was of great value, since all previous incidents remained unsolved. None of the investigations carried out by specialists from the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet, the Air Force, the State Research Institute, as well as the Tupolev Design Bureau itself, could shed light on what actually happened. Many assumptions were put forward: technical malfunction, defects in design, bad weather conditions, crew errors.

All the bumps, of course, fell on the pilots' heads, since no one doubted the technical characteristics of the aircraft. But the information transmitted by Kuznetsov dotted the "i". From the information received, the commission concluded that the liner was caught in a huge updraft. None of the designers could even imagine that this was possible at an altitude of more than 9 kilometers, since simple piston machines could rise to a much lower height. Therefore, such a phenomenon as turbulence was considered a trifle. Until tragedy struck.

Kuznetsov's crew got into the very center of the vertical air flow. Later, in the process of reproducing the flight, the designers managed to determine its parameters: the width of the air flow was about 2 kilometers, the length was about 13, and the thickness was about 6 kilometers. At the same time, its speed was approaching 300 kilometers per hour.

It was urgent to find a way to deal with such a dangerous natural phenomenon. As a result, the maximum flight altitude was lowered, the structure itself was modernized, new methods for centering machines were developed, but still the problem was not completely solved. The high accident rate remained at the same level, but it was difficult to determine what was the reason - either design errors or unavailability of the pilots.

The transmitted information was enough to find and fix the problem. The aircraft centering rules were changed, the stabilizer angle was changed and the elevator was improved. The maximum flight altitude has also been reduced. The propensity of the aircraft to "catch" has been greatly reduced.

After that, the Tu-104 carried passengers for another three decades, and although it was not without disasters (after all, about 200 aircraft were built and flew), their reasons were already different. For a long time, the Tu-104 became the main passenger aircraft of Aeroflot: for example, in 1960, a third of the passenger air traffic in the USSR was carried out on the Tu-104. For 23 years of operation, the Tu-104 fleet has carried about 100 million passengers, having spent 2,000,000 flight hours in the air and performed more than 600,000 flights.

Much credit for this belongs to Harold Kuznetsov and his crew. Here are their names:

Kuznetsov Harold Dmitrievich - FAC instructor
Artemov Anton Filimonovich - FAC
Rogozin Igor Alexandrovich - co-pilot
Mumrienko Evgeny Andreevich - navigator
Veselov Ivan Vladimirovich - flight mechanic
Fedorov Alexander Sergeevich - radio operator
Smolenskaya Maya Filippovna - flight attendant-translator
Goryushina Tatiana Borisovna - flight attendant
Maklakova Albina - flight attendant

Unsurprisingly, the plane took on a bad name. In 1960, the Tu-104 liner was discontinued, and its place was temporarily taken by the Il-18 turboprop liners. And since a long runway was needed to accelerate the Tu-104, it was rarely used on domestic flights.

The need arose to create new passenger aircraft. Tupolev decided not to retreat from the intended path. As a result, the first modification of the Tu-104, Tu-124, was created, which also had a high accident rate. Therefore, another version was created - Tu-134. This aircraft was more successful, therefore, since the beginning of operation in 1967, it still operates domestic flights. And only in 1972, the first Tu-154 jet airliner appeared, which was not converted from a military vehicle, but was originally designed as a passenger one. This is one of the favorite aircraft of Russian experienced pilots.

Aeroflot removed the last Tu-104s from regular airlines only in 1979. But by that time the aircraft had firmly taken root in military aviation - it was used to train pilots of naval missile carriers, as a flying laboratory, for meteorological research and as a command aircraft. Finally, the flights of the "104" were terminated only at the beginning of 1981, after an overloaded vehicle belonging to the Soviet Navy crashed at a military airfield near Leningrad. It almost completely killed the command staff of the Pacific Fleet - 52 people, including 17 admirals and generals, including the commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Emil Spiridonov, who owned the ill-fated vehicle.

Such a bitter experience forced domestic designers to think over new aerodynamic forms that could withstand air currents.

Officially, the last flight of the Tu-104 took place in November 1986. But some people claim that at the very end of the 80s they saw "104s" on the platforms of regional airports and even in flight. The son of a warrior and the grandfather of Soviet jet airliners did not want to retire, remaining such a kind ghost in an impoverished, but comfortably inhabited castle of Russian civil aviation.

Near Moscow, on the Kiev highway, at the turn to Vnukovo airport, a Tu-104B was met, standing on a high pedestal. As it turned out, this plane was installed in 2006, before it was another Tu-104B in Vnukovo, which, by someone's stupid order, was cut in 2005. The side number of the car is not real, the number USSR-L5412 was worn by the first Tu-104, which performed the first flight with passengers.

The MiG-9 is a Soviet jet fighter developed immediately after the end of the war. It became the first jet fighter made in the USSR. The MiG-9 fighter was serially produced from 1946 to 1948, during which time more than six hundred combat vehicles were produced.

Researchers in the history of aviation often call the MiG-9 and other Soviet combat vehicles (Yak-15 and Yak-17), created during this period, "a transitional type of fighter." These aircraft were equipped with a jet propulsion system, but at the same time they had a glider similar to piston engines.

The MiG-9 fighters were in service with the Russian Air Force for a short time: in the early 50s they were decommissioned. In 1950-1951, almost four hundred fighters were transferred to the Chinese Air Force. The Chinese used them mainly as training aircraft: pilots learned to operate jet aircraft on them.

The MiG-9 cannot be called too successful a machine: from the moment the tests began, it was haunted by accidents, the designers now and then had to correct the defects that appeared during operation. However, one should not forget that the MiG-9 was the first jet fighter; it was created and transferred to the troops in an extremely short time. At the time of the start of work on the creation of this machine in the USSR, there was not even an engine that could develop the thrust necessary for a jet flight.

The "problematic" MiG-9 was soon replaced by the MiG-15, which both our and foreign experts call one of the best fighters of this period. The designers were able to achieve such success only thanks to the experience gained during the creation of the MiG-9.

The appearance of a large number of jet fighters in the Soviet Union caused surprise in the West. There, many did not believe that the country, devastated by the war, would be able to establish mass production of the latest aviation technology at that time in the shortest possible time. The appearance of the MiG-9 and other Soviet jet aircraft had serious political significance. Although, of course, the West had no idea about the difficulties and problems that Soviet aircraft designers and pilots had to face, as well as about what it cost the destroyed country to create new types of weapons.

The history of the creation of the first jet aircraft of the USSR

Already at the end of World War II, it became clear that the future of aviation lay in jet aircraft. In the Soviet Union, work began in this direction, they went much faster after getting acquainted with the captured German developments. At the end of the war, the USSR was able to get not only intact German aircraft and jet engines, but also capture the German factories where they were produced.

The task to create a jet fighter was simultaneously received by four leading aviation design bureaus of the country: Mikoyan, Lavochkin, Yakovlev and Sukhoi. The main problem was that at that time the USSR did not have its own jet aircraft engine, it still had to be created.

Meanwhile, time was running out: the probable opponents - the United States, Britain and Germany - already had an established mass production of jet aircraft and were actively exploiting this technology.

The first Soviet jet fighters used captured German engines BMW-003A and YuMO-004.

The Mikoyan Design Bureau worked on the creation of two fighters, which at the design stage were designated I-260 and I-300. Both cars were planned to use the BMW-003A engine. Work on the aircraft began in February 1945.

The I-260 copied the German Me.262 fighter; two jet engines were located under the wings of the aircraft. I-300 had a layout with a power plant inside the fuselage.

Blowing in a wind tunnel showed that the layout with engines inside the fuselage is more advantageous. Therefore, it was decided to abandon further work on the I-260 prototype and complete the I-300, which later became the first serial Soviet jet fighter under the designation MiG-9.

Three prototypes were put into the construction for testing: F-1, F-2 and F-3. The F-1 aircraft was ready by December 1945, but the refinement of the car was delayed until March of the next year, and only then the tests began. On April 24, 1946, the fighter took off for the first time, the first flight went well.

Already the initial stage of testing clearly showed the enormous superiority of jet aircraft over piston aircraft: the MiG-9 was able to accelerate to a speed of 920 km / h, reach a ceiling of 13 km and gain an altitude of 5 thousand meters in 4.5 minutes. It should be said that initially it was planned to equip the plane with a 57-mm automatic cannon H-57, installing it in a partition between the air intakes and two 37-mm NS-23 cannons located in the lower part of the fuselage. However, later they decided to abandon the 57-mm cannon, considering its power to be excessive.

On July 11, 1946, a tragedy occurred: during the flight, a fragment that came off the wing damaged the stabilizer, as a result of which the car lost control and crashed into the ground. The pilot was killed.

The second prototype F-2 was shown to the public during the air parade in Tushino. In August, the Kuibyshev plant began production of a small batch of ten aircraft. It was planned that they will take part in the parade on Red Square in October 1946.

In March 1947, the serial production of the fighter began. However, after the release of 49 aircraft, it was suspended. The car had to be redone urgently. Within two months, the MiG-9's fuel system was seriously modernized, the design of the tail fairing was changed, the keel area was increased, and a number of other improvements were made. After that, serial production was resumed.

In June 1947, state tests of four fighters, two experimental (F-2 and F-3) and two production vehicles were completed. In general, the MiG-9 received positive reviews: in terms of speed characteristics, rate of climb and flight altitude, it significantly surpassed all piston aircraft in service with the Soviet army. The firepower of the vehicle was also unprecedented.

There were also problems: when firing cannons at an altitude of more than 7 thousand meters, the engine stalled. They tried to fight this shortcoming, but they could not completely eliminate it.

If we compare the characteristics of the MiG-9 with the Yak-15 jet fighter, which was developed at that very time, then the Mikoyan machine was inferior to the Yakovlev design bureau in maneuverability, but it was faster in horizontal flight and when diving.

The troops greeted the new car without much enthusiasm. Pilots were often simply afraid to fly an airplane that does not have a propeller. In addition to the pilots, it was necessary to retrain the technical personnel, and this had to be done as soon as possible. Haste often led to accidents unrelated to the technical features of the aircraft.

Description of the design of the MiG-9 fighter

The MiG-9 is an all-metal single-seat fighter powered by two turbojet engines. It is made according to the classic design with a mid-wing and retractable tricycle landing gear.

The aircraft has a semi-monocoque fuselage with smooth working skin. In its bow there is an air intake, which is divided into two tunnels, each of which supplies air to one of the engines. The channels have an elliptical cross-section, they pass along the side parts of the fuselage, bypassing the cockpit on both sides.

The wing of the aircraft is trapezoidal with flaps and ailerons.

The tail unit of the MiG-9 is all-metal with a high-mounted stabilizer.

The cockpit is located in front of the fuselage, it is closed by a streamlined canopy, consisting of two parts. The front part, the visor, is fixed immovably, and the rear part slides back along three guides. On later modifications of the car, the visor is made of armored glass. In addition, front and rear armor plates are installed on the vehicle to protect the pilot, their thickness is 12 mm.

The MiG-9 has a retractable tricycle landing gear with a front wheel. The landing gear system is pneumatic.

The fighter was equipped with a power plant consisting of two RD-20 turbojet engines, which were nothing more than a copy of the German captured BMW-003 engines. Each of them could develop a thrust of 800 kgf. The engines of the first series (A-1) had a resource of only 10 hours, the resource of the A-2 series was increased to 50 hours, and the RD-20B engines could work for 75 hours. The power plant of the MiG-9 was launched using the Ridel starting motors.

The engines were installed in the lower part of the fuselage, the nozzles were adjustable, they could be set in four positions: "start", "takeoff", "flight" or "high-speed flight". The control of the nozzle cone was electrical.

To protect the body from hot gases, a special thermal shield was installed on the underside of the tail section, which was a corrugated sheet of heat-resistant steel.

The fuel was housed in ten tanks located in the wings and fuselage. Their total volume was 1595 liters. The fuel tanks were interconnected to ensure an even use of fuel, this made it possible to maintain the center of the aircraft during flight.

The MiG-9 was equipped with the RSI-6 radio station, the RPKO-10M radio compass, and the KP-14 oxygen apparatus. The aircraft received power from the captured LR-2000 generator, which was later replaced by the domestic GSK-1300.

The fighter's armament consisted of one 37-mm N-37 cannon with 40 rounds of ammunition and two 23-mm NS-23 cannons with 40 rounds of ammunition. Initially, it was planned to equip the plane with a more powerful, 57-mm, N-57 cannon, but later this idea was abandoned.

One of the main problems of the fighter was the ingress of powder gases into the engines, since the N-37 gun was installed on the partition between the two air intakes. On later modifications of the aircraft, gas pipes were installed on the H-37. Vehicles that were produced earlier were equipped with them already in combat units.

The first MiG-9 had a collimator sight, later it was replaced by an automatic rifle sight.

Characteristics of the MiG-9

Below are the characteristics of the MiG-9.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

Wingspan, m	10
Length, m	9.75
Height, m	3.225
Wing area, sq. m	18.20
Max. takeoff weight, kg	4998
Engine	2 RD RD-20
Thrust, kgf	2 x 800
Max. speed, km / h	910

The post was written for the anniversary almost three years ago, but the material is very interesting.

Original taken from zzaharr at 60 years of jet civil aviation

At a time when the friends of all aviation lovers are simply torn from the abundance of posts about the celebration of the centenary of our valiant Air Force, another significant event somehow imperceptibly passed, namely the 60th anniversary of civil transport on jet liners.
Experts will immediately correct me, saying that "Comet" took off "back in 1949, and they will be right. But let's count all the same from the first passenger flight.

January 1952 D e Havilland Comet:

De Havilland Comet 1 receives a certificate of airworthiness. An aircraft with a difficult fate, but it was the first. In May and August, it makes its first scheduled flights from London Heathrow to Johannesburg and Colombo.

July 1954 Boeing 707

Boeing 707 prototype makes its maiden flight. In October 1955, Pan American Airlines places its first order for six 707-121s.

May 1955 Sud Aviation Caravelle

The first flight of the Caravel was performed on May 27, 1955. This is the world's first passenger aircraft with a tail-mounted engine, but it should be noted that the nose of the fuselage borrowed a lot from the Comet.

June 1955 Tu-104

The first flight of the Tu-104 was made on June 17, 1955. On November 5, 1955, the first production aircraft, built at the Kharkov aircraft plant in Ukraine, took off. In 1956, the Soviet Union managed to hit the Western world when, during the visit of the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev to London, a Soviet-made jet plane flew there.

September 1959 Douglas DC-8-10

In September 1959, Delta Air Lines and United began commercial operation of the DC-8. On August 21, 1961, the Douglas DC-8 broke the sound barrier and reached a speed of 1.012 M or 1262 km / h. during a controlled peak from a height of 12496 m.

May 1960 Convair 880

Delta Air Lines introduces the Convair 880/22 to scheduled services (first prototype flight in January 1959). It is followed by the 880-M, intended for intercontinental routes. The designation "880" is given to it because its maximum speed is 880 ft / s (1000 km / h).

January 1962 Hawker Siddeley Trident HS121

Hawker Siddeley Trident HS121, a "second generation" medium-range jet, takes off in Hatfield, UK. The aircraft was designed to meet BEA requirements and had three engines in the tail. The aircraft was equipped with very advanced avionics for its time and became the first airliner capable of fully automatic landing (since 1965 in the evaluation mode, and since 1966 - on regular flights).

October 1962 Tu-124

A new product appears on Aeroflot's Moscow-Tallinn flight. The Tu-124 is actually a smaller copy of the previously developed Tu-104, and both types are similar in appearance, but differ in size. For the first time in the world for passenger aircraft, the Tu-124 uses turbofan engines, which differ from the previously used turbojet engines by increased efficiency. He made a successful landing on the Neva after both engines failed.

August 1963 BAC One-Eleven

BAC One-Eleven, aka BAC 1-11 - British jet airliner for short and medium-haul lines. Designed and manufactured by British Aircraft Corporation. It first flew on August 20, 1963. From the beginning of operation, it was in great demand and was well bought by British Airlines.

February 1964 Boeing 727

The first commercial flights were made by the Boeing 727 Eastern Airlines from Miami to Washington and Philadelphia. Three-engine, medium-range jet, maiden flight in February 1963. To simplify the use of the aircraft in under-prepared airports, important attention was paid to wing mechanization (reducing the required runway length) and the built-in ladder (to simplify the boarding and disembarkation of passengers in the absence of a regular ladder).

April 1964 Vickers VC10

On April 23, 1964, the Vickers VC10 receives its airworthiness certificate and was put on regular passenger service between London and Lagos. During operation, the Vickers VC10 set the record for the time to cross the Atlantic (London - New York), which was only beaten by the supersonic Concorde.

November 1965 McDonnell Douglas DC-9

In November 65th Delta Air Lines unveiled its first McDonnell Douglas DC-9 in a festive atmosphere. This twin-engine, short-haul jet aircraft became one of the most massive airliners in history.

Subsequent modifications of the DC-9 were the MD-80, MD-90 and Boeing 717. Taking into account the last Boeing 717 aircraft produced in 2006, the total production of the DC-9 family (DC-9 / MD-80/90/717) continued 41 year and amounted to about 2,500 aircraft.

1967 March IL-62

Il-62 - the first Soviet jet intercontinental passenger aircraft. In operation since 1967, serially produced in 1966-1995. A total of 276 aircraft were produced. A third of all produced cars were exported to socialist countries. A design feature of the aircraft is a small fourth two-wheeled rear landing gear, which is used to prevent overturning of an empty aircraft during parking and taxiing. The Il-62 became the first domestic jet aircraft to use reverse engine thrust.

April 1967 Boeing 737

On April 9, 1967 at 13 hours 15 minutes, the first flight of a Boeing 737-100 aircraft with tail number N73700 took place at the Boeing Field airfield. This was the beginning of a flight biography, perhaps the most successful and massive aircraft in the history of civil aviation. The Boeing 737 is so widely used that there are on average 1200 aircraft in the air at any given time, and one 737 takes off every 5 seconds somewhere in the world. In fact, Boeing 737 is the generic name for over ten types of aircraft.

September 1967 Tu-134

In September 1967, the first commercial flight Moscow-Adler was made on the Tu-134. However, for almost three years, Tu-134s were used only on international lines, and only in the summer of 1969 they began to serve the intra-union lines Moscow-Leningrad and Moscow-Kiev. Initially, the Tu-134 was not designed as a new aircraft. The design bureau had the idea of ​​modernizing the Tu-124. The fuselage of the aircraft was lengthened, the engines were moved to the tail section, and the empennage was replaced with a T-shaped one. A total of 852 aircraft of all modifications were built.

December 1968 Tu-144

The Tu-144 is the world's first supersonic airliner ever used by airlines for commercial transportation. It made its first flight on December 31, 1968. The plane crossed the symbolic Mach 2 milestone on May 25, 1970, flying at an altitude of 16300 m at a speed of 2150 km / h. The production of the aircraft was launched at the Voronezh plant number 64. Subsequently, the Tu-144D was used only for freight traffic between Moscow and Khabarovsk. By the time of abandonment of operation, 16 Tu-144 aircraft were built.

March 1969 Aérospatiale / BAC Concorde

Prototype 001 was completed in early 1969, and on March 2, 1969 it made its first flight from the factory airfield in Toulouse under the control of Sud Aviation test pilot Andre Turk. Commercial operation of the Concords began on January 21, 1976, when British Airlines' G-BOFA (No. 206) took off on its maiden flight from London to Bahrain. On the same day, an F-BFBA flight (No. 205) opened the Paris-Dakar line of Air France. On April 10, 2003, British Airways and Air France announced their decision to cease commercial operations of their Concord fleet. The last flights took place on October 24.

January 1970 Boeing 747

The first Boeing 747, officially designated Boeing 747-100, was built on September 2, 1968. On January 1, 1970, a Pan American World Airways aircraft made its first commercial flight. The Boeing 747 has a two-deck layout, while the upper deck is significantly inferior in length to the lower one. The dimensions and peculiar "hump" of the upper deck made the Boeing 747 one of the most recognizable aircraft in the world, the hero of dozens of movies and the symbol of civil aviation.

May 1971 Tu-154

In May 1971, pre-production Tu-154 aircraft began to be used to transport mail from Moscow to Tbilisi, Sochi, Simferopol and Mineralnye Vody. It was mass-produced from 1968 to 1998; a total of 932 aircraft were produced. The production rate sometimes reached 5 cars per month. From 1998 to 2011, small-scale production of Tu-154M aircraft was carried out at the Aviakor plant in Samara. The final discontinuation of production is planned for 2012.

The most massive Soviet jet passenger aircraft, which until the end of the first decade of the 21st century remained one of the main aircraft on medium-range routes in Russia. He became one of the main characters in the feature film "The Crew"; Mosfilm, 1979

August 1971 McDonnell Douglas DC-10

The first medium-haul DC-10-10 began service with American Airlines in August 1971. Jumbo aside, it was the world's first wide-body aircraft, in the modern sense of the word. Production of this aircraft was discontinued in 1989, but many of the aircraft were converted into a cargo version and continue to fly to this day. As of February 2010, 168 DC-10 vehicles (including tankers) are in service, of which 67 are FedEx and 59 are USAAF.

October 1972 Airbus A300

On October 28, 1972, the star of a new player in the medium and long-haul aircraft market, Airbus Industrie, emerged. On this day, her first-born airliner A300 B1 made its maiden flight. During the development of the A300, it was almost impossible to imagine that an aircraft with two turbines would be able to perform transatlantic and Pacific flights. Therefore, the range was determined only for continental flights. Later, the limited range became a big disadvantage of the aircraft.

December 1980 IL-86

On December 26, 1980, the first and most massive Soviet / Russian wide-body passenger aircraft Il-86 performed its first regular flight on the route Moscow - Tashkent. Il-86 is considered one of the best and safest aircraft in Russia and the world. In the entire history of its operation, not a single passenger was killed. The spacious cockpit was even larger than the cockpit of the A-380.

September 1982 Boeing 767

The wide-body, long-haul Boeing 767-200 was the first aircraft of a new generation of passenger airliners to launch in the early 1980s. The Boeing 767-200 also became the first twin-engine aircraft capable of handling transatlantic routes between Europe and America without landing. The first 767 entered service on September 8, 1982. To date, the fleet of 767s has flown over 27 billion nautical miles and operated 7.7 million flights.

March 1988 Airbus A320

In March 1988, Air France received its first A-320 aircraft. The A320 aircraft is the world's first passenger aircraft with a fly-by-wire control system (EDSU), a cockpit equipped with side control sticks (side sticks) instead of conventional steering columns, and a horizontal tail made entirely of composite materials. The A320 family includes both younger brothers (318/319) and older ones (A321). At the moment, more than 5100 units have been produced.

January 1989 Tu-204

In 1988, the first prototype of the Tu-204 was manufactured at the pilot production facility of ANTK, designed to replace the aging Tu-154. On January 2, 1989, he first took to the skies. On February 23, 1996, Tu-204 made its first flight with passengers on the route Moscow - Mineralnye Vody. The cockpit is equipped with color displays and low-travel center Y-shaped handles. Aircraft and engine control system - fly-by-wire; Tu-204 became the first domestic airliner to use these innovations.

February 1993 Airbus A340

In competition with Boeing, Airbas decided to go its own way and created a direct competitor for the 474. At the end of February 1993, Air France received the first A340-300. In early February 1993, the first A340-200 joined the fleet of the German airline Lufthansa. On June 16-18, 1993, the A340-200 aircraft, named World Ranger, performed a round-the-world flight on the route Paris - Auckland (New Zealand) - Paris with one landing in Auckland. The Airbus A340-600 was the world's longest passenger aircraft with a fuselage length of 75.36 meters before the release of the extended version of the Boeing 747-8 - 76.4 meters.

May 1995 Boeing 777

The Boeing 777 (aka Triple Seven, aka "Port") is the world's largest twin-engine jet airliner. Its General Electric GE90 engines are the largest and most powerful jet engines in aviation history. A distinctive feature is also the six-wheel landing gear. The Boeing 777 was the first commercial airliner to be 100% computer-based. The first 777-200 was delivered to United Airlines on May 15, 1995.

April 2005 Airbus A380

The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger aircraft. This double-deck liner has the following dimensions: height - 24 m, length - 73 m, wingspan - 79.4 m.In standard configuration, it can accommodate 555 passengers, the charter version is able to take on board 853 people. Designed for non-stop flights up to 15,000 km. Airbus А380 is the most economical of the airliners of this class. It consumes 3 liters of fuel per passenger per 100 kilometers. It took 10 years and 12 billion euros to develop this model. The aircraft was announced as an alternative to the Boeing-747.

May 2008 Sukhoi Superjet 100

The first Superjet 100 was presented to the public on September 26, 2007 at the plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and on May 19, 2008, it successfully completed its maiden flight. In February 2012 SSJ100 received the EASA type certificate. As of mid-July 2012, nine SSJ100 aircraft operated by airlines have flown more than 5,200 commercial flights with a total duration of over 10,200 flight hours.

December 2009 Boeing 787 Dreamliner

The first test flight of the new "soldier" in the war for passengers and economic efficiency took place on December 15, 2009. As of June 2010, 868 aircraft have been ordered. Boeing-787 is a wide-body twin-engine passenger aircraft capable of carrying 250-330 passengers over a distance of 16 thousand 299 kilometers (depending on modification). More than half of the aircraft's parts are made of lightweight composite materials, the new 787 has a 12% higher fuel efficiency compared to the Boeing-777, and will also consume 20% less fuel during operation than modern aircraft of the same class.

That is, in fact, all 60 years. Of the upcoming new products, we should expect Airbus A350 and MC21, which will be even lighter, even more economical, quieter, more comfortable, more reliable, etc. etc. But, all the same, it will be twin-engine low-wing aircraft ... More on that next time.
Thank you for your attention.