Project 72 Aircraft Carrier
Some sources claim that planning for building a pair of aircraft carriers began in the 1930s, but once the war began the program was abandoned in favor of more immediate needs. The Soviet Union started battlecruiser construction in the late 1930s, and two vessels were laid down in 1939. The vessels were so incomplete as of 1941 that they were unrecognizable to the invading Germans, who interpreted the absence of barbettes to mean that the ships were aircraft carriers.
Following the end of the war, plans were approved for the construction of a new class of aircraft carriers, to begin before 1950. The pair of Project 72 aircraft carriers were projected to have a displacement of 23,700 tons, but were never laid down.
Stalin decided to build a blue water navy, but would not build aircraft carriers. In the beginning of the 1950s the military-political management of the country annually raised the question about the creation of the domestic aircraft carriers of different designation. Stalin rejected the aircraft carrier, despite evidence from the Second World War of the importance of air power at sea. Admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov pleaded in vain with Stalin for aircraft carriers to cover surface forces from enemy air attack out to three hundred miles from naval bases. No progress was made, and Stalin's death in 1953 put and end to things. Khrushchev's negative evaluation of conventional forces, particularly naval forces, doomed aircraft carrier plans.
In parallel with the creation of aircraft carriers it was planned to develop carrier-based fighters, attack aircraft and bombers. In OKB of Tupolev was by this time small theoretical reserve according to the design of carrier-based heavy aircraft. Deck bomber and attack aircraft were designed by the OKB of A.N. Tupolev. Tupolev developed the Tu-91 [NATO "Boot"] naval attack bomber. As early as 1950 began work along the deck torpedo bomber- bomber. The aircraft obtained designation on OKB project "509" (ninth project of 1950). The experimental aircraft of "91" was constructed at the plant #156.
The Tu-91 had a powerful turboprop in the mid fuselage behind the cockpit, with split exhausts behind the wing roots, driving a big three-bladed contra-rotating propeller on the nose. The Tu-91 had straight wings, but slightly swept tail surfaces. The operational need for the Tu-91 disappeared after Stalin's death, when the ship-building program was cut back and the carriers cancelled.
On 1 June 1953, the command of Navy aviation gave the OKB the operational requirements for the diving torpedo bomber. The Tu-91 had to carry out takeoffs and landings in the daytime and at night, also, in the adverse weather conditions from the unpaved airfields and the airfields with the limited runways. The fulfillment of combat missions was putting of torpedo and bomb attacks.
During April 1954 the aircraft was finished. In the summer of 1955 the Tu-91 was presented to N.S.Khrushchev, who quickly was drawn to the conclusion that the aircraft would not go into production. This episode became prelude to closing of works on the Tu-91. Moreover, there were more pure political troubles. There was a competing Ilyushin's project [the Il-54 BLOWLAMP], and Ilyushin's team was considered to be more skilled in this class of aircraft.
