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Antonov A-40 / KT-40 Krylya Tanka [Flying Tank]

Oleg Antonov thought of giving a tank wings. The Antonov Krylya Tanka [Flying Tank] - also referred to as the A-40 or A-T - was the Soviet's failed attempt in the Great Patriotic War to create a tank that could fly directly to a battlefield. This installation was designed to relocate lightweight tanks to the back of the enemy as well as to provide large partisan units. It was undoubtedly one of the most serious and potentially successful bets of the flying tank project of those years. The idea was not only to support airborne forces, but also partisans who operated behind the enemy lines, making them carry heavy material to mount operations with more firepower. The Flying Tank had to land on a limited space, throw his wings and tail and immediately go into battle.

It was developed in 1940 by the skilled designer of weight-carrying gliders, Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov. The aim was to test the viability of the idea of supplying partisan forces with light tanks to harrass the enemy's lines of communication. Antonov's project was supported by General S.A. Afonin (Director of the General Tank Directorate).

For this, he took the light tank T-60, which was created in 1941. The main advantage of T-60 was ease of production - they could be assembled in automotive factories using a wide range of automotive assemblies and parts. A total of 6045 tanks were produced. It is said that Antonov himself proposed the creation of a simplified disposable glider with a fuselage of the T-60 chassis serving as a landing gear. A T-60 light tank provided the 'fuselage' of the unit, the unlocked tracks being the 'landing gear'. An unstaggered biplane wing of plywood and fabric was attached, together with a pair of tail booms with twin vertical surfaces and a high-mounted single horizontal surface. The aerodynamic controls comprised a single lever operating all flying surfaces from the driver's position. The flying surfaces were to be jettisoned directly on landing. The unit was towed by a heavy bomber such as the Petlyakov Pe-8 or Tupolev TB-3. Whilst Western sources say the KT never left the ground, Soviet sources say a single successful flight was made in 1942. With only limited official support, the program was cancelled shortly after that time.

The Great War gave rise to many new types of military equipment. Tanks and aviation saw the most rapid development, which forced the military of all countries to review the strategy and tactics of future wars. In the 1920s the two most popular theories were the theory of massive attacks of bombers, sponsored by the Italian general Douhet, contrasted the doctrine of the Englishman Fuller, the generals De Gaulle and Guderian. The latter assigned the decisive role in the battles of the future war to mobile armored formations.

At the same time, there are also the first airborne units capable of performing independent missions deep in the rear of the enemy. Airborne parachutes and landing tactics are being developed. In addition to small arms, these units were planned to be equipped with heavy weapons, including tanks. The real battles of the Second World War showed that none of these theories in pure form could not provide the superiority of any of the parties over the enemy.

In the 1930s idea of an airborne insertion of combat vehicles behind enemy lines appealed to the military commanders of several countries. This combined all the most popular theories of air power, armored forces, and airborne attack. Light tanks "falling" from the skies would be unexpected and nasty surprise for enemy and perhaps that little extra push which make a difference between a victory and defeat. Russians were experimenting with large bombers: combat vehicles were embedded into bomb bay of the aircraft, so it had enough clearance to take off. German approach was different: they were building large gliders, capable of hauling small combat vehicles and even light tanks.

As early as 1932, J. Walter Christie, noted builder of tanks for the US Army, had been working on "the most revolutionary war invention since the discovery of gunpowder - an armored tank which flies as swiftly as a bombing plane, and which, by simply shedding its wings when on the ground, can travel over any terrain with guns blazing at speeds of 70 miles an hour! .... In the words of the inventor, “The flying tank is a machine to end war. Knowledge of its existence and possession will be a greater guarantee of peace than all the treaties that human ingenuity can concoct. A flock of flying tanks set loose on an enemy and any war is brought to an abrupt finish.”"

In the Soviet Union, the idea of Christie was developed by the aircraft designer A. Rafaelyants. In his plans, the propelling propeller with the drive was mounted directly in the aft part of the tank, which greatly simplified the transmission, and the tank itself was suspended under a cargo glider-monoplane. This would allow the glider to be used for transportation and other cargoes. In this version, instead of a tank, a special cargo cabin was attached to the glider, but there were no further calculations and drawings for this project.

Some years later, Oleg Antonov came up with idea of wings for a tank. For this he took the light tank T-60, which was created in 1941. Driven a speed of up to 45 km/h, crossing 1.7 meters wide ditches and 65 centimeters high walls. The main advantage of T-60 was the ease of production - they could have been assembled at car factories, widely used in car parts and components. In totally, 6045 tanks were made. It is said that Antonov himself proposed to create a simplified single-stretched glider with a tank T-60. This installation was designed for the transfer of light tanks to the rear of the enemy, and it is planned that large partisan units will be provided with them.

It was anticipated that a TB-3 four-engined bomberor a DB-3F dual-propeller should have towed the glider tank to the destination. It was assumed that the glider, which was a tank equipped with wings, would detach from the aircraft for 20-26 km from the target, move silently and land, after which the wings would be dropped, and the car would engage in battle. The tank had to land on a limited-sized site, fold the wings and tail, and immediately join the battle.

In the history of aviation, an aircraft with no analogs in the world, was assigned to Oleg Antonov at the end of 1941 A project was completed in two weeks and a first copy was made at the Tyumen Gliding Plant in the summer of 1942. It was named Krylya Tanka [Flying Tank], and also marked with indices AT, AT-1 or Glider A-40. It had the wings with a span of 18-meters and twin boom tail. The length of the landing gear was 12.06 meters. The driver of the tank mechanic built control cables and provided side and rear mirrors. The machine itself had a maximal weight of up to 5,800 kg, and the weight of the glider was 2000 kg. Including armament, combat kit, lamps, wings and almost all the fuel, the tank's flight weight was 7804 kg.

It should be said, that there is very little reliable information on its design, and the technical and tactical data vary widely from source to source. A more or less detailed drawing was published in the magazine "Modelist-Designer" No. 3/67, but became a bibliographic rarity and a lot of questions arise on it. For example, in Antonov's book "Gliders and Airplanes", published by the Kiev publishing house "Naukova Dumka" in 1990, the wing span of the glider A-40 is indicated at 18 m, and in the "MK" is approved and the drawing is made under the wingspan in 15 m. There are deviations in the drawing for the overall dimensions and configuration of individual elements of the T-60 tank design. Strongly different and weight data. From the drawing, it is unclear how the lower wing was attached to the tail beams and the hull of the tank.

In addition, the center wing of the lower wing would completely cover the engine cooler. Given the increased load on the engine (the glider roughly weighed about 2 tons), without cooling it would not work for a long time. This would rule out the independent taxiing of the tank with the glider, which contradicts the memories of S. Anokhin: "... I start the engine. Turn on the speed. Crawling with caterpillars, the tank paddles to the tail of a heavy four-engine bomber ... ".

Tests of "KT" began near Moscow in the flight research institute (LII) on August 7, 1942, with runs of a lightened tank along the unpaved runway and concrete. The goal was to find out whether the running gear of the car would withstand a speed of 110-116 km / h (T-60 speed was 45 km / h). Three "KT" flights were then carried out at a height of 4 m, in which the control system was tested.

The first flight took place on September 2, 1942 (according to other incorr3ect data in 1943). The pilot's flight, as it is said, has become the most prominent page of the deserving flyer test Sergei Anochin's biography. In his book, V. Sunkov describes : "The plane and tow truck TB-3 (commander P. Jeremyev) and sailplane KT (pilot S.Anochin) successfully rose into the air, but due to high mass and low fluency towing were close to the maximum TB-3 engine thrust 130 km / h. speed. Despite this, the climbing speed was insufficient. The plane just reached 40 meters high. Trying to increase speed to 140 km / h. did not give the result, and then the compound began to descend by a vertical 0.5 m / sec. speed. In addition, the temperature of the water in the engine cooling systems began to rise, in the heat overheating. Under these conditions, Jeremyev decided to fly the tank to the nearest aerodrome and disconnect."

The professional pilot S.Anochin successfully, upon his landing, switched on the tank engine, and without moving the wings, he moved towards the command-line aerodrome. The tank flying at Ramenskoye landed at a place where nobody waited for him. Further, the most interesting things in this story were going on: When he got down, he switched on the engine of the tank. The aerodrome flight manager was not warned about the forced landing of an odd vehicle and declared a combat danger. When the pilot-pilot escaped from the tank, the Red Army detained him. Only when the flight test institute team arrived, the incident was shut down. The tanks went off to the former station of Stachanov (now Zhukovskii town). Anochin's biography said that the protection of the aerodrome had thought that an unknown flying machine was German, so Anochin was not well-versed and had to prove the opposite. Anochin was lucky enough - it was a musical unit.

When the tank was again Monino, it was decided that no bombers had been created for this purpose, so further work was stopped. However, the constructors noted that the pilot flight proved that the concept of a flying tank is appropriate and implemented. It turned out that interest in flying tanks faded due to aviation faults. This version was confirmed by V.Sunkov: "Tests have shown that a powerful airplane is necessary to raise the chassis to the required height." Such a plane could have been the strategic bomber Pe-8, which was used during the war years for deep air raids and the Berlin bombing. However, the USSR had only 80 such bombers, so expect them to tow the flying tank was unrealistic. As a result, further work was stopped.

In 1945, the Japanese built a similar device designed to deliver by air a specially designed for this purpose a small tank. The mass of the whole complex is the Ku-6 airframe with a wing area of 60.3 sq. Km. m and the tank - was only 3.5 tons, but it did not rise into the air.

The idea of ??the tank falling from the sky to surprise the enemy did not totally die among the Soviet military authorities. However, the constructors noted that the pilot flight proved that the idea of ??a flying tank is expedient and feasible. With the appearance after the war of heavy military transport aircraft with large cargo cabins and rampages, powerful parachute systems, the question of a winged tank was removed from the agenda. And in itself the idea of the synthesis of a tank and an airplane turned out to be wrong: the creation of a hybrid of these two types of equipment weakened the combat qualities of each of them. And yet we must pay tribute to the fact that even in such a dead-end direction of the development of military equipment, how to make the tank fly, the priority remained for Soviet technical thought.