Soviet Aircraft - Post War Period
The first half of the 1940s ended with an event of world-historical significance - the military, political and economic victory of the heroic Soviet people over the enemies of the socialist Motherland. In the intense bloody struggle, the most frantic reaction forces were defeated-Hitlerite Germany, and then selective troops of imperialist Japan. The inspirer and organizer of the victory of the Soviet people and their Armed Forces was the Communist Party, the guiding and guiding force of Soviet society.
The defeat of the German fascist hordes and the Japanese Kwantung Army was greatly contributed by our Air Fleet. Workers in the aviation industry, scientists, designers made the maximum possible to give the pilots reliable and effective means of fighting in the air. During the strained years of the war, 25 new and modernized types of aircraft were created and mastered in mass production, many types of engines, various airborne weapons and equipment.
After the victory over Hitler Germany and imperialist Japan, the most important task of the Soviet state was the transfer of the country's economy from the military to peaceful tracks, the restoration and further development of the country's national economy. At the same time, the Communist Party and the Soviet government, taking into account the lessons of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the aggressive policy of US imperialism, who then owned a monopoly on atomic weapons, took effective measures aimed at increasing the combat power of the Armed Forces, including aviation, the newest types of weapons.
In the first half of 1945, the mass production of military aircraft of old types began to curtail. Some aviation enterprises were instructed to prepare for serial production of civil aircraft, others - machines for various sectors of the national economy, and third - to the development of new aircraft, including reactive. And she was already "on the way." The Central Committee of the Party and the Soviet Government after the discussion at the end of 1945 of the prospects for the construction and improvement of our Air Fleet adopted decisions whose implementation contributed to the intensification of scientific research and experimental work in the field of aircraft and engine building.
Research organizations and design teams were encouraged to accelerate the development of several types of aircraft and engines that will be required for military, civil and sport aviation in the coming years. To accelerate the creation of jet aircraft, it was decided, at the first stage, to actively use captured and licensed turbojet engines with low thrust, in order to confidently design and build airplanes with powerful engines of domestic designs. Collectives headed by VY Klimov, AM Lyulka, AA Mikulin and other prominent figures of Soviet aviation science and technology, soon created several types of such engines.
Thanks to the skilful and flexible use of available resources, in the first post-war year, several new types of experienced and then serial military, civil and sport aircraft appeared, including jet fighters MiG-9 and Yak-15. Soviet pilots (like airplanes in mass production) quickly mastered these machines. Already at the beginning of 1947 flights on jet fighters became common not only in the testing institute, but also in the combat units of the Air Force.
Following the first jet machines, design teams in cooperation with TsAGI and other research organizations developed several more types of aircraft for engines that develop thrust of 1600-2700 kg produced by our plants. MiG-15 and La-15 fighters, which appeared soon after MiG-9 and Yak-15, with swept wings and feathers, Tu-14 and Il-28 front-line bombers, a long-range Tu-4 bomber with piston engines testified that the developing scientist -Technical revolution marks for our Air Fleet a transition to a new higher level, entry to the threshold of high speeds, in the era of jet aviation.
Developed by design teams led by V. Ya. Klimov, A. M. Lyulka, A. A. Mikulin and others, powerful engines with a thrust of 3 to 6 thousand kg allowed aircraft manufacturers to soon build high-speed combat vehicles for various purposes, including transonic night-time all-weather fighter-interceptors.
On airplanes with a swept wing (MiG-9, Yak-15, Yak-17, Tu-14, Il-28), created in 1946-47, the pilots learned speeds in M ??- 0,8-0,85. Having received machines in the following years with more powerful engines and swept wings, they confidently mastered close to the sound velocity, and then broke through the recently seemingly insurmountable and sound barrier. Focusing on the development of jet aircraft, the design teams of the country simultaneously created in the first post-war years several experimental and serial machines for various purposes with reciprocating engines. The long-range Tu-4 bombers built by A. N. Tupolev and then the Tu-85 with their numerous and complex on-board equipment forced the relevant aggregate design bureaus and industrial enterprises to develop and master in a short period of time new types of aircraft instruments, mechanisms and whole on-board systems. By the way, the Tu-85 bomber, like the La-11 fighter, was indeed the crown of military aircraft with piston engines, genuinely perfect in its design, design and flight-tactical data.
In the first post-war years, equipment was equipped with the new technology of the Civil Air Fleet and sports aviation. Already in 1946, a number of air lines began to operate the passenger Il-12, and in 1950 - IL-14, created by the team of S. Ilyushin. Very intensively and tensely worked on the machines for the needs of the national economy of the country and for the training of flight personnel a design team headed by AS Yakovlev. In 1946, he handed over for testing simple in production, simple in operation multi-purpose four-seat light aircraft Yak-12, which immediately found wide application in the national economy. In aeroclubs it became the main vehicle for towing gliders, practical training of pilots and paratroopers. In the same year, 1946, the team constructed training aircraft Yak-11, which developed a speed of up to 460 km / h, and the Yak-18 with a maximum speed of up to 245 km / h. These machines soon became the main ones in flying schools and flying clubs. Thousands of young people made their first steps to big aviation, and Soviet athletes set a number of international records.
The An-2 aircraft, which, like Po-2, became one of the most durable aircraft in the world, was developed and in 1947 it was transferred to mass production by a team headed by OK Antonov. This ten-seat biplane immediately won the widest popularity. Until the early seventies on the An-2 and its many variants, Aeroflot pilots performed most of all passenger, postal and freight transportation and agricultural work.
Thanks to the rapid restoration of the national economy, the unfolding scientific and technological revolution, the rational distribution of forces, the creative collectives and the aircraft industry were able to simultaneously solve two main tasks of the first post-war five-year period: to provide the country's civilian air fleet with piston airplanes of medium speeds and carrying capacity, and military aviation with jet machines at the level of the best foreign models.
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