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ANT-14 Pravda

In March 1930, TsAGI received a task to urgently develop a draft design and technical requirements for a new passenger aircraft. Initially ANT-14, designed to carry 32 people, was intended for ultra-long flights on the route Moscow - Vladivostok. ANT-14, according to the plans of the leadership of the Civil Air Fleet, was to become a convertible airliner, and in wartime to transport paratroopers, ammunition and small armament in the fuselage, and, if necessary, bomb load under the wing. But ideologists apparently did not realize that, as a bomber, the former airliner would be worse than TB-3, of which more than 800 copies were built.

By the end of the 1920s, the USSR civil aviation fleet consisted mainly of single-engine aircraft with very short range and passenger capacity. The volume of air transportation, as compared with other types of transport, was insignificant and the railway and numerous shipping companies coped well with it. In this situation, in September 1930, the Politburo of the VKP (b) decided to turn the Civil Air Fleet into a powerful reserve of the Air Force. To implement this idea, the ANT-14, the first domestic giant aircraft, was created, and the Moscow-Vladivostok line allowed for a “scientific” justification of the ambitions and requests of the GVF leadership.

The aircraft was a further development of the ANT-9 and was carried out according to the scheme of a cantilever, high-winged plane with corrugated dural lining and a non-retractable landing gear. In the design of ANT-14, components and assemblies borrowed from ANT-6 (TB-3) were presented. The power plant consisted of 5 air-cooled "Gnome-Rhone" engines with a capacity of 480 hp, one of which was installed in the forward fuselage, and the rest on the center section of the wing.

The aircraft was created in accordance with all the requirements for passenger aircraft: the airworthiness standards, safety, flight efficiency and passenger comfort were respected. A.N.Tupolev was directing the creation of the new machine, A.Arkhangelsky was in charge of the fuselage, I.Pogossky was the engine equipment, V.M. Petlyakov designed the wing, N.S.Nekrasov - the tail unit.

The use of technology aircraft ANT-6 (TB-3) has significantly reduced the time to build ANT-14. In October 1930, the designers created a model of the aircraft, and in July 1931 the first prototype was assembled.

The flight performance of the new machine impressed the leadership of the Soviet Air Force. In 1931, the UHVS transferred to the TsAGI its own requirements for arming the ANT-14. The aircraft was supposed to be equipped with a paired installation of 7.62 mm machine guns for the front gunner and two large-caliber machine guns for shooters in the middle and tail parts of the aircraft. The maximum bomb load was 4000 kilograms, provided for the suspension of bombs weighing from 250 to 500 kilograms. The project of the bomber was not implemented.

On August 14, 1931, test-pilot MM Gromov for the first time raised the ANT-14 into the air. The pilot praised the flight qualities of the aircraft, noting the ease of control. During the test, the number of passenger seats was brought to 36.

In 1933, the ANT-14 was transferred to the Gorky campaign squadron, where it received the name Pravda and became the flagship of the unit. For 10 years, ANT-14 "Pravda" made over a thousand flights over Moscow and transported more than 40 thousand people. The aircraft, piloted by pilots IV Mikheev and V. I. Chulkov, in 1935 was on a friendly visit to Romania. After the final development of the resource ANT-14, Pravda was exhibited for some time in the Gorky Park of Culture in Moscow. Even there he continued to serve mass propaganda work: a roomy fuselage was used as a cinema for demonstration of popular science and documentary films.

In February 1932, the GU GVF ordered 50 ANT-14 aircraft in a version with four M-34 engines. From January to March 1933, the prototype version for the new M-34 engine was to be converted into a GUVF GUVF. Due to the workload of GUAP NKTP by military orders, these plans were not fulfilled. In May 1933, the GU GVF again ordered 60 ANT-14 aircraft with M-34 engines. ANT-14s were to be delivered before July 1935. The planes were supposed to serve the airlines Moscow-Sverdlovsk, Moscow-Kharkov and Moscow-Vladivostok. Serial production was planned to expand at the plant GVF #84 in the Moscow region of Khimki. The first two ANT-14s were to be delivered to the customer in 1934. In 1934, the GU GUF considered the production version of the ANT-14 at the new plant No. 124 in Kazan, with the release until the end of 1935 of a series of 15 cars.

The range of the ANT-14 did not exceed 1,200 km at a cruising speed of about 170 km / h, which means that the car will be in the air for more than seven hours. Passengers on this "airliner" found there was no toilet and buffet even with cold food, an "airliner" flying at altitudes up to 2000 m (depending on the terrain and weather conditions). The one who flew the An-2 knows all the delights of such a flight, especially the air "bumps." According to the instructions, passengers of those years were instructed to take food before the flight, sufficient only to satisfy hunger, and in no case fill the stomach. Before the flight, the passenger had to buy a paper bag at the airport in case of possible motion sickness and be sure to visit the “light type” restroom located not far from the plane.

In flight, the passenger could only count on the help of a flight mechanic (they had no idea about the flight attendants at that time). So the passengers had to keep the bags of wax paper with their “fragrant” contents in their hands before landing, because it was strictly forbidden to throw them out of the window when flying. Otherwise, such acts are "cruelly" punished. Assuming that the “airliner” will fly 2400 km with one intermediate landing per day, then the “emaciated” passengers and crew needed rest and not in the plane, but in a warm bed in a hotel. At best, the air journey from Moscow to Vladivostok was delayed for a week. But if there was bad weather along the route with fogs and icing, the flight threatened to stretch further.

A serial production of the ANT-14 aircraft did not follow, since the Moscow-Vladivostok route, for which this aircraft was developed, did not have a sufficiently rich passenger traffic at that time. By the time of the creation of the car, the volumes of passenger air transportation were fully satisfied with smaller aircraft and lower passenger capacity.

Military versions of the ANT-14 aircraft were developed, which did not have any continuation. During the creation of the passenger version of the aircraft in July 1931, its bomber version was also worked out. The bomber was supposed to carry 4000 kg of bombs, the maximum caliber of 500 kg. The defensive armament of the bomber was 10 machine guns.

In 1933, a draft design of the military version of the ANT-14 with four M-34R engines and modified nose and tail was made. The aircraft was armed with four 7.62-mm machine guns. The aircraft was intended for the transport of soldiers, military cargo and landing troops. Could be used as a night bomber (bombs were placed in the inner cassettes in the former passenger cabin) and ambulance aircraft (multi-tiered beds were mounted in the cabin). The batch production of this version of the aircraft was planned to be launched at the plant No. 22 in Fili, where the prototype was planned to be built from September 1933.

At the Oskonbyuro, the Air Force developed the landing version of the ANT-14 for 50 paratroopers. A variant of a tanker for in-flight refueling of a heavy TB-4 bomber, capable of carrying an additional 2500 kg of fuel, was also worked out. All work on the military versions of the aircraft were discontinued after the abandonment of the mass production of the ANT-14.