ANT-22 MK-1
Although the MK-1 was not put into service, it is a very interesting aircraft from the point of view of the development of large seaplanes - and it was very large - its wingspan was 51.6 meters! Take-off weight - up to 33 tons. Since the end of the 1920s, the naval aviation command has dealt with the introduction of heavy naval cruiser bombers to the fleet, capable of conducting reconnaissance in remote sea areas and deliver powerful bombing attacks on surface equipment and bases of a potential enemy. In July 1931, the Air Force Directorate issued TsAGI technical requirements for the project of a flying boat. The seaplane was supposed to develop a maximum speed of 300 km / h, carry a bomb load of 6,000 kilograms, have a range of 1,000 kilometers and powerful cannon and machine gun weapons.
The designation of the aircraft was defined as “... the destruction and destruction of the rival's ships when parked on bases and on a cruise in the sea. The destruction of the bases of the rival fleet and its fortified areas of the coast. Promoting the landing of their own landings and the help of their own, operating off the coast, the army. " Method of application - "... Flying as a group, or alone, the battle - defensive, based on the large use of fire power of their own weapons." The sequence of requirements for the degree of their importance is fully in the spirit of the time: payload, range, fire "independence" (i.e. spherical shelling), seaworthiness and last place, horizontal speed.
Design studies of aircraft parameters that meet the requirements of the Air Force have shown that it will have a large flight weight, a wing of about 305 square meters and a span of 51 meters. The use of a good single-submarine scheme for aircraft to result in enormous weight and for the need to use a high and wide boat with a huge midsection of the cross section to obtain the required seaworthiness and displacement of the aircraft, to ensure its transverse stability, which, with its hand, determined the presence on the plane of either enormous “gills” or underwing floats besides with mid-section and large cross-sectional sizes, because the enormous wingspan also led to huge linear movements of the wing finishes at small angles of the aircraft. Ultimately, for the “sea cruiser” [Morskoy Kreiser], which took the designation MK-1 (ANT-22), the scheme of an all-metal two-boat catamaran seaplane was chosen.
I.Pogossky was appointed lead engineer for the aircraft, and after his death on April 15, 1934, AP Golubkov. For the “sea cruiser” the scheme of an all-metal two-boat seaplane-catamaran was chosen. The choice of such a scheme was determined by the additional tasks envisaged for the transportation of oversized cargo. Six M-34R engines were housed in three tandem sparks mounted above the fuselage. The tails of the boats turned into vertical keels connected by a fixed inner part of the stabilizer. Bomb and torpedo armament was located in the bomb compartments in the interfarm center wing section and under the consoles.
In accordance with the assignment, the aircraft was defined as a “sea cruiser”, the purpose of which was the reconnaissance of remote areas of the open sea, escort of the fleet, bombardment of bases and fortified areas of the rival. In other words, the MK-1 was designed to answer the full range of tasks previously assigned to various long-range sea reconnaissance planes, torpedo bombers, and others. The choice of the two-boat scheme was originally determined by additional intended tasks — transporting large-sized cargoes, for example, sabotage means in the form of small submarines or semi-loaded torpedo boats.
On April 15, 1934, when attempting to make the first take-off, the MDR-4 suffered a tragedy, based on this, the preparation for testing of the MK-1 was conducted in a very sheer manner. In the tragedy, the head of the brigade, I.Pogossky, was killed. By the middle of 1934, the production of the prototype ANT-22 (MK-1) was completed, and on August 8, factory tests began, which lasted until May 1935. Test pilots T.V. Ryabenko and D.N.Ilyinsky noted the good handling of the machine, its maneuverability and stability in flight.
However, state tests demonstrated that the indicators of speed, practical ceiling and flight range did not meet the requirements of the Air Force Directorate. Designers were going to solve this problem by installing more powerful M-34PH engines with superchargers. The redesign of the ANT-22 (MK-1) took time, and according to the most optimistic calculations, a seaplane could only be used by naval aviation by the end of the 1930s, and by that time even the updated flight characteristics would be hopelessly outdated. Gradually, interest in the “flying cruiser” fell and the project was curtailed. Another drawback of the new machine was the difficulty in operation - for maintenance and preparation for the flight required a large number of technical equipment and ground staff.
Without on-board armament, the factory reaches a maximum speed of 233 km / h at factory testing, but the working ceiling is only 3,500 m. / hour, and the ceiling - up to 2 250 m. With such flight performance indicators, the MK-1 turned out to be very vulnerable to defeat, and the command of the Navy decides to abandon further work on this program. ANT-22 proved to be quite successful both in the air and on the water. Thanks to this aircraft, the Tupolev Design Bureau and TsAGI gained a great experience. The prototype was operated until 1937. On December 8, 1936, the pilots T.V. Ryabenko and D.Ilyinsky, on the pilot ANT-22 (MK-1), set a world record of lifting capacity for seaplanes, lifting a cargo of 10,040 kilograms to a height of 1942 meters.
It continued to remain the largest seaplane in the Soviet Union at least until the 1960s.
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