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FAB-5000 high-explosive bomb

The use of heavy aerial bombs is a kind of art. The success of a combat mission, if the target in the flight mission is marked as “especially important”, is largely ensured not by the industry that created the effective ammunition, but by the professionalism of the crew. Heavy bombs, in spite of the mass character of the bombs as such, are a piece product - largely because after hitting such an ammunition on the target, only a ten meter depth and a diameter of fifteen more remain in place. The use of super heavy bombs remembered and the Second World War. Moreover, the Allies' aviation munitions achieved exceptional efficiency - the USSR negated Nazi positions with heavy bombs, and the Royal Air Forces sank unique German ships.

Despite the fact that the bomb FAB-5000 was conceived as a means to destroy ships, the Soviet bomber aircraft with great success used these bombs against ground targets. There was no particular difference in the nature of the targets for this bomb - the aviation caponier or the fortifications of the enemy - the five-ton bomb was abundantly enough. 2200 kilograms of explosive were enough to leave only smoke from the enemy’s anti-aircraft gunners position, and from a cluster of equipment, a pile of metal smashed by shrapnel.

FAB-5000 was used infrequently, but in large offensive operations such ammunition often helped regroup troops, or carry out a lightning counterattack with artillery cover. The Oryol-Bryansk defensive operation and the battles for Königsberg proved that there is always a place for limited use of super-power ammunition.

In military manuals, the bomb was called FAB-5000HG - a high-explosive bomb of 5000 kg. NG - the initials of its chief designer Neison Ilich Gelperin. A chemical technician by profession, a cadre of higher education, before the war he was at the same time the chief engineer of Himstroy and then the head of the Narkomat heavy industry, built our first chemical combines - Bereznikovsky, Stalinogorsky and others. Shortly before the war, Gelperin, a doctor of technical sciences, was assigned to organize a design bureau for aerial bombs.

At that time, the Air Force Command was looking for opportunities to replace the steel bomb shells with other, less critical material. The young design bureau chose reinforced concrete for this purpose. This decision was radical. Before that, it was believed that without a shell with high strength there would not be a sufficient high-explosive effect. Shells were made forged with thick walls. The weight of the explosive was only about a third of the total weight of the bomb - the rest was metal. After calculations and experiments at the site, it turned out; The main purpose of the high-explosive aerial bomb is to prevent the charge from deforming before the fuse operates. The sharp decrease in the strength of the outer shell has almost no effect on the force of the explosion.

Such a conclusion had far-reaching consequences. In a short time, we managed to develop a technology for the production of reinforced concrete bombs weighing 100, 250, 500 and 1000 kg. Soon there was also an experimental batch of new ammunition (the first of them the engineers did with their own hands). And again the proving ground is now state testing. The exam was passed brilliantly. The new design was transferred to serial production, and it was decided to put the letters HG around the abbreviated product name. It was June 12, 1941.

On the leaders of the defense industry, the words "saving metal" had a magical effect. And the young design bureau continued the work on reducing the metal intensity of aerial bombs. Again a chain of calculations and experiments. Again ground testing. Welded thin-walled housings were created for the facets, the weight of the metal shell was almost halved and made up only 35% of the weight of the bomb. It was 1942. Armament of the army, new, more high-speed aircraft. The once formidable heavy bombers of the TB-3 were out of work. Due to low flight speed, they became easy prey for fighters.

Just at that time, there was a need for weapons that could destroy enemy military facilities — airfields, factories, fortifications, etc. — with a single air strike. Simultaneous dropping of several medium-caliber bombs did not lead to the desired result scattering. It required a powerful, focused impact on the target.

The original idea was put forward by Colonel-engineer V. Kravets. According to his plan, the TB-3, which had served its term, should have been turned into missile-planes and aimed them at the target by radio from another plane. The proposal interested the long-range aviation commanders, and the creation of a combat stuffing weighing up to 6.5 tons was entrusted to the design bureau.

The outer suspension of a huge bomb over 6 m long and 1 m in diameter under the TB-3 fuselage was excluded due to aerodynamic and camouflage considerations. And it was impossible to load it into the fuselage because of the insufficient size of the bomb compartment and the design of the power elements, which were not designed for such use of the aircraft. And now the chief designer of the design bureau came to the conclusion that, despite the apparent surprise, directly followed from previous works: the bomb should be thin-walled and ... collapsible. Having considered various options, the engineers decided on a very simple solution - to assemble a bomb directly in the fuselage of an aircraft from 6 cylindrical compartments, supply flanges to the circumferences, and fasten the flanges with ordinary bolts and nuts. Attach conical caps with the ends in the same way. At the equipment factory, fill each compartment with an explosive mixture separately.

It remained to solve another problem: to achieve the simultaneous operation of the entire multi-ton mass of explosives. When initiating at one point, she could just shatter and scatter in all directions without a complete explosion. And then managed to avoid complications. When pouring the mixture into each compartment, axial and diametric channels were left, which were then filled with securely detonating checkers. And at the ends of the channels installed instant fuses. The total weight of the bomb reached 6, 2 tons, and the share of explosives accounted for 4.8 tons.

Assembled inside the aircraft and tightly attached by braces to the power frames and spars of the fuselage, the bomb resembled a cistern. And when everything was ready, an unforeseen obstacle arose. Radio engineers could not cope with the difficulties of controlling the projectile on takeoff. It turned out that to solve this problem it is necessary to significantly complicate the equipment. Designers of the bomb find a way out of the impasse in which the telemechanics specialists have entered. The pilot must raise the projectile into the air, switch control to the radio equipment, and then jump with a parachute. However, the selected control system provided for visual tracking of the projectile aircraft. During the first flight of the experiment, the aircraft tandem fell into complete cloudiness, and the pilot-operator lost sight of the TB-3.

At the beginning of 1943, the Air Force Main Command was assigned to the KB-35 NKB to develop and manufacture five aerial bombs of especially large caliber for combat use from Pe-8 aircraft. By February 1943, a group of designers, under the leadership of N. I. Helperin, had finished manufacturing ammunition, and also developed a special suspension and lifting system. Their ground tests were conducted in April of the same year at Sofrinsky KIAP. The bombs were equipped with a mixture of TGA and equipped with six fuses - one APUV each in the head and bottom points and four AV-1M side fuses with installation for instantaneous action.

Working on the team superbomb, young design engineers have gained a unique experience. But the task of command from the first attempt, alas, remained unfulfilled. It was necessary to urgently create an aimingly dropped multi-ton high-explosive bomb. The only aircraft suitable for this purpose was the Pe-8 heavy bomber. They began pre-sketch design studies. Approximate parameters of the bomb were found: length with a stabilizer of 5.2 m, diameter of about 1 m, weight of about 5, 4 tons, of which 3, 2 explosives. (The principle was maintained - only 30% of the total weight was allocated to the body along with the stabilizer.)

The Pe-8 was a great aircraft for that time, with four powerful engines, perfectly armed. But it was not intended by his creator to transport the five. The estimated payload of the Pe-8 was only 4 tons. The height of the compartment was small: after the suspension of the bomb, the hatch doors did not completely close, there was a half-meter clearance between them. Overloading the car, and even in violation of its aerodynamics, seemed extremely risky. In peacetime, aircraft designers would without hesitation reject such a project. But there was a war, and they well understood the invaluable benefit of the army from the new super-powerful bomb. The flight characteristics of the Pe-8, its potential capabilities had been carefully analyzed.

Taking into account the political significance of the event, the ammunition of this caliber was adopted by the Air Force by a separate Order of the NKO No. 0340 dated May 6, 1943 magazine number 063 of 1943 and assigned FAB-5000 drawing number 3-01234 and the Air Force index - 7-F-419. However, in the working documentation, the number of side fuses was increased to six for greater reliability, completeness and detonation speed. The military baptism of FAB-5000 was received in the Kursk area.

Technologically, FAB-5000 belonged to welded-structure air bombs with a highly developed system of additional detonators. Its steel head, which reached a head thickness of 90 mm, was cast. The cylindrical and conical parts of the body were rolled from sheet metal, carefully boiling all joints with a double-sided seam. Equipped bombs through two special hatches with a diameter of 200 mm in the cylindrical part of the body, closed with bolted covers.

Along the longitudinal axis of the bomb, there was a solid firing cup made of a thin-walled seamless pipe with a diameter of 108 mm, the ends of which were welded to the head and tail sleeves of the fuses, also welded respectively to the head and cone of the bomb. The detonators in the pilot glass were inserted through the tail bushing, after which they were closed with a conical cap with a thread under the fuse. Side ignition cups with sleeves for fuses attached to the cylindrical part of the bombs also by welding. Between themselves and with the longitudinal firing glass they were connected by welded steel strips. Since the mass of the battle charge of the FAB-5000 was much higher than the daily rate of production of the whole equipment factory, each of them was equipped for a week, delivering the explosive in portions to a specially guarded long-distance factory site.

A box-type stabilizer cone on the conical part of the bomb's body pressed a special ring of the tail bush. Its feathers to the squares of the conical part of the bombs, as well as steel 5-mm extensions welded to them for rigidity, attracted 14-mm bolts. Since the FAB-5000 was transported without capping, angular profiles were welded to protect the parts of its ignition glasses and access hatches from deformation. In the locks of the aircraft bomb racks, the bomb was hung on special belts. Beginning in 1944, the AV-1F universal aviation fuses of the same type began to be used for the final equipment of the FAB-5000, thanks to a percussion mechanism that allowed them to be installed in the head, bottom and side points of the munition.

It is known that the superbomb attacked the accumulations of fascist troops during the Battle of Kursk and the release of the Eagle. After the start of the victorious march of the Red Army in Ukraine and Western Europe, the FAB-5000NG was repeatedly dumped on transport hubs, paralyzing the rail service for several days and destroying dozens of cars with military equipment.

In February 1944, two such king-bombs were dropped on Helsinki - the capital of Finland, which was an ally of Germany. According to one version, it was this bombing that made Baron Mannerheim, who was the long-time leader of Finland, go to peace talks with the USSR. Finland recognized its defeat and withdrew from the war, and the liberated military units of the Red Army went to liberate the Baltic States from the Nazis.

In early 1945, the fortified areas of Königsberg again experienced the terrifying power of FAB-5000NG. Their explosions left huge gaps in the walls of an ancient fortress and forced entire units of the fascists to surrender.

At the end of World War II, the use of such super-power bombs was temporarily suspended.