MiG-25 FOXBAT - Development
In the second half of the 1950s, the Design Bureau of Artem Mikoyan began work on the creation of heavy, high-speed and high-altitude fighter-interceptors designed to fight not only existing, but also promising supersonic bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. A lot of time passed before the decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 13, 1972 , the MiG-25P fighter-interceptor was put into service. Two months later, the entire interception complex was accepted: the interceptor aircraft itself, the latest R-40 air-to-air missile, the Lazur radio command guidance system from the ground, and others.
The work was headed by Mikoyan's deputy Mikhail Gurevich, who was later replaced by chief designer Nikolai Matyuk. Since it was a fundamentally new, breakthrough design, a lot of tasks had to be solved. So, a significant problem was the choice of a power plant for a new machine, and, having considered many options, the designers opted for Sergey Tumansky's R15B-300, which became the development of a low-life engine for unmanned aerial vehicles. Stainless heat-resistant steel was chosen as the main structural material (up to 80% of the structural elements), the rest of the parts were made of titanium and special duralumin alloys.
The future aircraft received the designation E-155P. The work of the layout commission on it began in 1962, and on June 15 of the following year, the terms of reference were approved. The task was to create a combat aircraft capable of cruising at speeds reaching up to three Mach numbers at high altitude, which meant overcoming the "thermal barrier", since the braking temperature reached 300 ° C. As a fuel, a special so-called thermostable fuel was used, cooled electronic equipment and new missile weapons were used, which remained operational during kinetic heating in flight.
The first flight of an experimental aircraft took place on September 9, 1964, when test pilot Pyotr Ostapenko raised the car. During the tests of these machines, a speed of 2,680 km / h and a ceiling of 22,670 m were achieved, and in parallel, practical testing of advanced weapons systems was carried out. The E-155P aircraft, which later received the designation MiG-25P, turned out to be unique in its flight and tactical characteristics. According to aviation experts, it overtook other domestic and foreign developments for several decades.
The development of production in Gorky at the Sokol aircraft plant was difficult, it was necessary to make fundamental changes in production methods, since welding became the main technological process, and resistance welding turned out to be the most widespread. Requirements for welding equipment have increased dramatically. The technological complexity of the design of the MiG-25 airframe made of high-strength materials, with a large range of components and parts, led to a sharp increase in the number of machining processes, an increase in labor intensity.
In 1966, the factory workers delivered the first three production cars, five in the next, and 16 more in 1968. Significant efforts have been made to improve the manufacturability of production. This made it possible to reduce the cost of one copy from six to almost 3 million rubles. (for the period from 1967 to 1970); in 1975, the car in the MiG-25P version already cost 1.75 million rubles. Nevertheless, compared with the MiG-21, which continued to remain in mass construction in Gorky, costing 500 thousand rubles in the same year. (True, 16 years have passed since the start of their development), it was an expensive interceptor.
In Akhtubinsk, on April 26, 1969, the commander of the air defense fighter aircraft, Honored Military Pilot of the USSR, Lieutenant General Anatoly Kadomtsev, an experienced pilot-engineer, for whom this was only the second flight on this aircraft, died on a new MiG-25 aircraft. The testers of the Air Force Research Institute from the ground suddenly saw a flame two aircraft bodies long, the pilot ignored the order of the flight director for some unknown reason to eject and, together with the interceptor, fell into the Volga. The cause of the disaster was the failure of the left engine due to the separation of the turbine blade and the subsequent strong vibration, which tore off the box of the units of the left engine, and the working right engine set fire to kerosene in the engine compartment.
After such a serious incident, flights were suspended. The results of the work of the commission revealed serious design flaws in a very complex technique. At the firm of Artem Mikoyan, in the Ministry of Aviation Industry, the relevant urgent improvements were intensively carried out by subcontractors.
In April 1972 the MiG-25 was put into service. On the last day of 1970, for the successes achieved in solving technical problems, the Gorky Aviation Plant was awarded the Order of Lenin. For the creation of the MiG-25 aircraft, a group of six designers received the Lenin Prize. The winners were Rostislav Belyakov, later General Designer of the Design Bureau, Nikolai Matyuk, Fedor Shukhov (leading engine designer), Fedor Volkov (designer of the RP-25 "Smerch-A" radar sight), Ivan Silaev (director of Plant No. 21 in Gorky) and Alexei Minaev (designer of the aircraft control system).
For conducting state tests of the MiG-25, leading pilots on the topic Stepan Mikoyan, Vadim Petrov, Alexander Bezhevets were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on April 3, 1975, and many were awarded orders.
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