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Myasishchev M-19

Recently rebuilt KB Myasishcheva enthusiastically began to develop the one-stage project, taking as a basis the idea proposed the beginning of the 1970s by OV Gurko, the head of the research group NII-4 (CSRI-50) of the USSR Ministry of Defense. The basis of his solution of the problem of creating an aerospace aircraft (VCS) with a horizontal launch was the use of nuclear energy. In the Myasishchev Design Bureau, the project received a designation M-19 (in some sources the project is called MG-19 - Myasishchev-Gurko). VKS M-19 was carried out according to the aerodynamic scheme "bearing body" sweep along the front edge 75 degrees. This scheme provided a sufficiently high aerodynamic quality (at subsonic spurts 7, and on hypersound about 3).

Having sufficient aerodynamic quality, the VCS could maneuver in orbit with minimal cost fuel by "immersion" in the atmosphere to heights of about 50-60 km. and use aerodynamic forces to change the orbit. The nose and the front edges of the hull, the wings and tail surfaces were blunt in order to reduce thermal loads at large flight speeds. The bottom of the hull was flat for the formation of so-called the "preload plateau" before entering the air intakes of the engines located under the the body of the apparatus. In the tail part was located YARD. At the atmospheric site, the field- In order to reduce aerodynamic drag, its nozzle was closed teardrop-shaped fairing.

In the bow was the crew cabin (3-7 people), airlock and docking device. The crew cabin had windows which provided the necessary overview during takeoff and landing. To save the crew on any part of the flight, the cabin was to be separated and descended on a parachute. Then the cargo compartment with the size 4.0 x 20.0 x 4.0 meters was located and the motor room tanovki (DU). The tanks for liquid hydrogen were additive and did not enter the structure of the body of the machine. The power structure should have been made in aluminum alloy, protected by a reusable thermal insulation coating. At the most heat-stressed places were supposed to use material based on silicon carbide coated. The upper surface of the body was protected tiles, consisting of quartz fibers. For orbital maneuvering, stable there were two auxiliary LREs of orbital maneuvering and a system of gas-dynamic control motors (in the nose and tail sections of the of the VCS).

The main problematic issue of creating MKS-19 was the creation of a combined remote control. It included:

• marching nuclear rocket engine (NRD) with a thrust of about 300 tons:
• 10 two-circuit turbojets with afterburner and heat exchanger from the nuclear reactor in the internal and external circuits (nuclear DTRDF), traction of each up to 25t;
• hypersonic ramjet air-jet engines (GPVRD - fuel injection- Kiwas under the bottom in the tail part and, burning in the expanding channel formed tail, created traction).

Fuel for DTRDF and HVRDD was liquid hydrogen, it was also the working substance and a coolant in the YAR. The scheme of the power plant was as follows:

• "take off" and climb 15 km. with acceleration to the speed M = 2,5-2,7 was performed on nuclear DTRDF (heating of air from the heat exchanger only in the internal circuit) with by the afterburner;
• "acceleration" to the speed M = 3,5 was performed during the operation of the TTRDF in the mode of the unidirectional engine with air heating in the external circuit and the on-off chamber turned on, When this speed is reached, the TGDPs are connected to the TTRDF, which together provide the acceleration of the vehicle to a speed of M = 16 and a climb of 50 km .; at an altitude of about 50 km. When the speed reached 16M, the tail fairing and the inclusion of the YAR.

On flight regimes with operating air-jet engines, the reactive power the torus was 2100-4000 MW. On the NRD mode, it reached about 14800-15600 MW.

The program of work on the MKS-19 was adopted in 1974. given the complexity of the work it was of a phased nature. At first it was supposed to create a prototype that can be but it would be used as a hypersonic bomber (M = 6 at an altitude of about 30 km.) With a flight range of about 10000 km. or as an overclocking stage of a reusable use. In 1974 at a meeting in the Academy of Sciences its president AP Alexandrov stated that within 10 years, as he put it, a "businesslike" a combined reactor with a nuclear reactor. This instilled confidence in the development of a draft M-19 project was planned for 1980-82. Working Designing of 1982-84. Bench and flight tests of the DM had to pass in 1982-86. By 1987 It was planned to create an operational base and build three the prototype VCS. Flight testing was planned in 1987-88.

By 1975 V.P.Glushko [head of the Korolev Central Design Bureau experimental machine-building (TsKBEM), later renamed RSC Energia] personally got acquainted with the competing project M-19 after which said that the nuclear propulsion can not be created quickly. Myasishchev understood this, but he himself proceeded from that a project similar to the Shuttle was created with an initial lag of five years means deliberately planning the Soviet lag in space. But the military wanted have a "bird in the hand", and not a "crane in the sky." It was decided to establish reusable system in the likeness of the Americans. To develop an orbital glider plane was created association Molniya {"Lightning"}, which included KB Myasishcheva, under G.E.Lozino-Lozinsky. Work on the M-19 theme was gradually curtailed, and finally, the work was discontinued in 1980.