5 interesting projects
Today is a day off, which means you can relax and feel nostalgic. For example, remember (or learn) what grandiose projects were created in this area during different periods of the USSR's existence.
Engineers of those years were limited in resources and created many things from scratch, but breakthroughs happened regularly. In this post I will tell you about the first vehicles of their kind – all-terrain vehicles, trucks, airplanes and ships. Under the cut there are many descriptions and cool photos. Fans of hardware and powerful equipment will definitely like it.
Self-propelled Antarctic station “Kharkovchanka”
“Kharkovchanka” is an all-terrain vehicle created for work in the extreme conditions of Antarctica. It was produced since 1958. Conventional trucks and tractors could not function normally at low temperatures, and in just three months, Soviet engineers and designers managed to invent an all-terrain vehicle that could work indefinitely in conditions of eternal cold.
Everything about the all-terrain vehicle is unique — from the eight-layer insulation of the hull (with it, the temperature in the cabin dropped extremely slowly even without heating) to the size. The total area of the living and working space was 28 m². Inside, there were eight sleeping places, a bathroom, a heater, and places for the driver and navigator.
The length of the vehicle is 8.5 m, width – 3.5 m, height – 4 m. The all-terrain vehicle weighs 35 tons, its maximum speed reaches 30 km/h. “Kharkovchanka” is capable of carrying about 70 tons of additional cargo. Diesel power is 520 hp (995 hp – with turbochargers). Consumption at full load with a trailer (another 70 tons) is 10-12 liters per 1 kilometer (this is not a typo). The tanks held 2.5 tons of diesel fuel.
In 1974, the design bureau received a new order for an even more advanced all-terrain vehicle, the Kharkovchanka 2. Perhaps I will tell you about it in the next post.
Nuclear icebreaker “Lenin”
The world's first nuclear icebreaker, a real technological breakthrough. Power – 44 thousand horsepower, which is twice the power of any diesel icebreaker that existed at that time.
More than 500 enterprises of the Soviet Union worked on the creation of “Lenin”, 76 new types of mechanisms and 150 types of equipment were developed for it. The most important unit is a powerful and quite compact for those years nuclear power plant.
The icebreaker's characteristics are impressive:
displacement – 16 thousand tons without ballast;
length – 134 m;
width – 27.6 m;
height – 16.1 m;
draft – 10.5 m.
The maximum speed of the vessel in open water is 36.3 km/h, and when breaking ice about two meters thick – 3.7 km/h.
The icebreaker served as a ship guide on the Northern Sea Route for 30 years, from 1959 to 1989. It guided 3,741 ships and traveled 654,400 miles, 560,600 of which were in ice.
ZIL-135SH — a tractor for transporting booster units of launch vehicles
This vehicle appeared at the instigation of the legend of the Soviet rocket and space industry Sergei Korolev. A super-powerful tractor was needed during the development of the N1 super-heavy launch vehicle. It was impossible to transport large parts of the rocket by rail, and the OKB-1 engineers did not allow them to be “crushed”. They came up with another plan – to transport the blocks from the assembly plant in Samara along the Volga to the city of Guryev (now Atyrau) and from there to the launch pad by car. It had to be truly gigantic in size!
The tractor was developed, and its load capacity was even higher than planned – 120 tons instead of 100 tons. It was a unique machine for its time: maximum speed – 60 km / h without load, 20 km / h with load, track – 11.2 m, overall dimensions of the supporting frame – 10.8 × 21.1 m, ground clearance – at least 1 m. Steering – electromechanical with an individual drive. The tractor was equipped eight racks with hydropneumatic suspension of the main leg from the Il-18 aircraft. There were four wheels per stand, and in total there were 32. The machine was very maneuverable – all thanks to the “aircraft” turning of the wheels at an angle of up to 90 degrees.
There were to be two spacious cabins at the corners of the frame in front. Each of them was supposed to be equipped with air conditioning, an intercom, and even video monitors – they would increase the rear view area with the help of TV cameras.
Unfortunately, they only managed to make a prototype with one cabin. The matter did not go further due to the change of the chief designer of rocket and space systems. Vasily Pavlovich Mishin, who replaced Korolev, spoke out against this method of transportation. He believed that transporting rocket parts over long distances was risky and preferred to build an assembly plant at the cosmodrome.
Fishing base – vessel “Vostok”
On the water this giant launched in 1969. Vostok was designed for autonomous operation in fishing areas located 10–12 thousand km from their home ports.
The displacement of the Vostok is 43.4 thousand tons, the length is 224 m, the capacity of the main gas turbine power plant is 19 MW, the speed is 18.5 knots. The base crew is 500 people.
Main engines:
Type: steam turbine.
Quantity and power: 2*13000 hp each.
Brand: GTZA-640.
Rotation speed: 100 rpm.
It was the largest a fishing base, a real floating plant that processed freshly caught fish. The Vostok had production lines for canning fish, processing the remains into feed flour and technical fat, and also produced frozen fish products.
On board were 14 small fishing vessels and two helicopters to search for schools of fish.
The sailors of the “Vostok” went on long voyages of eight months. The crew had at their disposal a cinema hall with 160 seats, a library, dance and sports grounds, a music salon, a swimming pool, a sauna, a psychological relief hall. They even printed their own newspaper on board!
Supersonic passenger aircraft Tu-144
Tu-144 was completely designed Alexey Tupolevthe son of the famous aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev. The development was carried out at the Andrei Tupolev Experimental Design Bureau. This chic plane looked futuristic in the 70s of the last century – and continues to look so now. The technology of the future, what can I say.
The Tu-144 is the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft (the second was the “Concord» from France). The aircraft was designed to carry 130 people on domestic and international routes of medium and long distances – up to 6,500 km. It could accelerate to 2,300 km/h and climb to an altitude of 11.4 km.
The test flight took place on December 1, 1968. Over the next few years, flight tests, fine-tuning of engines and other units were carried out on the already built models. In the 1970s, the Tu-144 aircraft with the tail number “77106” began transport along the route cargo and mail.
The first commercial passenger flight took place in 1977. A ticket on a Tu-144 from Moscow to Alma-Ata cost 68 rubles, 20 rubles more than a regular flight.
The period of operation of the Tu-144 was short. The aircraft managed to to execute 55 passenger flights, with 3,284 passengers. Just seven months later, on June 1, 1978, the Soviet Aeroflot ceased supersonic passenger flights. The official explanation was the crash of the experimental Tu-144D model. In 1978, during the testing of another item of the test program, a fire started on board. The pilots were able to land the burning machine in a field near Yegoryevsk and evacuate. But in that crash, two crew members died, and the plane was destroyed.
Probably, this was not the only reason for the termination of flights. A supersonic aircraft is extremely gluttonous – both in subsonic mode and at supersonic speed. The NK-144A on the Tu-144 could provide supersonic speed only when using the afterburner mode, with a multiple increase in fuel consumption. The Tu-144 had two cruise flight modes with M=0.85 and M=2.0. In the first, the engine worked at 72% of its speed, in the second – in afterburner, with a time limit of three hours. It was unprofitable to use supersonic passenger aviation, it cost the state too much.
That's all for today. If you missed something in this text, be sure to comment – I'll look at everything and take it into account. And I'll come back with a continuation!
