Believe it or not .....
.... this Meccano set aircraft actually did fly (in a modified design) ..... I know, I could hardly believe it myself.
The Kalinin K-7 was a heavy experimental aircraft designed and tested in the Soviet Union in the 1930's with the first brief flight on 11 August 1933.
The design included twin booms and large under-wing pods housing fixed landing gear, as well as machine gun turrets all over it. There was even originally supposed to be a passenger version as well, with the passenger seats arranged inside the wings .... the final tested version didn't include all the upper armaments, but they did include the landing gear gun pods. Weapons were to be included after flight trials were completed.
However, not unsurprisingly, this first flight showed that the design had serious instability and serious vibration, apparently caused by the airframe resonating with the engine frequency. Modifications were attempted, and in all the aircraft completed seven test flights, before a crash due to structural failure of one of the tail booms on 21 November 1933 .... the accident killed 14 people aboard and one on the ground .... and that was the end of it.
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| Kalinin K-7 .... Meccano Special |
.... this Meccano set aircraft actually did fly (in a modified design) ..... I know, I could hardly believe it myself.
The Kalinin K-7 was a heavy experimental aircraft designed and tested in the Soviet Union in the 1930's with the first brief flight on 11 August 1933.
The design included twin booms and large under-wing pods housing fixed landing gear, as well as machine gun turrets all over it. There was even originally supposed to be a passenger version as well, with the passenger seats arranged inside the wings .... the final tested version didn't include all the upper armaments, but they did include the landing gear gun pods. Weapons were to be included after flight trials were completed.
However, not unsurprisingly, this first flight showed that the design had serious instability and serious vibration, apparently caused by the airframe resonating with the engine frequency. Modifications were attempted, and in all the aircraft completed seven test flights, before a crash due to structural failure of one of the tail booms on 21 November 1933 .... the accident killed 14 people aboard and one on the ground .... and that was the end of it.
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| Kalinin K-7 Test Flight |
The project was cancelled in 1935 before the planned two more ordered prototypes were completed.
Its not a dissimilar tale to other monster planes developed in the early period of aviation - The Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the Spruce Goose) comes instantly to mind. Spectacular but all flops until metal and composite manufactures caught up with designers imaginations.
Its not a dissimilar tale to other monster planes developed in the early period of aviation - The Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the Spruce Goose) comes instantly to mind. Spectacular but all flops until metal and composite manufactures caught up with designers imaginations.
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