A progressive development of the basic ANT-21bis design, the ANT-29 was a DIP (Dvukhmotorny istrebitel pushechny, or twin-engined cannon fighter) designed by Aleksandr Arkhangelski’s brigade. Of flush-riveted all-metal construction and powered by two 760hp Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engines, the ANT-29 carried a 102mm Kurchevski DRP, a recoilless gun of 4.00m length, the exhaust gases of which were discharged through a steel tube projecting from the rear of the fuselage. This weapon was hand-loaded by the second crew member. In addition, one 20mm cannon was mounted in each wing root and provision was made for a dorsally-mounted 7.62mm machine gun. Priority assigned to other programmes delayed completion, and flight testing of the ANT-29 did not begin until the end of 1935, although the prototype had been rolled out in the previous February. State acceptance testing was scheduled for the first half of 1936, but, in the event, never took place as numerous problems were revealed by factory testing, including serious longitudinal instability. The project was abandoned after a loss of interest in Kurchevski’s recoilless guns for which the ANT-29 had been designed. These had suffered repeated failures leading to Kurchevski’s arrest and subsequent disappearance.

Engines: two 760hp Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs 12-cylinder
Max take-off weight: 5300 kg / 11685 lb
Empty weight: 3900 kg / 8598 lb
Wingspan: 19.19 m / 63 ft 0 in
Length: 11.65 m / 38 ft 3 in
Max. speed: 352 km/h / 219 mph

Of unconventional design in employing a tandem fore-and-aft engine arrangement and twin tailbooms embodying recoilless gun tubes as integral, but non-load-carrying, structural components, the ANT-23 single-seat fighter was conceived at the AGOS TsAGI by Viktor N Chernyshov, one of Tupolev’s brigade leaders. Of all-metal construction with smooth stressed skinning for the fuselage and wing – the latter and the tail surfaces being strengthened by externally-attached inverted “U” strips – and tail covering, the fighter was powered by two 525hp Gnome-Rhone 9AK nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engines.

Armament consisted of two 76mm Kurchevski APK-4 recoilless weapons which were embodied in the tailbooms, the gun gases being discharged from their tails. Known unofficially as the Baumanskii Komsomolyets – in memory of the pre-revolutionary Communist after whom the district in which the TsAGI was situated was named – and officially as the I-12, the ANT-23 was first flown in late December 1931. Flight testing continued through early 1932, but, on 19 May, the port gun exploded, the tail-boom collapsing on touchdown. The aircraft was overweight and suffered substantially higher drag than had been calculated. Chernyshov and his team were developing a means of jettisoning the aft propeller to afford safe escape for the pilot in an emergency, but, at the beginning of 1933, the ANT-23 was abandoned.

Engines: two 525hp Gnome-Rhone 9AK nine-cylinder air-cooled radial.
Max take-off weight: 2400 kg / 5291 lb
Wingspan: 15.60 m / 51 ft 2 in
Length: 9.50 m / 31 ft 2 in
Wing area: 30.00 sq.m / 322.92 sq ft
Max. speed: 300 km/h / 186 mph
Armament: two 76mm Kurchevski APK-4 recoilless

Designed at the KOSOS (Konstruktorski otdel opytnovo samolyetostroeniya, or Design Department for Experimental Aircraft Construction) within TsAGI by a brigade headed by Aleksandr A Arkhangel’sky, the ANT-21 MI (mnogomestnyi istrebitel – multi-seat fighter) was, by international standards of its day, very much state-of-the-art. Featuring all-metal stressed-skin semi-monocoque construction with partial flush-riveting and a retractable main undercarriage, the ANT-21, which was assigned the service designation MI-3, was powered by two M-17B (BMW VI) 12-cylinder water-cooled engines of 680hp. Proposed armament consisted of one 12.7mm machine gun or 20mm cannon on a pivoted nose mounting, two 7.62mm guns firing from a dorsal position and a single 7.62mm gun firing from a ventral tunnel. Three crew members were carried.

Work on the ANT-21 began on 18 January 1932, first flight taking place in August 1933. On 14 September, the starboard rudder suffered damage and separated as a result of violent flutter in a shallow dive. Arkhangel’sky elected to undertake major redesign as the ANT-21bis.

Retaining the wings, engines and undercarriage of the ANT-21, the ANT-21bis alias MI-3D (the suffix letter indicating dubler, or, literally, “understudy”) mated these elements with an entirely new fuselage, which provided enclosed cockpits for all crew members, and a single fin-and-rudder. Completed in April 1934, the ANT-21bis had provision for the same armament as that of the ANT-21, but the ventral tunnel was omitted, the gun being fired instead through a trap. During initial flight trials some tail oscillation at certain power settings led to the introduction of tailplane bracing struts. State acceptance trials were conducted between July and December 1934, but the results were somewhat academic as there was little official interest in an M-17B-powered aircraft which had, in any case, been largely overtaken by the ANT-29. Consequently, further work on the ANT-21bis was discontined.

ANT-21 / MI-3
Engines: two M-17B (BMW VI) 12-cylinder, 680hp
Max take-off weight: 5500 kg / 12125 lb
Empty weight: 3670 kg / 8091 lb
Wingspan: 20.76 m / 68 ft 1 in
Length: 11.70 m / 38 ft 5 in
Wing area: 55.10 sq.m / 593.09 sq ft
Max. speed: 359 km/h / 223 mph
Range: 1120 km / 696 miles

ANT-21bis / MI-3D
Engines: two M-17B (BMW VI) 12-cylinder, 680hp
Max take-off weight: 5260 kg / 11596 lb
Empty weight: 3800 kg / 8378 lb
Wingspan: 20.76 m / 68 ft 1 in
Length: 12.30 m / 40 ft 4 in
Wing area: 55.10 sq.m / 593.09 sq ft
Max. speed: 356 km/h / 221 mph

Unshaken by this official lack of confidence, Tupolev began planning the world’s largest aircraft and found support in Union of Soviet Writers and Publishers to celebrate the career of the writer Maxim Gorkii (or Gorky). Workers all over Russia donated money for the construction of not just one giant aircraft, but a whole Maxim Gorki Propaganda Squadron of them, for which 6,000,000 roubles were collected.

Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorki Article

This aircraft flew for the first time on 19 May 1934. When it appeared at Moscow’s Central Airport in the spring of 1934, Tupolev’s first ANT 20 Maxim Gorki spann¬ed 63 m (206 ft), with eight engines totalling 7200 hp, and a gross weight of 52.8 tonnes (52 tons). Within its fuselage and wings were seats for up to 80 passen-gers, a cinema, newspaper office, darkroom, printing press, radio station, buffet bar, toilets, sleeping quarters and an internal telephone exchange. Beneath its wings loud¬speakers and illuminated signs were installed to broadcast political slogans; engineers could walk through the inside of the struc¬ture to attend to its engines.

The six engines originally fitted were not enough and an extra pair were added on a pod above the fuselage. The giant ANT-20 toured the otherwise inaccessible areas of the USSR, bringing the communist message to the masses.

Four smaller auxiliary engines were required to drive various devices, including the giant sound system and a series of lights for displaying propaganda slogans at night. The crew is said to have been up to 23 people, although most of these were associated with the propaganda function. Between eight and 10 crew were involved in actually operating the aircraft.

In 1934 workers at the institute were invited to fly in the giant machine which they had designed and built. Thirty six passengers boarded, along with 11 crew, and Maxim Gorki took off, accom¬panied by a Polikarpov I-5 fighter which was to formate with it for air to air photographs. During the flight the fighter pilot, disorientated during a barrel roll, collided with the Gorki, which broke up in the air and exploded in a fire¬ball, throwing bodies and equipment out in full view of spectators at the airport. The fighter pilot, all 47 aboard the giant aircraft and three bystanders died. The Russians subscribed for three more ANT 20s, with just six engines of greater power, and eventually 16 were built, eight of which survived World War II.

A re¬placement aircraft for the ANT 20 Maxim Gorki, with only six engines but the same dimensions and an even ¬greater all up weight, was built as the PS 124 or ANT 20bis.

ANT-20
Engine: 6 x AM-34FRNV,
Max take-off weight: 44000 kg / 97004 lb
Wingspan: 64.0 m / 210 ft 12 in
Length: 34.1 m / 112 ft 11 in
Height: 7.0 m / 23 ft 12 in
Wing area: 486.0 sq.m / 5231.26 sq ft
Max. speed: 275 km/h / 171 mph
Cruise speed: 225 km/h / 140 mph
Ceiling: 5500 m / 18050 ft
Range: 900 km / 559 miles
Crew: 8
Passengers: 64

In May 1933 Tupolev’s TB 6 (ANT 16) six engined bomber succeeded the TB 3 as the world’s largest landplane. The Tupolev ANT-16 or TB-4 was a super-heavy bomber powered by six 619kW M-34 engines, two of them mounted in tandem above the fuselage. Armament comprised two 20mm cannon and 10 machine-guns, plus a maximum bombload of 10000kg.

First flown on 3 July 1933, performance was so poor that the Soviet government declined further support for Tupolev’s large aircraft. It did not go into production, but served as the prototype of the even larger eight engined ANT 20 Maxim Gorki, built to commemorate the great Soviet writer’s fortieth anni¬versary.

TB-4
Engines: 6 x AM-34R
Max take-off weight: 33280 kg / 73370 lb
Empty weight: 21400 kg / 47179 lb
Wingspan: 54.0 m / 177 ft 2 in
Length: 32.0 m / 105 ft 0 in
Height: 11.7 m / 38 ft 5 in
Wing area: 422.0 sq.m / 4542.37 sq ft
Max. speed: 200 km/h / 124 mph
Ceiling: 2750 m / 9000 ft
Range: 1450 km / 901 miles
Range w/max.payload: 775 km / 482 miles
Armament: 4 x 20mm cannons, 10 x 7.62mm machine-guns
Bombload: 4000kg
Crew: 12

Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev designed the ANT 14, a five engined airliner powered by Soviet built 358kW Bristol Jupiter radial engines: this spanned 40 m (132 ft) and could carry 42 people over 1200 km (745 miles), sufficient to fly in stages from Moscow to Vladivostock.

The one-off ANT-14 Pravda, served as flagship of the propaganda squadron. The ANT 14 was modestly successful, serv¬ing on the Moscow Berlin route and on scientific explorations in Siberia and the Arctic.

Pravda carried over 40,000 passengers before being grounded in 1941.

ANT-14
Engines: 5 x Gnome et Rhone Jupiter 9AKK
Max take-off weight: 17146 kg / 37801 lb
Empty weight: 10650 kg / 23479 lb
Wingspan: 40.4 m / 133 ft 7 in
Length: 26.5 m / 87 ft 11 in
Height: 5.4 m / 18 ft 9 in
Wing area: 240.0 sq.m / 2583.34 sq ft
Max. speed: 236 km/h / 147 mph
Cruise speed: 195 km/h / 121 mph
Ceiling: 4220 m / 13850 ft
Range: 1200 km / 746 miles
Crew: 4-5
Passengers: 36