An AEW plane based on An-72 transport plane, the first prototype flew on July 12, 1985. A small tactical airborne early warning and control aircraft with rotating radome above tailfin, the program was canceled with no production orders. NATO reporting name ‘Madcap’.
An-71 Engine: 2 x D-436K turbofans, 7500kg + 1 x RD-38A, 2900kg Wingspan: 31.89 m / 104 ft 8 in Length: 23.50 m / 77 ft 1 in Height: 9.20 m / 30 ft 2 in Max. Speed: 650 km/h / 404 mph Cruise Speed: 530 km/h / 329 mph Ceiling: 10800 m / 35450 ft Crew: 6
During the 1940 occupation of Bessarabia, light tanks may have been dropped from a few meters up by TB-3 bombers, which as long as the gearbox was in neutral, would allow them to roll to a stop.
The biggest problem with air-dropping vehicles is that their crews drop separately, and may be delayed or prevented from bringing them into action. Gliders allow crews to arrive at the drop zone along with their vehicles. They also minimize exposure of the valuable towing aircraft, which need not appear over the battlefield. So the Soviet Air Force ordered Oleg Antonov to design a glider for landing tanks.
Instead of building a glider, he added a detachable cradle to a T-60 light tank bearing large wood and fabric biplane wings and a twin tail, the Antonov A-40 Krylya Tanka (Russian: крылья танка, meaning “tank wings”). Such a tank could glide into the battlefield, drop its wings, and be ready to fight within minutes.
One T-60 was converted into a glider in 1942, intended to be towed by a Petlyakov Pe-8 or a Tupolev TB-3. The tank was lightened for air use by removing its armament, ammunition and headlights, and leaving a very limited amount of fuel. Even with the modifications, the TB-3 bomber had to ditch the glider during its only flight, on September 2, 1942, to avoid crashing, due to the T-60’s extreme drag (although the tank reportedly glided smoothly). The A-40 was piloted by the famous Soviet experimental glider pilot Sergei Anokhin. The T-60 landed in a field near the airdrome, and after dropping the glider wings and tail, the driver returned it to its base.
Due to the lack of a sufficiently-powerful aircraft to tow it at the required 160 km/h (99 mph), the project was abandoned.
Crew: Two Capacity: 1 × T-60 tank Length: 12.06 m (39 ft 6¾ in) Wingspan: 18.00 m (59 ft 0¾ in) Wing area: 85.8 m2 (923.5 ft2) Empty weight: 2,004 kg (4,418 lb) Gross weight: 7,804 kg (17,205 lb)
The Antonov A-7 won a design competition held in December 1940 for a “partisan transport glider.
In September 1941 the Germans were approaching Voronezh, but even under these circumstances the aviation factory continued to deliver Il-2 assault aircraft to the front. At the beginning of September 1941, the decision was made to evacuate Factory No. 18 and OKB-31 led by Moscaliov.
The new production base was established in the Siberian village of Zavodoukovsk, located in the Tyumen Oblast, where a new factory was organized that was numbered 499. AS Moscaliov was selected as director and main constructor.
Some time later the factory began to deliver the Antonov A-7 7-seater landing glider productions and a little later the A-2 training gliders, from the same manufacturer.
The 1917 SVA.1 was a single-engine one-seat biplane utility aircraft. The SVA.2 was the production version of the SVA.1.
The SVA.3 was a fast-climbing interceptor version of the SVA.2
A production version of the SVA.2 equipped for reconnaissance was designated SVA.4.
The SVA.5 production version of the SVA.2 was a fighter. Notable for fast reconnaissance flights and record-breaking. The SVA.5 had Warren truss wing bracing, later a characteristic of Fiat biplanes.
Armament was two Vickers machine guns mounted above the fuselage forward of the cockpit on the fighter. The reconnaissance version carried one gun and 220 lb of bombs.
The SVA.5 wings were of wooden construction, with Warren-truss bracing and fabric covering. The flat-sided wooden fuselage was covered with plywood. Conventional control surfaces were fitted, with ailerons on the top wing only.
The fuel capacity was 40 gallons in the fighters, and 75 gallons in the reconnaissance version.
Delivery of the SVA.5 to Italian fighter-training schools began in the Autumn of 1917.
SVA.5
However, it is as a long-range reconnaissance aircraft that it eventually played its major role. Six squadrons and five smaller units received SVA.5s, and the best known being the 87th Squadron, known as ‘La Serenissima’, from Venice, which had the Lion of St.Mark painted on the fuselage of its aircraft. The first operational flights were made in March 1918. Two months later, an SVA.5 made a round trip of 440 miles to photograph the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen. In August 1918, seven SVA.s, led by a two-seat SVA.9, flew to Vienna and back, a distance of 625 miles, to drop leaflets on the Austrian capitol. On other occasions they dropped bombs.
SVA.5
Altogether 1295 SV.5s were built, including 50 Idro-AM seaplanes.
The SVA.6 was a prototype bomber version of the SVA.2
Reconnaissance Engine: S.P.A. 6A, 220 hp Wingspan: 31 ft Wing area: 261 sq.ft Length: 26 ft 8 in Height: 9 ft 8 in Empty weight: 1533 lb MTOW: 2295 lb Max speed: 136 mph at SL Service ceiling: 22,000 ft
Ansaldo achieved aeronautical eminence in 1917 by providing a single-seat fighter of original Italian design (Italy having previously used French types). The aircraft was the A-1 Balilla (“Hunter”). About 150 built; others, license-built in Poland, served well into 1920s.
The Ansaldo A 1 Balilla was a basic biplane fighter design with a four-blade propeller and a 220 horsepower SPA 6A water-cooled in-line engine. A single pilot saw behind the biplane wing. Armament consisted of two 7.62mm British Vickers machine guns mounted forward of the cockpit seating area in a forward-firing fixed position. Endurance amounted to 1 hour and 30 minutes.
The A 1 appeared in the final stages of the First World War, limiting its use to post-war defence of Italy. Some models found their way into American hands and were converted to air racers fitted with a Curtiss powerplant. Still others would see combat at the hands of Russian and Polish flyers in the Russo-Polish war in 1920.
Ansaldo A 1 Balilla (Hunter) Engine: SAP 6A water-cooled in-line, 220 hp Length: 22.441 ft / 6.84 m Height: 8.301 ft / 2.53 m Wingspan: 25.197 ft / 7.68 m Wing area: 228.197 sqft / 21.2 sq.m Max take off weight: 1951.4 lb / 885.0 kg Weight empty: 1378.1 lb / 625.0 kg Max. speed: 119 kts / 220 km/h / 119kt Service ceiling: 16404 ft / 5000 m Wing load: 8.61 lbs/sq.ft / 42.00 kg/sq.m Range: 324 nm / 600 km Crew: 1 Armament: 2 x 7.62mm Vickers machine guns
Engine: Salmson 9 U, 148 hp Length: 26.575 ft / 8.1 m Wingspan: 37.467 ft / 11.42 m Wing area: 398.268 sqft / 37.0 sqm Max take off weight: 2566.6 lb / 1164.0 kg Wing load: 6.36 lb/sq.ft / 31.00 kg/sq.m Max. speed: 78 kts / 144 km/h Service ceiling: 14108 ft / 4300 m Endurance: 4 h Crew: 2 Armament: 2x MG
The Anatra D reconnaissance aircraft of 1915 was a German Albatros derivative, with a rotary engine.
Engine: Gnome Monosoupape, 99 hp Length: 25.262 ft / 7.7 m Wingspan: 37.73 ft / 11.5 m Wing area: 376.74 sqft / 35.0 sqm Max take off weight: 1907.3 lb / 865.0 kg Max. speed: 71 kts / 132 km/h Service ceiling: 13123 ft / 4000 m Wing load: 5.13 lb/sq.ft / 25.00 kg/sq.m Endurance: 4 h Armament: 1x MG
Developed from the Amiot 370 and the Amiot 340, converted to the Amiot 351.01 Gnome-Rhone 14N -20/21 761-kW (1,020-hp) engined prototype bomber, it was followed by production Amiot 351s and 354s. Each version had a streamlined all-metal fuselage, a tapered mid-wing with considerable dihedral and twin Gnome-Rhone 14N radial engines. They differed by the 351 having twin oval fins and rudders and the 354 a large single vertical tailplane. The Amiot 351 had shorter span and greater length than the Amiot 351.01, and was powered by two 708-kW (950-hp) 14N-38/39 radials, while the Amiot 354 was higher powered and reverted to the original tail unit.
Armament was a 20 mm HS 404 cannon on a flexible mounting at the rear of the crew canopy plus single 7.5 mm MAC machine-guns in nose and ventral positions. The bomb load was up to 1,200kg. Eighty-six Amiot 350 series aircraft had been completed including 17 351s and 45 354s, before the Germans occupied the Le Bourget factory in June 1940.
After a number of bombing and reconnaissance missions, the Amiots were converted by the Vichy French for long-range liaison flights.
Amiot 354 Engines: 2 x Gnome-Rhone 14N-48/49, 790kW (1,060 hp) Span: 22.83m (74ft 10.75 in) Length: 14.5m (47ft 6.75 in) Height: 13.39ft / 4.08m Empty Weight: 10,417lbs (4,725kg) Max T/O weight: 11300 kg (24,912 lb) Max speed: 298 mph (480kmh; 259kts) at 13,125 ft Operational range: 1,553 miles with max bombload. Maximum Range: 2,175miles (3,500km) Service Ceiling: 32,808ft (10,000m) Crew: 4 Armament: 1 x 20-mm HispanoSuiza cannon and 2 x 7.5-mm (0.295-in) MAC mg plus Internal bombload: 1200 kg (2,646 lb)
All Aero 