Supersonic intercontinental bomber T-4MS ("product 200"): the main characteristics

Projects that did not have time to become a reality, but entered the history ... How many of them, forgotten deservedly and not very much. One such project is a strategic supersonic intercontinental bomber-missile carrier developing a design bureau led by PO Sukhoi.

Prerequisites for creation

As is often the case, the issue of the need to create strategic aviation, which had already arisen before, was raised again by the military in 1967, when a decision was made in the United States to create a promising manned strategic aircraft (Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft). From the AMSA project, the creation of the famous B-1, high-altitude strategic bomber of deep invasion began.
And in January 1969, by order of the Minister of Aviation Industry, a competition began between the design bureaus of VM Myasischev, AN Tupolev, and PO Sukhoi. In accordance with this order, the enterprises needed to conduct research on a strategic dual-mode aircraft, to create a power plant, missile armament and airborne systems. Only the creation of a radio electronic complex was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Radio-electronic Industry. His order appeared in the spring of the same year.

Initial data

The government decree in the late autumn of 1967 determined the characteristics of the future aircraft.

He should have, first of all, exceptional flight characteristics.

At an altitude of 1.8 km, the speed was set at 3.2-3.5 thousand km / h. And it was assumed that in this mode and at subsonic speeds near the ground the aircraft must fly at least 11-13 thousand km, and in high-altitude flight at subsonic the range of flight should be 16-18 thousand km.

A task was also issued on the composition of the weapons. It was to be replaceable and consisted of freely falling and corrected bombs of various types and purposes, and air-based missiles, four hypersonic X-45 Molniya and up to 24 aerobalistic X-2000s. The total mass of weapons was also set at 45 tons.

Start of development

OKB Sukhoi PO since 1961, also on a competitive basis, was engaged in the development of a supersonic bomber-missile carrier T-4, for a mass of 100 tons of the second-named "Sotka." He was supposed to reach a speed of 3000 km / h, overcome the thermal barrier, and therefore, and have almost perfect aerodynamics. For him, specially developed an air-to-ground missile, power plant and navigation equipment. Approved was only the thirty-third draft of the new aircraft.

On its basis, and developed a new strategic dual-mode T-4MS aircraft with the preservation of maximum continuity with the original model. The new design should have remained: power plant, already mastered new materials, which became standard design and technological solutions, developed and tested on-board systems and equipment and, what would be important in the process of mass production, waste technological processes. Even the cipher machine was obtained by analogy with Sotka. Its take-off weight according to the designers was approaching two hundred tons, so the aircraft T-4MS - "product 200" became known.

New solutions

Alas, it was not possible to realize such a wonderful idea. If you save the layout, the dimensions and weight of the new product increased sharply, but the full amount of weapons could not be placed.

Therefore, the OKB Sukhogo PO. The specialists took up first of all the development of a new layout scheme that would allow to obtain the maximum possible volumes with a minimum washable surface and ensure the placement of the necessary armament in cargo compartments. At the same time, the design should be as tight as possible so that the aircraft could fly at high speeds near the ground.

In addition, it was decided to exclude the propulsion system from the power circuit of the aircraft. In this case, it was possible to create new modifications with other engines. The new layout should have kept the ability to continually improve the performance and technical data of the new product.

In the process of the designer's work, they created an aerodynamic configuration, the integrated circuit of which was carried out in the form of a "flying wing", rotary consoles of a small area (relatively small, of course) in flight could change the sweep.

Bomber layout

A fundamentally new configuration of the T-4MS aircraft, agreed at the end of the summer of 1970, served as the basis for the development of the advance design.

Models of this configuration were blown in the wind tunnels of TsAGI and showed exceptional results both at subsonic flight speeds and on supersonic.

Due to the small area of the rotary cantilevers and the rigid bearing body of the center wing, the elastic deformation of the wing disappeared during flights at the ground.

The sweep of the swivel consoles varied from 30 ° to 72 °.

Luck was unquestionable, but the whole next year was devoted to the finalization of the advance project.

The thickness and shape of the wing profile changed to further improve the aerodynamic quality. The use of supercritical profiles had to increase cruising subsonic speed. Investigations have been carried out on how the wing bevels can affect the operation of the power plant and vertical tail. Continued work on the selection of the shape of the wing, in order to increase the stability and controllability of the machine.

The optimal design and power scheme of the airframe was selected to increase the mass return of fuel.

Work on bugs

All the developments were tested in the wind tunnels of TsAGI. As a result, experts found that the plane is poorly centered, there is an instability of at least 5%. It was decided to further refine the layout.

As a result, in versions T-4MS appeared horizontal plumage and a long nose. In one version, the nose also had a needle-like shape. But still, was to further development adopted the layout, in which the nose was somewhat elongated, except for it from the bearing fuselage there were prominent only nacelles, a vertical tail with two keels, swivel wing consoles. Particular attention was paid to the problem of reducing the visibility on enemy radars.

Description of the T-4MS bomber

The aircraft was to be controlled by a crew of three people, which was housed in a weakly speaking lantern. At the same time, the commander of the ship, the pilot and navigator-operator had to fly in the spacesuits, despite the fact that the cabin of the two compartments was airtight. The front compartment was intended for pilots, and the rear compartment was for the navigator. Since the lantern practically did not protrude, special flaps were provided to improve the view during takeoff and landing.

Catapult chairs provided a safe emergency exit of the aircraft at any altitude and speed, including landing and take-off.

Radio-electronic equipment on board consisted of navigational, flight control systems, radio communication and defense systems, computer, defense-sighting complex, systems for breeding and missile control.

The overall dimensions of the aircraft, which was defined as a supersonic intercontinental bomber, were:

- length - 41.2 m;

- height - 8 m;

- the span of the center wing is 14.4 m;

- Wingspan at an angle of sweep of 30 ° - 40.8 m;

- the area of the wing with an angle of sweep of 30 ° - 97.5 square meters.

The estimated takeoff weight of the aircraft was 170 tons.

Bomber power plant

In the tail part, in two gondolas, spaced apart, four NTR-101 were located in pairs. Take-off thrust of each of them was 20 000 kgf. It was assumed that the engines would combine the advantages of a dual-circuit engine in cruise flight at subsonic speeds and turbojet during acceleration and in flight on supersonic.

The gondolas had for each engine divided flat-panel flat adjustable air intakes, protected from icing and ingress of foreign objects.

In addition to the engines, the power plant included systems for refueling the aircraft with fuel on the ground and in the air, powering the engines, emergency fuel drain, boost, cooling, and fire extinguishing.

The main fuel tanks were located in the center section compartments.

Estimated flight data

The aircraft was designed for flights over long distances. According to calculations, he could fly without refueling in flight with a normal combat load of 9 tons at a cruising speed of 900 km / h (subsonic) 14 thousand km, and at 3000 km / h (supersonic) - 9 thousand km.

At the altitude, the bomber could fly at a speed of 3.2 thousand km / h, at the land - 1.1 thousand km / h.

At the same time, the maximum height, according to which the aircraft could be lifted, was 24,000 m.

With such a large mass, the take-off run length was 100 m, and the length of the run after landing was 950 m.

Armament on board

The estimated bomb load was 9 tons of free-falling and coordinated bombs.

The prospective T-4MS missile carrier was to carry from two to four long-range X-45 Molniya liquid-fuel missiles, which were specially developed for the T-4 project, with the ARRLSN guidance system and the cumulative high-explosive warhead. Their feature was the radio-transparent fairing. The length of the rocket is about 10 m, the starting mass is 5 tons, the payload is 0.5 t. The range of its flight is 1,5 thousand km, the flight speed is up to 9 thousand km / hour.

Also in the armament of the aircraft were up to 24 X-2000 missiles with an INS guidance system, with a range of up to 300 km, a flight speed of about 2 M and a starting mass of 1 ton.

Various types of weapons, missiles, air bombs, mine-torpedo armament, one-time bombs were located in two internal compartments equipped with ventilation and heat protection, transportation and discharge systems.

Results of the contest

For the competition were presented, in addition to the offspring of PO Sukhoi, the supersonic bomber Tu-160M developed by the design bureau of AN Tupolev and M-20 from VM Myasishchev.
Projects were heard at the MAP at the Scientific and Technical Council in the autumn of 1972.
Tu-160 military was initially rejected because of too much similarity with the passenger plane. M-20 satisfied the military, but the newly created design bureau did not have production facilities for the serial production of the machine.

T-4MS attracted general attention and was recognized as the best, but ... At the same time, a new fighter was created under the direction of PO Sukhoi under the guidance of PO Sukhoi, which was published under the number SU-27, work was carried out to create modifications of the existing Su-24 fighters And Su-17M. The Ministry of Aviation Industry considered that these works in "light" aviation are more important, and in two different directions the design bureau will not be able to work.

So it turned out that the project won the design of OKB Sukhoi PO, and further work was conducted by the Design Bureau of AN Tupolev. And the Air Force commander P. S. Kutakhov proposed to transfer all materials to Tupolev, but they refused and continued to independently improve their development.

Therefore, an airplane with approximately the same payload and range of flight at subsonic speeds, but with a flight mass greater by 35%, and a halved flight range with a super-slider, than could have been used in the Air Force, could have been taken if the draft had been adopted. P. Sukhoi.

Immediately after the end of the competition, work on the T-4MS project was discontinued. The plane never saw the sky, but the ideas born during its development found their embodiment in the same Tu-160, and in the Su-27 and Mig-29 fighters. Maybe they will also be embodied in the aircraft of the present century.