Since the earliest days of aviation, Russia had never shied away from big designs.
In the 1920s and 1930s Tupolev developed a series of large and impressive aircraft.
Some would become the foundation of Soviet bomber forces, some would become passenger
liners, and some would become impressive tools for propaganda.
Today we’re going to take a look the first of Tupolev's giants: the ANT-4, also known
as the TB-1.
In the early 1920s the Soviet Union had no heavy bombers in its air force.
Russia had fielded some impressive examples in WW1, but they had all been retired by 1921
and their designer Igor Sikorski had emigrated to America.
This left somewhat of a vacuum in the ranks of soviet designers, and when the need for
an experimental heavy aircraft arose in 1923 the Soviet Union initially looked for an international
solution.
It approached the British aircraft industry in the hopes of purchasing the design work
for this new aircraft, but the cost quoted was exceedingly high and the delivery time
exceedingly slow.
It was then that the Soviet Army and Air Force considered a proposal from a relatively young
name in the aviation world: Andrei Tupolev.
By 1923 Tupolev had designed three aircraft.
Though none of them had crashed, exploded, or otherwise behaved in a manner unbecoming
of an airplane, they were unassuming and unimpressive designs.
This however was about to change.
Keen to establish themselves in the industry, Tupolev and his design bureau had put forward
an offer to design this new aircraft for the Army and Air Force and have a prototype built
within nine months.
The offer was accepted, and work began on the 11th of November 1924.
The prototype, which was designated ANT-4 (being Tupolev’s fourth design) was built
on the design principals established by his earlier projects.
It took a lot of inspiration from the technology pioneered by Hugo Junkers, featuring an all-metal
skin of corrugated duraluminiun, with steel used for the ribs, frame, and undercarriage.
This rather annoyed Hugo Junkers, who had viewed the Soviet Union as a potential customer,
rather than a competitor, and he tried to sue the design Bureau and Tupolev personally
for infringing on his patent; however, this attempt was unsuccessful as pretty much every
other manufacturer was now doing the same thing.
The prototype was completed by the 11th of August 1925, and after knocking down some
walls of Tupolev’s workshop all of the relevant parts were taken for assembly at Moscow’s
central airfield at Khodinka.
When assembled it represented the first all-metal bomber to be completely developed and built
by the Soviet Union, a considerable achievement considering the shortage of skilled workers,
poor working conditions, the complexity of the aircraft’s design, and the equal complexity
of sourcing high quality materials.
It was also the first soviet aircraft to be wind-tunnel tested, however no photographic
evidence of this exists as many of Tupolev’s archives were put to the torch when the Germans
advanced on Moscow in 1941.
The ANT-4 was Russia’s largest aircraft built up to that time, and only a handful
of other aircraft in the world were bigger.
It had a wingspan of 29.6m, a length of 17.3m and a height of 5.1m.
The wings were constructed in sections, two central sections and two outer sections; these
were fixed in place by casing bolts and allowed for easy maintenance and transport of the
aircraft.
The fuselage followed the same principals and was constructed in three sections.
The first encompassed the nose, the second went from the cockpit back to the fifth spar
in the fuselage, and the third went all the way to the tail.
The prototype was powered by a pair of Napier Lion II engines which were rated at 450hp.
These were fed by ten fuels tanks that were housed in the central wing section that had
a total capacity for 2,010 litres of fuel.
Though devoid of any military or navigation equipment, the prototype was relatively hefty,
with an empty weight just over 4 tonnes and a maximum weight of 6.2 tonnes.
Ordinarily this was designed to be supported by an undercarriage fitted with two 1.25 meter
diameter tyres, but when it was first completed the prototype was mounted on a pair of Junkers
skis instead.
It took off for the first time on the 26th of November 1925.
Following this flight, and some modifications to improve its handling characteristics, the
aircraft went through an initial test program that it passed with flying colours.
After this it went for state trials and between June and Junly of 1926 it completed 25 test
flights and was evaluated as a first-class aircraft.
It was then given a simulated bombload of 1 tonne and flew for 12 hours covering 2000km,
a similar test was made with a 2-tonne bombload that was carried for a flight of 4 hours and
15 minutes.
The commander in chief of the VVS was thoroughly impressed with Tupolev’s aircraft, and it
was ordered into production as the TB-1, or heavy bomber type 1.
During this time, it was also decided that further development of the aircraft’s powerplant
was required.
Originally the plan had been to upgrade to a more powerful engine supplied by Lorraine-Dietrich,
but in April of 1927 this was changed to the newer BMW V-1 (which could give up to 600hp),
with the plan to manufacture them as the Soviet licence-built M-17 engine.
Meanwhile, a second ANT-4 was being built, this time as a fully militarised prototype.
It was powered by BMW V1-Z engines, had three defensive turrets outfitted with Lewis machine
guns, and was completed with a suite of radio and camera equipment.
It was completed in the summer of 1928 and made its first flight on the 15th of August,
with the flight test programme concluding in March of 1929.
Almost five years elapsed from the completion of the first prototype and the first arrival
of production model TB-1s.
This was due in part to the problem of acquiring suitable factory space to produce said planes,
acquiring suitably powerful engines in large numbers, and acquiring metal of suitable quality
to facilitate the actual construction of the airframe.
However, by the end of the 1920s the Soviet Union was now producing high-grade alloys
in enough volume to reduce its dependence on imported alloys, and the TB-1 entered serial
production.
Compared to the prototypes, the TB-1 had a slightly reduced wingspan of 28.7 meters.
It now had an empty weight of 4.5 tonnes and a maximum weight of 6.8 tonnes.
It was also more powerful; the Licence built M17 V12 engines produced 680 hp each and drove
a pair of fixed pitch two-blade propellers.
The fastest production models of the TB-1 reached a top speed of 207 km/h which was
more than enough for the pilots seeing as it had an open cockpit.
Though nominally designed as a bomber, the Soviet leadership quickly realised the potential
of the TB-1 as a tool for propaganda.
Its excellent range and endurance made it the perfect candidate for a series of record
setting national and international flights.
After a couple of successful – but shorter – local flights, Stalin proposed an intercontinental
flight be attempted.
New York was selected as the destination, but instead of flying west from Moscow to
New York via the Atlantic, it was decided to go east.
Not only was this the safer route, but extra propaganda value would be gained from the
extreme distance and the added bonus of the aircraft visiting prominent cities in Russia
along the way.
Two aircraft were stripped of their military equipment and prepared for the journey, with
the second being a backup.
On the 8th of August 1929 pilots Shestakov, Bolotov and their crew took off from Moscow
in their ANT-4, renamed Strana Sovetov - or Country of the Soviets.
Not long after this, the decision of preparing a second aircraft soon bore fruit, as an emergency
landing in the Omsk region of Siberia damaged the first.
Fifteen days later the second aircraft, renamed like the first, took off and begun its epic
journey.
The journey covered multiple legs, sometimes as a landplane, and sometimes fitted with
floats for the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.
The crew were constantly fighting with general engine problems, but only one major mishap
occurred that slowed the pilots down, an engine failure near the Aleutian Islands, but thorough
planning meant that a spare engine was soon fitted, despite there being no specialist
equipment on hand.
On the 3rd of November the aircraft landed in New York and was greeted by thousands of
excited people, it was the first Tupolev design to be seen in America, and the conclusion
of this journey thrust Soviet Aviation into the forefront of the world scene.
The global point-to-point distance flown was 21,242km or 13,200 miles over a flight time
totalling 137 hours, though in reality the actual travelled distance was considerably
longer due to the varying legs of the journey.
The ANT-4 would make headlines again five years later in 1934.
The ship Cheluskin had become trapped in ice far north of the Bering Strait, 104 people
were on board and they had provisions to last out the winter until the spring thaw came.
However, the ice began to crush the ship in February, forcing them onto the ice itself.
An impromptu landing strip was prepared and the first aircraft to land on the scene was
an ANT-4, over the next week it performed the largest aerial rescue in the world up
to that time, with all 104 people being safely evacuated from the ice.
In its military guise, over 200 of the TB-1s were produced.
Though compared to later production numbers this sounds small, for the early 1930s that
represented a significant achievement when it came to producing large aircraft in the
Soviet Union.
As a result of this, many TB-1s were either modified or built specifically as testbeds
for new technologies and ideas.
Perhaps the strangest of these ideas was the use of so-called ‘parasite’ fighters.
V.S Vakhmistrov (and I apologise if I have pronounced that wrong) worked at the VVS Scientific
and Research institute.
He proposed that long-range bombers should have fighters mounted on its wings, connected
by a special ‘link’.
Together they would take off with all engines running, and then the fighters would throttle
back until they were needed.
This would greatly increase their range for escort duty, and would allow the bomber to
bring its own defenders deep into enemy territory.
The fighters would then detach from the bombers, swat their opponents out of the sky, and then
link back onto their mothership for a ride home.
This idea was well received, and an ANT-4 was specially modified to carry a pair of
ANT-5 fighters.
The concept of releasing aircraft from the mothership was proved during a series of test-flights
but the project was eventually cancelled in 1940…mostly as a result of Stalin’s purges
which led to the arrest of Vakhmistrov’s greatest supporters.
Despite its large size, the TB-1 was considered as a seaplane after the successful flight
of the ANT-4 from Moscow to New York.
Some fifty-five TB-1s were modified to become the TB-1-P, with their undercarriages being
replaced by floats.
These were used for coastal patrols, especially in the far east, and TB-1s operated in the
norther regions were fitted with skis.
The TB-1 served with the VVS until being retired in 1941.
Between the mid-1930s and 1948 about ninety TB-1s would be stripped of military equipment
and operated as the G-1 cargo aircraft.
Likewise many of the TB-1P floatplanes were also converted for transport use during the
second world war.
Some of these aircraft were amongst the first in the world to test the use of cargo parachutes;
dropping crates of military supplies, artillery pieces, and even small tanks on some occasions,
though unfortunately no photo record of this exists.
Though not the largest of Tupolev’s designs by a long shot, the ANT-4 was perhaps the
most significant.
It provided the basis of a hugely successful propaganda aircraft, it formed the foundation
of the new Soviet Bomber forces, and it tested a dozen revolutionary technology concepts
that would be improved upon during the second world war.
Remarkably, one example of this aircraft still survives today.
A G-1 transport that is displayed at the Ulyanovsk Aircraft Museum in Russia.
So yeah, that’s the first big Tupolev.
I hope you all enjoyed today’s video, thank you all so much for watching, and I’ll catch
you all next time.