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Post by kstlmike on Nov 21, 2009 14:18:53 GMT -5
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Post by okami on Nov 21, 2009 14:33:05 GMT -5
Instantly rang a bell, so I pulled out one of my books. Here's what it says:
"Kalinin K-7 (1933)"
"Designed by World War I aviator Konstantin Kalinin with a wingspan greater than a B-52's and a much greater wing area, the K-7 was one of the biggest aircraft built before the jet age. It was only one engine short of the B-52 as well, having the curious arrangement of six pulling on the wing leading edge and one pushing at the rear.
The K-7's very brief first flight showed up instability and serious vibration caused by the airframe resonating with the engine frequency. The solution to this 'flutter' was thought to be to shorten and strengthen the tail booms, little being known then about the natural frequencies of structures and their response to vibration. On the 11th flight, during a speed test, the port tailboom vibrated, fractured, jammed the elevator and caused the giant aircraft to plough into the ground, killing 15 [out of 20 aboard].
Undaunted by this disaster, Kalinin's team began construction of two further K-7s in a new factory, but the vicissitudes of Stalin's Russia saw the project abandoned, and in 1938 the arrest and execution of Kalinin on trumped up espionage and sabotage charges."
"Aircraft specifications:
Crew: 19
Powerplant: seven 560 kW (750 hp) Mikulin AM-34 inline piston engines
Max speed: 234 km/h (145 mph)
Span: 53.00m (173ft 10in)
Length: 28.00m (91ft 9in)
Height: unknown
Weight: 40,000kg (88,185lb)"
(Source: Winchester, J.; The World's Worst Aircraft; Amber Books, London, 2005)
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Post by ashaman on Nov 21, 2009 22:46:06 GMT -5
Seems something out of a Japanese Anime.   |
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