USSR V-3 "Red Star" - a soft type airship built in Leningrad . In May 1932, it was transferred to the Airship in the city of Dolgoprudny . The airship shell was made at the Kauchuk plant, and the gondola at the Airship.
| USSR V-3 "Red Star" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Specifications | |
| Type of | soft |
| Volume, m³ | 6500 |
| Screws number / diameter, m | 2 |
Content
Description
The first airships of the soft type of the USSR V-1, USSR V-2 Smolny and USSR V-3 Red Star were intended for propaganda flights and crew training. These airships operated flights on the following routes: Moscow - Gorky - Moscow, Leningrad - Moscow - Leningrad, Moscow - Kharkov and others. On November 7, 1932, airships passed over Red Square : V-1, V-2, V-3, and V-4. Airships tested methods of dealing with forest fires, counting forests and destroying malaria foci, and using airships in agriculture. For the Air Force, parachutists jumped.
The design of the USSR V-3 “Red Star” was similar to the design of the airship of the USSR V-2 “Smolny”. They differed only in shell volume: 6500 m³ in B-3 and 5000 m³ in B-2.
The airship shell was made of a three-layer rubberized fabric with 4 gas valves. Two-section balloon with 4 valves. Gondola 9 meters long, 2 meters wide, 3.25 meters high. The gondola was suspended from the shell with steel cables. On the sides at the rear of the nacelle, two air-cooled engines of 240 hp were installed. Ballast was stored in the gondola - 350 kg of water in rubberized canvas bags. Steering was carried out by cable rods.
The airships of the USSR V-1, V-2 and V-3 flew without accidents and disasters.
In the summer of 1933, the B-3 was put on a major overhaul on the Airship , during which it was updated by almost 90%. All work was carried out by young Soviet airship engineers. The initial date for completion of the repair, May 1, 1934, was not met, and the airship went to airfield tests only in September. During the tests, the ship was piloted by the commander of Pomerantsev and flight engineer I.I.Zheglov (died on August 6, 1938 during the crash of the USSR airship V-10 ). After repair, the B-3 showed good stability and controllability, easy lifting and landing.
At the end of 1936, the airship of the USSR V-3 was decommissioned.
Crew
- ship commander: Pomerantsev A.F.
- room for the ship: Schneiderman L.M.
- Pilot: Ivanova L.V.
- pilot: Mozgalev A.
- pilot: Belov
- st.Bortmekhanik: Zheglov I.I.
- flight engineer: Shmelkov K.
- Krenkel E. T. (radio operator) [1]
Links
Notes
- ↑ Krenkel, in his memoirs, calls the B-3 airship “Drummer” and this is not a mistake, the airship really did carry this name for some time.
Literature
- Belokrys A. "Airship" on Dolgoprudnaya: 1934, one year from life. - M .: Paulsen, 2011. - ISBN 978-5-98797-060-7 .
- “The Unusual Flight of the V-3 Airship” (chapter from Umberto Nobile’s book “My Five Years with Soviet Airships”)
- “Unsuccessful flight” (chapter from the book of E. T. Krenkel “RAEM - my callsigns”)
- Obukhovich V.A., Kulbaka S.P. Airships in the war. - M .: ACT, 2000. - ISBN 5-17-001637-9 .