The Ta-1 is a Soviet experienced twin-engine escort fighter, a single - seat mid - plane with powerful stationary weapons, developed under the leadership of Tairov .
| OKO-6 / Ta-1 / Ta-3 | |
|---|---|
 Ta-3 | |
| Type of | twin-engine fighter |
| Manufacturer | Factories No. 43, 483 |
| Chief Designer | Tairov V.K. |
| First flight | January 21, 1940 (OKO-6) [1] |
| Status | not built in series |
| Operators | USSR Air Force |
| Years of production | 1939 - 1942 |
| Units produced | 2 |
Perhaps one of the most unnoticed Soviet fighters, the Ta-1 was never actually considered as a successful twin-engine fighter. Although the comparison of its performance characteristics with any modern twin-engine aircraft (except, of course, the Soviet SAM-13 ), it would seem, cannot but suggest this idea. Practically from foreign cars it can be compared only with the Bf.110 and P-38 Lightning, and from domestic ones it can be compared with the TIS-A and Gr-1 .
Compared to Bf.110, the Soviet aircraft have weaker engines, but higher speed, rate of climb , much better weapons and armor; air cooling motors provide greater survivability of the propeller group, and the altitude of the M-88 engine is better than that of the DB-601 .
The American aircraft is a more difficult competitor, since its engines are much more powerful, due to which the speed and climb are much higher, and they also have a high-altitude supercharger, but like the Me-110, they are less tenacious with a water cooling system. Armament - 8 large-caliber "Browning" - more numerous. True, the weight of a second volley - only 4.2 kg - is significantly inferior to 5.7 kg of even the weakest version of the Ta-1 - 4 ShVAK and 2 ShKAS . In addition, the American aircraft also lacks armored protection for the cockpit in front, weaker than the armored back, there is no lateral protection, as well as no booking from below. It should also be noted that the M-88 at that moment quickly evolved and in the summer of 1941 showed 1350 hp in state 100-hour tests. With such power, the Ta-1 would show speed and climb that are not inferior to Lightning, although it would still be inferior to it in a range not needed by a fighter on the Eastern Front.
Content
Design Description
The design is mixed. The cockpit is protected by armor in front (behind the weapon), armored back and frontal bulletproof glass inside a Plexiglass lamp. The side walls were made of sheet duralumin 12 mm thick. At the front, the cockpit was closed with an 8-mm armor plate, 13 mm thick armor plates were installed behind the pilot's head and back. From below, the cockpit was sheathed with 5 mm steel sheet. The cockpit lantern leaned back, and behind a motionless transparent peak a 45-mm bulletproof glass was installed. State tests began on December 31, 1939. With a flight weight of 5250 kg, the aircraft showed a maximum speed of 488 km / h near the ground, and 567 km / h at an altitude of 7550 m. A fighter gained a height of 5000 m in 5.5 minutes.
Some confusion is the choice of weapons Ta-1. It can be explained only by the general pre-WWII enthusiasm for air guns in isolation from their specific performance characteristics. It was such a hobby that led the Germans to use the MG-FF (Bf.109), the Americans - the 37-mm gun with a rate of 1.5 rounds per second (AeroCobra) and other dubious decisions. So, ShVAK , weighing twice as much UB , had only 60% more weight per second volley. In addition, the unsuccessful shape of the shells of this gun led to a quick loss of speed by the latter, a decrease in accuracy, that is, the probability of hitting the target, and energy, that is, armor penetration. The reasons for using ShKAS (0.288 kg / s) instead of UltraShKAS (0.48 kg / s) or a “pair” of ShKAS (0.96 kg / s) are also unclear. In the case of using a set of 6 UB machine guns and 2 "sparks" (total 170 kg), 20 kg lighter in weight than the basic (more than 190 kg) volley of the aircraft would reach 6.72 kg, that is, would increase by 17%. When using 3 "sparks" of ShKAS and 6 UB, that is, the weight of the weapon equal to that used by Tairov, the mass of the volley would reach 7.68 kg / s, that is, it would grow by more than 35%.
About the set of weapons recommended by the military, which was planned to be used on the Ta-3, it is even more difficult to say something positive (ShFK-37 (OKB-15 NKV), 37 mm caliber, two 23-mm MP-b guns (OKB-16 NKV) and two machine guns ShKAS). The only advantage over what the designer wanted to install was the ability to hit medium tanks when diving on top of them. Disadvantages - an increase in the weight of weapons by more than a quarter, from 190 to 245 kg and a decrease in the mass of a second volley. 6 UB and 3 “sparks” would give 400 bullets per second, of which 100 are large-caliber. The military variant gave only 29 shells per second, with one and a half times less mass of volley. Armor penetration of the same UB allowed to penetrate the upper armor of the Panther from a height of 500 m - a hundred bullets per second.
Probably, such an attack would have had the epic name "last peak", because from a height below 500 meters the plane simply does not have time to get out of it. Awareness of this fact (in contrast to the author of the above opus about armaments) pushed the "stupid" military to equip the fighter with guns, which ensured the defeat of horizontal projections of tanks from a range of 1 km or more.
Performance Specifications
The characteristics given correspond to the Ta-3 modification .
Data source: Gordon and Khazanov, 1999; Perov V.I., Rastrenin O.V., 2001.
- Specifications
- Crew : 1 pilot
- Length : 9.83 m
- Wing span : 12.65 m
- Height :
- Wing area: 25.4 m²
- Empty weight: 4738 kg
- Normal take-off weight: 6050 kg
- Powerplant : 2 × Radial M-89
- Engine power: 2 × 1250 hp (2 × 932 kW)
- Flight characteristics
- Maximum speed:
- at altitude: 595 km / h at 7000 m
- by the ground: 477 km / h
- Landing speed: 143.8 km / h
- Practical range: 1060 km
- Practical ceiling : 10,400 m
- Climb time: 5000 m in 6.3 min
- Takeoff run: 1060 m
- Armament
- Rifle Cannon:
- 4 × 20 mm ShVAK guns with 200 rounds on the trunk
- 2 × 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun with 800 patr.
Notes
- ↑ Perov V.I., Rastrenin O.V., 2001.
Literature
- Perov V.I., Rastrenin O.V. Attack aircraft of the Red Army. - M .: Aviko Press, 2001. - T. 1. Formation. - S. 126-132. - 176 p. - ISBN 5-85309-31-X.
- Shavrov, V. B. The history of aircraft designs in the USSR 1938-1950. - M .: Mechanical Engineering, 1988 .-- 568 p. - 20,000 copies. - ISBN 5-217-00477-0 .
- Gordon, Yefim and Khazanov, Dmitri. Soviet Combat Aircraft of the Second World War. - Hinckley, England: Midland Publishing, 1999. - Vol. 2. Twin-Engined Fighters, Attack Aircraft and Bombers. - P. 37-40, 163. - 176 p. - (Red Star. Vol. 4). - ISBN 1-85780-084-2 .