Su-8 - Soviet experienced twin-engine double armored attack aircraft of the Great Patriotic War . In the history of Soviet aircraft manufacturing remained as one of the largest in the world among specially designed attack aircraft.
| Su-8 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type of | Super Heavy Stormtrooper |
| Manufacturer |  Plant No. 289 ( Molotov ) |
| Chief Designer | P. O. Sukhoi |
| First flight | March 11, 1943 [1] |
| Status | Experienced aircraft |
| Units produced | 2 |
Despite the fact that the factory and state tests of the Su-8 attack aircraft were successful, it did not start mass production. By the time the Su-8 passed the tests, the Soviet troops had already approached the borders of Germany and the need for an attack aircraft with a range greater than that of the Il-2 had almost disappeared.
Content
History
The design assignment and construction of an Su-8 armored attack aircraft with two M-71 or M-90 engines was given to P. O. Sukhoy in May 1942. The designer took into account all comments received from the fronts on planes of similar purpose. The combat actions of the first years of the Great Patriotic War showed that to ensure the success of offensive operations by ground forces operating at long distances from their airfields, as well as to attack enemy communications in its operational rear, it was necessary to create an aircraft with increased range and speed of flight and enhanced armament.
The aircraft was designed at an accelerated pace, and by September 20, 1942, the entire set of drawings was handed over to production. In August 1942, they began to build a glider for static tests and two flight instances of the aircraft. Construction DBSH was carried out on the basis of the motor plant number 19 in the city of Molotov (now Perm ), where the pilot plant number 289 was in evacuation. The end of construction of the first copy was scheduled for early May , and the second - for August 1943 .
At the end of January 1943, the Commander of the Air Force approved the draft design for modifying the DBSH in high-altitude reconnaissance and medium bomber versions, with the wish to implement this project in the second copy of the DBSH.
In early August 1943, the re-evacuation of the design bureau of P.O. Sukhoi began and the first prototype of the DBSH (Su-8) was transported to the Moscow region city of Tushino , to the site of plant No. 289 dislocation. Work on fine-tuning the aircraft was continued, more powerful engines were installed M-71F.
By the beginning of December 1943, the Su-8 had made several taxiing and approach flights at the factory airfield, during which a number of defects were revealed, the elimination of which continued until the end of winter.
On March 11, 1944, the test test pilot ND Fixson for the first time raised the Su-8 into the air. Started factory flight tests, which, with short interruptions continued until the end of 1944. By this time, the serious need for a new attack aircraft for the Air Force was no longer felt. In addition, work on the M-71F engine was curtailed . All this ultimately led to the cessation of work on the Su-8.
Construction
Design - mixed. The fuselage in the front part is an armored case, the middle part is duralumin , the tail part is a wooden monocoque . The center section is duralumin with steel flanks of the side members . Single-wing spar. Detachable wing consoles - wooden with plywood paneling and duralumin spars (their shelves are made of steel). The spaced tail plumage is all-dioraluminous. Chassis - single, retractable into engine nacelles, tail wheel - retractable into fuselage
Scheme - sredneplan with full armored cabs, engines, tanks and oil radiators. The total mass of armor is 1680 kg (13.5% of normal take-off weight), sheets with a thickness of 4 to 15 mm. Reservations for the attack cockpit included: an armor plate in front of the pilot, 15 mm thick, 64 mm front armored glass , a pilot's bullet armor 15 mm thick, and 10 mm armor plates from the bottom and from the sides of the pilot. Details of the transverse protection of the cabin with a thickness of 15 mm are made of armor HD 693. With the indicated mass of armor, the crew and vulnerable units of the aircraft were protected from enemy small arms, including large-caliber [2] .
Armament
The plane had powerful weapons. To combat the technique of enemy mechanized connections, a central battery under the fuselage was intended, consisting of four 37-mm or 45-mm cannons with an ammunition of 50 cartridges each. Two batteries in the wing consoles, including four 7.62-mm machine guns, served to defeat manpower.
To protect against fighters, the gunner-radio operator had a 12.7-mm machine gun in the turret at the top of the turret and one 7.62-mm in the hatch dagger installation from the bottom. Ammunition of all machine guns was 5900 rounds.
The main bombing armament is 600 kg on the inner suspension, in the six compartments of the center section , which could hold one 100 kg of bomb, or several smaller bombs. With an overload of up to 1400 kg, the Su-8 could additionally carry three large bombs on the external suspension under the fuselage. There were also plans to equip the Su-8 with a Mozharovsky-Venevidov mobile rifle installation, which allowed a concentrated fire on a ground target for a longer time.
Performance characteristics
Specifications
- Crew: 2 people
- Length: 13.58 m
- Wing Span : 20.50 m
- Height: 5.09 m
- Wing area: 60.00 mΒ²
- Weight empty: 9170 kg
- Normal take-off weight : 12410 kg
- Maximum take-off weight: 12,413 - 12,736 kg (13,380 kg with overload)
- Engine: 2 Γ M-71F
- Power : 2200 liters. with.
Flight characteristics
- Maximum speed at high altitude: 550 km / h
- Maximum ground speed: 500 km / h
- Flight range: 1000 km
- Practical ceiling : 9000 m
- Climbing time, min / m: 9/5000
- Takeoff run: 400 m
Armament
- Small-gun armament:
- four 45mm or 37mm guns under the fuselage
- four 7.62-mm ShKAS machine gun in the wing consoles
- one 12.7-mm UBT machine gun in the upper installation and
- one 7.62-mm ShKAS machine gun in the hatch.
- Bomb load: 600 kg
- with an overload - 1400 kg
Notes
- β Vladimir Proklov. Twin twin-engine attack aircraft Su-8 and its variants (Rus.) // Aviation and Cosmonautics . - M. , 2010. - β 7 . - p . 35 .
- β Gordyukov N. Experienced attack aircraft Su-8 DDBSh. Wings of the Motherland 1980, No. 10, p. thirty
Literature
- Perov Vladimir Ilyich, Rastrenin Oleg Valentinovich. "Infantry battleship" P. O. Sukhoi // Red Army assault aircraft . - Moscow: Avico Press, 2001. - T. Volume 1: Formation of appearance. - 176 s. - 3000 copies - ISBN 5β85309β31-X.
Vladimir Proklov. Twin twin-engine attack aircraft Su-8 and its variants (Rus.) // Aviation and Cosmonautics . - M. , 2010. - β 7 . - p . 33-39 .