Spiral (aerospace system)

Around 1964, a group of scientists and specialists of the Central Research Institute of the 30th Air Force developed the concept of creating a fundamentally new aerospace system, which most rationally integrated the ideas of an airplane, rocket plane and space object and would satisfy the above requirements. ^[1] In mid-1965, the Minister of Aviation Industry P. V. Dementyev entrusted the design bureau of A. I. Mikoyan with the development of a project for this system, called the “Spiral”. ^[1] G. E. Lozino-Lozinsky was appointed the chief designer of the system. ^[1] From the Air Force, the work was supervised by S. G. Frolov, military technical support was entrusted to the head of the Central Research Institute 30 - Z. A. Ioffe , as well as his deputy for science V. I. Semenov and the heads of departments - V. A. Matveev and O. B. Rukosuev - the main ideologists of the concept of the videoconferencing. ^[1] .

During the program, to develop the creation of the orbital aircraft and demonstrate its feasibility, subprojects of the MiG-105.11 analog aircraft , BOR-1 suborbital vehicles (Unmanned Orbital Rocket Launcher), BOR-2, BOR-3 and EPOS analogue spacecraft were created (Experimental manned orbital aircraft) BOR-4 and BOR-5 ^[2] .

All devices were made on a 1: 3 scale due to the limited energy capabilities of the 8K63B carrier rocket - a modified R-12 BRDS . Starts were carried out from the Kapustin Yar test site ^[2] :

BOR-1 - 07/15/1969, a prototype of a PCB material, burned out during ballistic descent;
BOR-2 - 12/06/1969, control system failure, ballistic descent, burned out;
BOR-2 - 07/31/1970, a successful flight;
BOR-2 - 04/22/1971, burnout thermal protection, the parachute did not come out, crashed;
BOR-2 - 02/08/1972, successful flight, the device is stored in the LII ;
BOR-3 - 05.24.1973, destruction at an altitude of 5 km, crashed;
BOR-3 - 07/11/1974, parachute damage, crashed.

Work on the creation of the Spiral, including analogues of its orbital plane, interrupted in 1969, was resumed in 1974. In 1976-1978, 7 test flights Mig-105.11 were conducted at the LII .

On the subsonic analogue of the Mig-105.11 orbital aircraft, the pilots Pyotr Ostapenko , Igor Volk , Valery Menitsky , Alexander Fedotov conducted tests. On the MiG-105.11, Aviard Fastovets launched from under the fuselage of the Tu-95 K heavy bomber ^[9] , the final stage of the analogue tests was carried out by Vasily Uryadov.

Launched by the 11K65M-RB rocket as part of the Buran program, the BOR-4 series spacecraft were unmanned experimental vehicles based on the BOR-3, modified to create the Buran orbiter.

The development of heat-resistant heat-insulating materials such as “ceramic foam” in the framework of the Spiral project was carried out (as reflected in the 1966 document ^[10] ) 15 years before the start of flights under the American Space Shuttle program, as well as 16 years before the first test of Soviet quartz tiles on BOR-4 and 22 years before the flight of the Buran. It was originally planned to use metal heat protection from heat-resistant alloys, but it was not possible to solve the problem of residual warping of the metal under cyclic temperature loads. It was decided to use ceramic protection, information about which was obtained by the shuttle. ^[11] Thermal protection for the Buran was tested at BOR-4. Technical solutions obtained by the specialists of the Design Bureau of the Klimov Plant during the development of onboard liquid-propellant rocket engines were also used to create the Buran. ^[12]

Also, " based on BOR-4, maneuvering space-based warheads were developed, the main task of which was to bombard America from space with a minimum flight time to targets (5 ... 7 minutes) ." Lukashevich V.P., CFO of JSC International Consortium Multipurpose Aerospace Systems. ^{[13] [14] [15]}

Own work on the Spiral (except for BOR analogues) was finally discontinued after the start of the development of a larger, less technologically risky one, which seemed more promising and largely repeated the American program Space Shuttle of the Energy-Buran project. Defense Minister A. A. Grechko did not even give permission for orbital testing of an almost ready EPOS, having drafted according to various sources the resolution “We will not engage in fantasies” ^[16] or “This is fantastic. We need to do the real thing ” ^[17] . The main specialists who previously worked on the Spiral project were transferred from OKB A.I. Mikoyan and OKB Raduga by order of the Minister of Aviation Industry to NPO Molniya .

At present, an analogue aircraft 105.11 can be seen in the Central Museum of the Air Force of the Russian Federation in Monino .

A powerful airborne accelerator ship (weight 52 tons, length 38 m, wingspan 16.5 m) was supposed to accelerate to six times the speed of sound (6 M ), then from its “back” at an altitude of 28-30 km, 10- ton manned orbital aircraft with a length of 8 m and a span of 7.4 m.

“It was supposed that it could be used as a passenger airliner as a passenger airplane , which, of course, was rational: its high speed characteristics would make it possible to increase the speed of civil aviation .” ^[eighteen]

The booster plane was the first technologically revolutionary detailed design of a hypersonic aircraft with jet engines. At the 40th Congress of the International Aviation Federation (FAI), held in 1989 in Malaga ( Spain ), representatives of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) praised the accelerator aircraft, noting that it was “designed in accordance with modern requirements. ” ^[10]

In view of the demand for large funds for fundamentally new propulsion, aerodynamic and material science technologies for creating such a hypersonic accelerator aircraft, the latest versions of the project considered the less expensive and more quickly achievable possibility of creating not a hypersonic, but a supersonic accelerator, which was considered a modified strike reconnaissance aircraft T-4 ("100") ^[19] , however, and it was not implemented.

The spacecraft orbital design was a flying machine with an arrow-shaped wing, which has upward-deflecting arms for changing the transverse angle of attack . When descending from orbit, the aircraft self-balanced in different parts of the trajectory. The fuselage was made according to the scheme of the bearing body with a very blunt feathered triangular shape in plan, which is why he received the nickname "Bast."

Thermal protection was carried out using clad plates, that is, a surface of the material coated by hot rolling with a metal layer. In this case, there was a niobium alloy coated with molybdenum disilicide . The surface temperature of the nose of the fuselage at different stages of descent from orbit could reach 1600 ° C.

The propulsion system consisted of a liquid-propellant rocket engine (LRE) of orbital maneuvering, two emergency brake LREs with a displacing system for supplying compressed helium fuel components, an orientation unit consisting of 6 rough orientation engines and 10 precise orientation engines; a turbojet engine for flying at subsonic speeds and landing, operating on kerosene.

To save the pilot in the event of an orbital airplane accident, a detachable cabin was provided in the form of a capsule with its own powder engines for firing from the aircraft at all stages of its movement from start to landing, as well as with control engines for entering dense atmospheric layers.

In addition to the possibility of a transport option with a small cargo compartment, the main military versions of orbital aircraft were developed:

• photo and radio scouts;
• to destroy aircraft carriers with missiles with a nuclear warhead and satellite guidance system;
• space target interceptors in two versions. The first option is for photographing and transmitting photographs through communication channels, the second is for hitting a target.

In order to train pilots of an orbital plane in 1966, a group was formed at the Cosmonaut Training Center, which included members of the cosmonaut squad who had sufficient flight training. The initial composition of the group:

• G. S. Titov , who has already been in space
• A.P. Kuklin
• V. G. Lazarev
• A.V. Filipchenko

After the reorganization in 1969 of the Cosmonaut Training Center, the 4th Division of the 1st CPC Directorate was created, with G.S. Titov as its head. The latter by that time defended his diploma on the subject of the CAC project for a single - seat aerospace aircraft . ^[20] Young pilots who were undergoing space training were recruited to the department:

• L. D. Kizim (preparation in 1969-1973)
• A. N. Berezova (1972-1974)
• A.I. Dedkov (1972-1974)
• V.A. Dzhanibekov (July - December 1972)
• V.S. Kozelsky (August 1969 - October 1971)
• V.A. Lyakhov (1969-1973)
• Yu. V. Malyshev (1969-1973)
• A. Ya. Petrushenko (1970-1973)
• Yu.V. Romanenko (1972)

On January 7, 1971, in connection with the departure of G. S. Titov from the cosmonaut corps, A.V. Filipchenko was appointed head of the department, and on April 11, 1973, test instructor-cosmonaut L. V. Vorobyov . In 1973, the department was disbanded due to the cessation of work on the project.

The start of the Spiral program was influenced by the start of work on the American Dyna Soar program. ^[11] The choice of the appearance of the Spiral orbital aircraft was not made entirely from scratch. When choosing the layout and control algorithms for the Spiral orbital aircraft, the designers closely followed the American work and tests of unmanned aerial vehicles (1963-1965), (1966-1967). By the time the “Spiral” out-project was launched in the USA, research on manned hypersonic aircraft at low flight speeds (“PILOT”) and manned aircraft “ ”, “ ” and “ HL-10, "also included flight research" . " The results of these tests were known at the Mikoyan Design Bureau. ^[21]

The closure of the Spiral program was influenced by the start of the Buran program as a response to the start of the US Space Shuttle program, as well as the closure of the 1975 programPILOT . " ^[eleven]

According to NASA employees, the organization’s website on the design of Bor-4 could be affected by data on the creation and testing of manned vehicles M2-F1, M2-F2, HL-10, X-24A, X-24B purchased by the Soviet Union. ^{[22] [23]}

Domestic experts, such as Alexei Leonkov, insist that the X-37B orbital plane was copied from the Soviet BOR-5 , the Dream Chaser orbital plane, a copy of the EPOS aircraft created under the Spiral project, Stratolaunch , the twin of Lightning-1000. ^[3]

The HL-20 whose project formed the basis of the Dream Chaser spacecraft was created, inter alia, based on images of Soviet BOR-4 series experimental vehicles launched under the Energy-Buran program : Cosmos-1374 in June 1982 and Cosmos-1445 in March 1983, ^[5] being a modification of the devices created by the Spiral program, which has been implemented since the beginning of the 60s. ^[24] Received as a result of espionage by the CIA and transferred to NASA, where they made and tested models, in a wind tunnel, using the experience gained. ^[4] But thanks to Mark Cirangelo, who visited Russia and met with domestic engineers, ^{[6] the} names of Russian specialists will fly on their first flight aboard the Dream Chaser together with American specialists working on the HL-20 project. ^[25]

• d / f "Star Wars General" television studio Roscosmos (video)

• Dream chaser
• Spaceliner
• SpaceShipOne - a practical embodiment of the idea
• SpaceShipTwo - a practical embodiment of the idea
• Multipurpose Aerospace System
• Baikal Angara
• Buran (spaceship)
• Cosmos-1374
• Unmanned Orbital Rocket Launch
• Russian Aerospace Aircraft (RAKS)
• North american x-15
• Boeing X-20 Dyna Soar

• Лукашевич В. П., Афанасьев А. Б. Космические крылья — М.: ЛенТа Странствий, 2009, 496с.- ил. [one]
  • Ch. 10 Воздушно-орбитальный самолёт «Спираль» (с.201-218)
  • Ch. 11 Экспериментальные самолёты-аналоги (с.219-244)
  • Ch. 12 Боевые пилотируемые орбитальные самолёты (с.245-255)
  • Ch. 13 Создание ЭПОСа (с.257-278)
  • Ch. 15 Первые беспилотные орбитальные ракетопланы (с.287-300)
  • Ch. 16 Летающий «Лапоть» (с.301-344)
• Микоян С. А. Мы — дети войны. Воспоминания военного лётчика-испытателя — М.: Яуза, Эксмо, 2006
  • Ch. 23 Освоение космоса и авиация (с. 438—456), и Гл. 28 На новой работе (c. 539—566)

• buran.ru — Проект «Спираль»
• ЭПОС (105.11) экспериментальный пилотируемый орбитальный самолёт
• Фото МиГ-105 «Спираль» в Монино
• ЭПОС (105.11) экспериментальный пилотируемый орбитальный самолет (неопр.) (недоступная ссылка) . Архивировано 6 июля 2012 года.
• ЭПОС (105.11) на видео — Сброс с ТУ-135К, полет, посадка