The Russian Knight aircraft became the first four-engined aircraft in the history of aviation. Created by designer Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky in 1913, the aircraft set several world records and immediately hit the pages of the world press. Emperor Nicholas II personally came to see the plane, being delighted with what he saw. The multi-engine machine amazed the imagination of people of its time, leaving a noticeable mark in the history of domestic and world aviation.
The birth of the "Russian Knight"
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian aviation industry was in its infancy. The first aircraft plant appeared in the country in 1909, before that in the Russian Empire there were only workshops in which foreign airplanes were repaired. Aircraft construction was carried out mainly by enthusiasts, relying on their own strength. In the 1910s, the first factories began to appear in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
In 1910, the workshop “First Russian Aeronautical Association” was opened in St. Petersburg (since 1915, the “Gamayun” plant). The plant was opened with a loan from the Ministry of War. In Moscow a little earlier, after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, a new line of business was opened by the Dux plant, which produced its first aircraft in 1909. After eliminating all the shortcomings and numerous alterations, the aircraft took off in 1910, and the enterprise itself, until 1917, bore the proud name of the Imperial Aircraft Building Plant in Moscow.
Another production site for the creation of aircraft was one of the colossus of the industry of the Russian Empire - the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works, familiar to many, if not from aircraft, then from the first serial Russian cars under the Russo-Balt brand. In 1910, an aviation department was organized at the plant in Riga - an aviation workshop, which in 1912 moved to St. Petersburg. In the same year, Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky became the chief designer of the aviation workshop, in whose talent and capabilities the head of the workshop, Mikhail Vladimirovich Shidlovsky, believed. In the future, he provided Sikorsky with all kinds of support.
Mikhail Shidlovsky not only discerned the talent and outstanding abilities of the future “father of helicopters” and the renowned Russian and American aircraft designer, but also helped to find funding to bring his projects to life. Without his help, Sikorsky would hardly have been able to carry out his plans. The plane he proposed was a bold decision not only for Russia, but for the whole world. Initially, Igor Sikorsky planned to create a twin-engine aircraft, but such a project in those years was no longer surprising. Twin-engine aircraft designs have been developed in many countries around the world. Already in the process of working on a new aircraft, the opportunity to purchase four Argus engines appeared, and Sikorsky got the idea to build a four-engine aircraft and made the right decision.
By the standards of the 1910s, the proposed aircraft had a gigantic size, it is no coincidence that one of its first names was "Grand" (French Le Grand) or, simply put, "Big". In the future, the name "Bolshoy Russian-Baltic" was considered, which was supposed to emphasize the belonging of the new aircraft to the manufacturer. And only the third name, under which the plane entered the history of aviation forever, was the name "Russian Knight". As they would say now, a very memorable name from a marketing point of view.
It is worth noting that many were skeptical about Sikorsky's new aircraft. Few believed that a car with a mass of 3.5 tons would be able to get off the ground at all. However, all skeptics were put to shame. Failure did not happen, moreover, Sikorsky created the world's first four-engine aircraft, which could lift more than 500 kg of cargo into the air. Nobody had built anything like it before. The first flight, which took place on May 26, 1913, was successful. But outside the Russian Empire, many did not believe the news about the construction of the aircraft. If Twitter had existed in those years, US President Woodrow Wilson could have accused the media of yet another Fake News, but the continued flights of the "Russian giant" quickly dispelled all the suspicions of journalists around the world.
In the same year 1913, but already on August 2, the aircraft set a new world record for flight duration. The Russian Knight spent 1 hour 54 minutes in the sky. After the record was set, all critics and skeptics finally bit their tongues. And a little later the plane was examined personally by the emperor, who was pleased with what he saw. A photograph has survived to this day in which Nicholas II is sitting in an open area located in front of the passenger compartment. After this event, Sikorsky was given carte blanche for all subsequent developments, which ultimately led to the birth of the first four-engine bomber "Ilya Muromets" in history.
Description of the construction of the "Russian Knight"
While working on the new aircraft, Sikorsky saw it as an experimental and experimental aircraft that, if necessary, could be used for strategic reconnaissance. By design, the "Russian Knight" was a four-engine multi-section biplane, a distinctive feature of which were wings of different lengths. The span of the upper wing is 27 meters, the lower wing is 20 meters. The total wing area is 125 square meters. The aircraft is 20 meters long and 4 meters high. The maximum take-off weight, including cargo and passengers, exceeded 4 tons. For those years, the plane was simply gigantic, although by today's standards it is comparable to small business jets (registered offshore), which Russian bankers and officials love to fly.
The fuselage of the four-engine "Russian Knight" was a rectangular frame covered with special plywood. In this case, the frame itself was made of wood. In the center of the fuselage was the passenger compartment, which in its shape resembled a carriage. No wonder the plane was developed by a division of the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works. The salon was divided into two compartments. One housed passengers and crew, the second was intended primarily for storing various spare parts, tools and equipment. It was planned that in the event of any malfunctions, they could be corrected directly in flight. In front of the cockpit there was an open area with a fence. Here, in the case of using the aircraft in hostilities, Sikorsky planned to install a machine gun and a searchlight.
When developing the aircraft, Igor Sikorsky considered various options for the location of four engines, eventually stopping at the in-line layout. All four Argus engines with 100 hp each. each were arranged in a row and received pulling screws. In fact, Sikorsky created the classic scheme of a heavy multi-engine aircraft, which is widely used in aircraft construction today. The engines were powerful enough to accelerate the aircraft in the air to a speed of 90 km / h, and the maximum flight range was 170 kilometers.
Initially, the aircraft was designed for a crew of three and carrying four passengers. For those years, the ability to lift seven people into the sky was already a notable achievement. Moreover, the test flights of the Russian Knight have shown that the vehicle is very stable in the sky. It turned out that the passengers of the aircraft can easily move around the cockpit, which does not violate the stability of the aircraft and does not affect the flight. For takeoff, Sikorsky's four-engined car needed a runway about 700 meters long.
The fate of the plane "Russian Knight"
The fate of the first four-engined aircraft in history was unenviable. The aircraft was seriously damaged in an accident. By chance, this happened when the "Russian Knight" was on the ground. On September 11, 1913, during the 3rd competition of military aircraft, an engine from the Meller-II aircraft fell on the Vityaz standing on the ground. The engine landed on the left wing box and severely damaged the entire structure.
After this incident, it was decided not to restore the plane. One of the reasons for this decision was that the material from which the plane (wood) was assembled was very damp by that time, so Sikorsky had reasonable doubts about maintaining the strength of the entire structure. In addition, the machine was initially considered as an experimental model, on which it was planned to work out new technologies. The "Russian Knight" coped with this task with a bang, paving the way into the sky for subsequent Sikorsky aircraft, primarily the famous series of bombers "Ilya Muromets", the production of which lasted until 1918.
Despite the short history of its existence, the "Russian Knight" opened the way to the skies for other four-engine aircraft, becoming the ancestor of all heavy and strategic aviation. The four-engine heavy bomber Ilya Muromets, built in October 1913, was the first direct continuation of the aviation ideas laid down in the Russian Knight.
