Traditionally, many believe that fighters are always faster than bombers, but back in the early 1960s, a supersonic missile-carrying bomber was created in the Soviet Union, capable of a maximum speed of up to 3200 km / h. Such a flight speed was not dreamed of then, not only by fighters, but also by most of the existing guided missiles. We are talking about the famous T-4 "Sotka" aircraft ("product 100"), the aircraft of the future, which, by coincidence, did not get into this very future.
As part of the work on the T-4 aircraft project, almost all the main components, assemblies and systems were developed at the level of inventions. In total, the designers of the Sukhoi Design Bureau introduced 208 different inventions, and taking into account the inventions that were laid down in the development of components and assemblies - about 600. Not a single aircraft built by that time in the Soviet Union simply existed so many original developments … Already, based on this figure alone, it was a giant breakthrough in the field of aircraft construction in our country.
The first work on the T-4 ("product 100") began in the USSR in 1961. The military leadership of the country assigned the engineers the task of developing a new aviation complex designed for "reconnaissance, search and destruction of small, stationary and mobile sea and land targets" with a flight range of about 7 thousand kilometers. Such an aircraft was planned to be used to destroy aircraft carrier strike groups of a potential enemy, as well as to conduct strategic reconnaissance. The announced competition for the creation of a new aircraft was won by representatives of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, who were able to bypass competitors from the Yakovlev and Tupolev Design Bureau. A distinctive feature and "highlight" of the T-4 project was the provision of a very high flight speed - up to 3200 km / h, which, according to experts, promised a significant reduction in the vehicle's vulnerability to the effects of enemy air defense.
T-4 "Sotka" in the Central Museum of the Russian Air Force in Monino
The creation of a new strike-reconnaissance aircraft was set by the decree of the Soviet government on December 3, 1963. The development process of the new machine was headed by the Deputy General Designer of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, NS Chernyakov. In June 1964, the draft design of the future aircraft was successfully defended, and in February 1966, the aircraft passed the Air Force mock-up commission. Detailed design of the supersonic aircraft was carried out jointly with the Burevestnik Design Bureau, and in November 1964, TMZ - Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant - was connected to the production of an experimental batch of T-4.
To achieve the specified requirements, it was necessary to ensure a high quality value at the cruising supersonic flight speed M = 3. For this, the specialists of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, together with TsAGI, carried out a complex of fundamental studies of the aerodynamic characteristics of the models of the future aircraft, which made it possible for the designers to select the desired layout. The development was launched of a variant of a strike aircraft, made according to the tailless scheme with a small margin of longitudinal stability, with a small forward horizontal tail, which was necessary to ensure the longitudinal balancing of the missile carrier. The wing of the aircraft was in terms of a "double delta", with a sharp leading edge and deformation of the median surface.
A large number of studies have been carried out to develop options for the layout of the power plant of the new supersonic machine. As a result, the designers settled on an option providing for the lower location of the air intake and the so-called "package" layout of four engines. According to the official website of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, for the first time in Soviet aviation practice, a supersonic adjustable mixed-compression air intake with auto-start was used on the T-4 for an estimated number of M = 3, 0. Especially for "Sotka" in the PA Kolesov Design Bureau, a powerful turbojet was created the RD36-41 engine, which made it possible to provide the aircraft with a long flight at supersonic speed - about 3000 km / h.
The peculiarity of the new aircraft was that high-strength metal materials, new at that time, were massively used in the design of its airframe: titanium alloys: VT-20, VT-21L, VT-22; structural steel VKS-210; stainless steels VIS-2 and VIS-5. The glider of the T-4 Sotka supersonic strike-reconnaissance aircraft consisted of the following units: fuselage, engine nacelles, wing, front horizontal tail, keel, front and main landing gear supports. At the same time, the fuselage was divided into 7 main compartments: a deflectable nose section, a cockpit, an instrument compartment, a central fuel tank compartment, a tail compartment, and a tail parachute compartment. An antenna and radio-electronic radar units, hidden under a radio-transparent fairing, were located in the deflected nose of the fuselage of a combat aircraft. In the same part, the boom was also located, intended for refueling the aircraft in flight.
In the upper part of the cockpit compartment of the fuselage, the cockpits of the pilot and the navigator of the aircraft were tandemly located. Each of them had its own hinged hatch designed for emergency escape from the car and for the crew to board their workplaces. Emergency rescue of the pilot and navigator was carried out by ejection seats, which ensured safe exit from the aircraft in the entire range of speeds and flight altitudes, including take-off and landing modes.
The T-4 Sotka aircraft used a tricycle landing gear with a nose wheel. Such a chassis provided the supersonic vehicle with the ability to operate from class 1 airfields with a concrete pavement. The main landing gear had two-axle bogies with four brake wheels, each wheel had a twin tire. The front landing gear also had twin wheels with starting brakes.
For each of the systems of the T-4 supersonic missile carrier, taking into account the stringent requirements for the conditions of their operation on the aircraft, the designers of the Sukhoi Design Bureau had to design a large number of fundamentally new solutions. For example, for the first time in domestic aviation practice, a four-channel fly-by-wire control system, an automatic throttle, a hydraulic system with a working pressure of 280 kg / cm 2 was used on an aircraft, and a fundamentally new fuel system equipped with hydraulic turbopumps was installed. In addition, a liquid nitrogen neutral gas system was installed and many other technical solutions were implemented. Many new things could be found in the cockpit of the T-4 missile carrier. For the first time in the USSR, a navigational and tactical situation indicator was created for it, in which data from onboard radars were displayed on a television screen and superimposed on an electronic image of microfilmed terrain maps covering the surface of almost the entire planet.
An important feature of the aircraft was the deviating nose. In the lowered position, it freed the front glazing of the cockpit, which provided them with a normal forward view. This greatly facilitated the process of taxiing at the airfield, as well as the takeoff and landing of a supersonic aircraft. According to the test pilots, the take-off angle was maintained simply, the separation of the T-4 from the ground was smooth. When flying at supersonic speeds, the bow completely covered the cockpit glazing, minimizing the resistance of oncoming air flows. After lifting the bow, the flight proceeded according to the instruments, while the crew had a periscope at their disposal, which gave a good view forward.
A very serious challenge for the designers of the Sukhoi Design Bureau was the creation of an aircraft structure and the selection of such materials that could ensure operation at high operating temperatures - about 220-330 degrees Celsius. The main structural materials for a supersonic airframe are titanium and steel. The main efforts of technologists and designers during the creation of the aircraft were devoted to the development of the technology of their application in the design of the T-4 "Sotka". In addition, it was necessary to master a large number of fundamentally new technological processes, for example, automatic submerged arc welding using a sheet attachment, automatic penetration welding, chemical milling of titanium alloys and other processes. A wide program of development of new types of coatings and materials was carried out specifically for the practical development of new technologies, tests of full-scale samples of the structure of the future aircraft were carried out. To test the capabilities of the power plant, equipment and aircraft systems, the Sukhoi Design Bureau, together with its subcontractors, undertook a very large program of testing and research of various stands, models and flying laboratories. For example, to work out the shape of the wing of the future supersonic strike-reconnaissance aircraft, a flying laboratory "100L" was built and tested together with LII on the basis of the all-weather Su-9 interceptor fighter.
The target equipment of the T-4 Sotka aircraft included the NK-4 navigation system and the Ocean radio-electronic complex, which included the Vikhr weapons control system, the Otpor defense system, the Rapier reconnaissance system, and the radio communication equipment "Stremnina". According to the initial project, the main armament of the aircraft was to be three X-45 aeroballistic missiles, the development of which was carried out at the Raduga Design Bureau. The estimated range of the X-45 hypersonic missiles (cruising speed of Mach 5-6) was supposed to be 550-600 km. In the future, the project was adjusted and the number of missiles was reduced to two, they were to be installed on two open points of the suspension, located in parallel under the engine nacelle.
The first flight copy of the new combat aircraft (product "101") was built in the fall of 1971 and in December of the same year was relocated to the LII airfield. The first flight of the prototype took place on August 22, 1972, the crew of the aircraft consisted of pilot V. S. Ilyushin and navigator N. A. Alferov. Flight tests of the new supersonic aircraft continued until January 1974, in total during the specified period of time 10 flights were made, during which it was possible to reach a flight speed of Mach 1, 36 at an altitude of 12 thousand meters.
In total, in the period from 1966 to 1974 at the Tushino machine-building plant, four airframes of the T-4 aircraft were assembled: one for static (product "100C") and three for flight tests (products "101", "102" and "103"). In addition, at the start-up stage, there were a number of units for three more aircraft. In 1974, at the direction of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, all work on the T-4 was suspended. Officially, work on this project was closed in accordance with the decree of the Soviet government of December 19, 1975. At the same time, back in 1968-70s, the Sukhoi Design Bureau developed a project for a modernized strategic missile carrier T-4M with a variable sweep wing, and in 1970-72, in fact, an almost completely new project T-4MS ("product 200"), who participated in 1972 in the competition for the creation of a strategic dual-mode strike aircraft together with the models of the Myasishchev and Tupolev Design Bureau. Then the M-18 project of the Myasishchev Design Bureau was recognized as the best.
Until now, the exact reason for the completion of work on the Sotka project is unknown. Most likely, this was a whole complex of reasons, among which are usually distinguished:
1. Changes in the technical requirements for the aircraft and the overall workload of the Sukhoi Design Bureau with the process of creating the T-10 fighter - the future Su-27.
2. The defense department of the Central Committee of the CPSU and representatives of the Air Force considered the project unpromising.
3. The Sukhoi Design Bureau lacked the production capacity necessary to carry out extended tests of the T-4, TMZ could not cope with such an order, and the proposed Kazan Aviation Plant to the Sukhoi Design Bureau was never handed over.
4. The T-4 supersonic strike and reconnaissance aircraft turned out to be too expensive.
5. In 1969, the Air Force presented new tactical and technical requirements for a promising multi-mode strategic aircraft, which the T-4 no longer met. That is why the Sukhoi Design Bureau began to develop a version of the aircraft with a variable sweep wing - the T-4M. And then they presented the T-4MS project ("product-200"), which was significantly different from the original T-4.
The only surviving copy of the T-4 supersonic bomber with tail number 101 is located in the Central Museum of the Air Force of the Russian Federation in Monino.
Flight technical characteristics of the T-4 "Sotka" aircraft:
Overall dimensions: length - 44.5 m, height - 11.2 m, wingspan - 22.7 m, wing area - 295.7 m2.
Empty weight - 55,000 kg.
Normal takeoff weight - 114,000 kg.
The maximum take-off weight is 135,000 kg.
Fuel weight - 57,000 kg.
Power plant - 4 turbojet engine RD-36-41 with thrust 4x16150 kgf.
Maximum speed - 3200 km / h (calculated).
Cruising speed - 3000 km / h (calculated).
Practical flight range - 6000 km.
Ferry range - 7000 km.
Service ceiling - 25,000 m.
Takeoff run - 950-1050 m.
The length of the run is 800-900 m.
Armament - 2 X-45 hypersonic missiles.
