The Su-24 front-line bomber, work on the creation of which started back in the 1960s, still remains one of the symbols of Russian aviation. The aircraft, which entered service in February 1975, has been modernized several times and is still in service with the Russian Air Force. This bomber was produced in a series of about 1400 copies and was actively supplied not only to the armament of the Soviet Army Air Force, but also for export. The plane took part in a large number of local wars and conflicts, and more recently it was the Su-24M bombers that received a huge amount of combat work as part of the Russian Aerospace Forces military operation in Syria.
The history of the creation of the front-line bomber Su-24
In PJSC "Company" Sukhoi "today it is rightly believed that the history of the front-line bomber Su-24 begins in 1961, when, after the adoption of the Su-7B fighter-bomber by the country's Air Force, at the insistence of the military, the Sukhoi Design Bureau was given the task of developing a new modification combat aircraft, which would fully meet the tasks of all-weather use at any time of the day or night and would be able to deal with small and mobile targets. The clause on the creation of a new modification of the aircraft was contained directly in the decree on the adoption of the Su-7B aircraft. It was obvious to everyone that the Su-7B was a temporary solution, this aircraft was hastily re-profiled from a front-line fighter into a strike vehicle.
Su-7B
Certain difficulties for the development of new aviation systems at that time were presented by the "Khrushchev persecution of aviation", which was explained by missile euphoria and affected many types of traditional weapons and military equipment. As well as conflicting demands from the military, which, among other things, were guided by information coming from abroad through intelligence agencies. In particular, about work in the field of creating new aircraft for short take-off and landing, as well as vertical take-off aircraft.
Despite all the difficulties, the Sukhoi Design Bureau began work on the creation of a new combat vehicle already in 1961-62, initially it had the C-28 code, during the work it became clear that to solve the tasks set by the military as part of the creation of a new modification of the Su- 7B will fail. The new attack aircraft required the placement of new equipment, the same sighting systems, for which there was simply no place on board the Su-7, its layout did not allow placing everything required. At the same time, the OKB was working on creating an aircraft with the same functionality, but of a larger dimension, the code of the work was C-32.
In 1962, the famous aircraft designer Oleg Sergeevich Samoilovich (1926-1999) headed the design of a new combat aircraft. He came to the Sukhoi Design Bureau after successfully completing his studies at the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1957 and already in 1961 was a leading designer at the Design Bureau, and since 1981 he held the high position of Deputy General Designer of the enterprise. Oleg Samoilovich took part in the development of the most famous aircraft of the design bureau of the second half of the 20th century, including the T-4 Sotka, Su-24, Su-25, Su-27.
Sketches of the C-6 with different air intakes
Oleg Samoilovich began work on another topic, which received the C-6 code, and the new project of the Sukhoi Design Bureau had nothing to do with the Su-7B aircraft previously adopted. It was based on a twin-engine aircraft built according to a normal aerodynamic configuration, with a moderately swept trapezoidal wing. Initially, it was about a single-seat version, but later the designers decided to make the aircraft two-seat, dividing the functions of the pilot and navigator-operator. In the cockpit, they were to be located in tandem, one after the other.
In 1963, the new aircraft entered the stage of preliminary design and construction of a model. Work on the creation of a front-line bomber was hampered by the political situation, when priority was given to rocketry, and in the creation of new aircraft, emphasis was placed on the modernization of existing samples, in particular, representatives of the Design Bureau spoke about this in the framework of a lecture on the Su-24 aircraft and its history in the Vadim Zadorozhny Museum of Technology Sukhoi. The work was also slowed down by the lack of progress in the creation of the Puma sighting and navigation complex (PNS) for the new aircraft (by the way, this trend persisted for many years, the first normal prototype of the Puma was ready only towards the end of 1969). The designer Evgeny Aleksandrovich Zazorin was responsible for the development of the complex. The main problem at the development stage was that such a system was created for the first time in the Soviet Union. The integrated system was supposed to provide automation of all flight modes, while unloading the bomber crew, naturally, great importance was attached to the process and capabilities of detecting and hitting targets. Throughout the first half of the 60s of the last century, the composition of the PNS was formed, the terms of reference were approved, and prototypes for testing were developed. At the same time, in the end, the project of the C-6 aircraft itself ended in nothing.
Sketch T-58M, in the center of the fuselage 4 lifting engines
Already in 1964, the work received a new code T-58M, which was due to the adjustment of the technical specifications for a new aircraft, which the military began to consider as a low-altitude attack aircraft, which had to meet the requirements for the possibility of a shortened takeoff and landing. Another requirement on the part of the military was to provide a low-altitude flight at supersonic speed, this was necessary to overcome the air defense zone of a potential enemy. On the aircraft in this version, it was proposed to install four RD-36-35 lifting engines at once in the middle part of the fuselage (short take-off and landing mode). And the full composition of the power plant also assumed the presence of two sustainer TRDF R-27F-300. The flight weight of the new aircraft was estimated at 22-23 tons.
Since the spring of 1965, the Sukhoi Design Bureau began full-scale work on the design of the T-58M aircraft, which at that time passed as a low-altitude attack aircraft, capable of also performing the role of a fighter. It is curious that in the same 1965 it was decided to change the layout of the future aircraft, in which the pilots were placed in the cockpit side by side, side by side, and not in tandem one after another. Later, such a crew placement will be implemented on the Su-24 serial front-line bomber, and then on the modern Su-34 fighter-bomber, which came to replace it. At the same time, on the T-58M they switched to a similar layout due to the fact that the transverse dimensions of the antenna of the Orion sighting station, located in the nose of the projected aircraft, increased.
Airplane model T-58M
Officially, the government assignment for the creation of a new combat aircraft was issued only on August 24, 1965. The project was once again modified, and the theme received a new code T-6. The draft design of the aircraft was ready by March 1966, at the same time it was defended. At the same time, during the construction of the T-6, new assembly and production technologies were used. So in the design of the experimental bomber, long parts made of light aluminum alloys of wafer construction (with longitudinal and transverse stiffeners) were used. The detailed design of the experimental T-6 bomber was completed by the end of 1966, in parallel with this, the Sukhoi Design Bureau was building two copies of the future machine, one was intended for flight tests, and the second was going to be sent for strength tests. The first aircraft was ready in May 1967; on June 29 of the same year, the aircraft was delivered to the airfield of the Gromov Flight Research Institute (LII). On June 30, 1967, the famous test pilot Vladimir Sergeevich Ilyushin (son of the famous Soviet aircraft designer), who at that time was the chief pilot of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, performed the first run on the new aircraft along the LII runway.
On July 2, 1967, the experimental machine first took off from the ground, in the first flight the plane was also piloted by Ilyushin. The noticeable haste with raising the new aircraft into the sky was due to the fact that the bomber was planned to be announced to participate in a large-scale air parade. It was held in Domodedovo and traditionally collected, among other things, numerous samples and novelties of the Soviet design bureaus, the aviation parade was supposed to take place on July 9. However, on July 4, during the second test flight, an emergency occurred, the left folding strut of the cockpit was torn off the T6-1 aircraft. At the same time, the flight ended safely, urgently work was carried out to refine the cockpit canopy, but it was decided to refuse to participate in the parade. As a result, Western military observers who attended the air parades never saw the new Soviet aircraft in 1967.
Experimental aircraft T6-1
Experimental aircraft T6-1
Initially, all tests of the new aircraft took place without placing lifting engines on it, they appeared on the T6 only in October 1967, at the same time the P-27 main engines were replaced with new ones, standard for the AL-21F turbojet engine, which were developed at OKB A M. Lyulki. In the version of the aircraft with a shortened takeoff and landing, the bomber was tested from November 1967 to January 1968. The tests confirmed the expectations of the designers that this scheme does not justify itself. Achieving an increase in take-off and landing characteristics could not compensate for a significant decrease in the bomber's flight range (a decrease in the volume of fuel on board, the inability to use the ventral space for suspension of weapons and equipment). Such a scheme was recognized as a dead end.
In mid-1967, a decision was made that brought the experimental T-6 closer to the future serial front-line bomber Su-24, it was a decision to develop a version of the T-6I bomber with a new variable sweep wing. Officially, work in this direction was ordered by a decree of the government of the Soviet Union on August 7, 1968. The new version of the aircraft was designed in 1968-1969, and the construction of two prototypes of the machine was completed in the fall of 1969. The first flight copy of the new aircraft, indexed T6-2I, took to the skies for the first time on January 17, 1970, the Puma PNS, which was finally brought to an acceptable state, was already installed on board the aircraft. Vladimir Ilyushin again lifted the car into the sky.
T6-2I with hanging bombs
State tests of the new aircraft lasted for four years from January 1970 to July 1974. The duration of the tests, which involved a dozen production aircraft assembled at the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant, was explained by the complexity of the project. For the Soviet Air Force and the aviation industry, it was a breakthrough aircraft. The T-6I front-line bomber became the first tactical attack aircraft in the USSR, which could be used at any time of the day or night and in all weather conditions. This was ensured precisely due to the presence on board the bomber of a breakthrough for the Soviet industry sighting and navigation system "Puma". The PNS "Puma" included a special radar "Relief", which was responsible for the automation of flight at ultra-low and low altitudes with the realized ability to bend around the terrain, and a two-position sighting radar, designated "Orion-A". The Puma also included the Orbit-10-58 onboard digital computer, and the armament of the first serial front-line bombers Su-24 was represented by guided missiles of the following classes: "air-to-air" R-55 and "air-to-surface" X-23 and X-28.
The distinctive features of the aircraft, as noted above, included the widespread use of long milled panels (in terms of design and technology, this was very important), as well as a new variable sweep wing, the use of which on the T-6I aircraft provided the machine with a sufficiently high level of flight performance. characteristics under different flight modes of the aircraft, as well as the take-off and landing characteristics required according to the terms of reference. It is also important to note that for the first time in the domestic aircraft industry, for such tactical aircraft, a scheme was implemented with the location of the pilots next to each other (shoulder to shoulder). In addition, unified ejection seats K-36D appeared on the plane, which allowed the bomber's crew to escape even in takeoff and landing flight modes (the entire range of speeds and altitudes).
Diagram of the front-line bomber Su-24
On the basis of a government decree on February 4, 1975, the T-6 bomber was put into service, receiving the designation Su-24 familiar to us all. Serial production of the new strike vehicle began in 1971, two of our famous aircraft factories took part in the production of a front-line bomber - in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (the Gagarin plant) and Novosibirsk (the Chkalov plant). In Novosibirsk, the process of assembling the middle and head parts of the fuselage, as well as the center section, was carried out, and the process of the final assembly of the bomber was carried out here. At the plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, workers were engaged in the manufacture of wing consoles, empennage and tail section of the bomber fuselage.
Direct analogues and competitors of the Soviet front-line bomber Su-24 were the American-made General Dynamics F-111 tactical two-seater bomber, on which a variable sweep wing was installed for the first time, and the Panavia Tornado fighter-bomber, on the creation of which several European countries worked at once. The Tornado also received a variable sweep wing. The F-111 tactical bomber first took to the skies on December 21, 1964, and in July 1967 the aircraft was put into service, at present, the operation of these bombers has been completely discontinued. The European fighter-bomber Tornado, in the development of which aviation companies from Germany, Great Britain and Italy participated, made its first flight on August 14, 1974 and was adopted only 6 years later in 1980. Currently, the latest modifications of Tornado fighter-bombers, like the Su-24M / MR and Su-24M2 models, are still in service.
Taking off front-line bomber Su-24
