Back in Soviet times, many travelers were surprised by the unexpected improvement of previously "killed" highways and the increase in their width. Luxurious roads could appear in an almost deserted steppe and suddenly disappear after just a few kilometers. The solution to this riddle was simple: individual sections of highways were created taking into account the requests of the military. In the event of a full-scale military conflict that would lead to strikes on airfields, the highways could replace them. Special engineering and aerodrome services could deploy a mobile alternate airfield in the most unexpected place.
Also in the USSR, there was another problem - the need to cover objects located in the Far North and the Far East, where not only the airfield network was poorly developed, but there were no corny roads. All this forced the Soviet designers to work on alternative options for launching jet aircraft, to work out the possibility of a non-aerodrome launch. This was relevant both for remote areas of the country with undeveloped airfield infrastructure and in the case of full-scale hostilities, when the plane could take to the sky using a point start.
The idea of starting an aircraft from a place is almost as old as aviation itself. Back in 1916, special 30-meter catapults, designed to launch seaplanes, appeared on three American cruisers. The idea of an aerodromeless launch took on a second life already in the 1950s. The impetus was the appearance of cruise missiles, which were then called projectile aircraft. In fairness, it should be noted that the first cruise missiles were aircraft, but only unmanned. At first, they were launched exclusively from gentle guides, there were no vertical launch containers at that time. The success with the launch of the first cruise missiles forced the military and aircraft designers to pay attention to the scheme for their launch.
MiG-19 (SM-30)
The USSR began to actively work on the problem of an aerodromeless launch in the 1950s. At the same time, one of the projects based on the MiG-19 fighter-interceptor was implemented in practice. The project received the designation SM-30. In total, two fighters and several launchers were prepared for them. Another project involved various launch options for the M-50 supersonic strategic bomber under development. They worked on the project at the Myasishchev Design Bureau, including the option of a point launch of the bomber directly from its parking lot. Other options with the possibility of starting the M-50 from various bogies with rocket boosters with a wheeled chassis or bogies on a rail track, as well as the option using a hydraulic carriage for starting, were no less exotic.
The resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the design and construction of a special aerodromeless launch system was issued in 1955. Specialists from OKB-155 were also involved in solving this problem. The work was supervised by M. I. Gurevich, and A. G. Agronik was responsible for finalizing the MiG-19 fighter to meet these requirements. A launcher, PU-30, was specially designed to launch the fighter. The catapult launcher was created on the basis of the YaAZ-210 two-axle trailer; it could be installed on any, even not the most even surface, that was able to withstand its weight.
The fighter-interceptor was transported on a powerful beam, which was attached to a four-wheeled trailer cart, from which takeoff was carried out. This ramp had a lift-and-turn mechanism for rolling the fighter onto the beam. The ejection device was installed in the operating position, after which the aircraft was pulled onto the guides of the transport and launcher using a winch, for this, special pads were located on the sides of the MiG-19 fuselage. Before launching, it was necessary to perform one more operation - to dig a sufficiently large pit-tray behind the transport and launcher, designed to reduce the impact of gas jets on the ground. Then the fighter with the landing gear retracted was attached to the rails with shear-calibrated bolts. Finally, the guide rails were lifted with the aircraft by an angle of 15 degrees. The pilot got into the cockpit of the fighter using a stepladder.
Once in the plane, the pilot started the main RD-9B engines, bringing them to the maximum operating mode. Then he turned on the afterburner and pressed the start button of the solid-propellant booster. Due to a sharp increase in thrust, the calibrated bolts were cut off, and the aircraft was successfully accelerated, while the overload was at least 4.5 g. It is worth noting that the changes in the design of the MiG-19 fighter, intended for a non-aerodrome launch, were minimal. In addition to the standard engines, a powerful PRD-22 solid-propellant booster was located under the fuselage, developing a thrust of 40,000 kgf. Due to its installation, the ventral ridge of the aircraft was replaced by two symmetrically located (relative to the vertical plane of symmetry) ridge of a different shape and of a shorter length. After takeoff and reset of the accelerator used for acceleration, the characteristics of the SM-30 did not differ in any way from the ordinary production MiG-19 fighter.
The first manned launch of the SM-30 took place on April 13, 1957. The tests of the entire system ended with mostly positive ratings. During the state tests, not a single case of system failure was recorded. In the act of state tests, in particular, it was noted: the takeoff of the CM-30 is simple, it is available to pilots who have already mastered flights on the MiG-19 fighter. Despite this, things never went beyond test flights.
One of the problems that prevented the adoption of such an aircraft into service was that, despite the non-aerodrome start, the fighter still needed an airfield for landing, and it was quite problematic to deliver bulky launchers to hard-to-reach regions of the country. Transportation was also hampered by the large dimensions of the system, which made transportation by rail difficult. At the same time, the SM-30 was created primarily for the needs of the country's air defense and the protection of military facilities on the northern borders of the USSR, including on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, but by that time the first anti-aircraft missile systems had begun to enter service. Anti-aircraft missiles do not need airfields, and the launched missile will no longer land. That is why the military quickly lost interest in the SM-30 and the ejection launch for jet fighters.
But it is one thing to lift an 8-ton fighter into the sky and a 200-ton bomber quite another. The project of the M-50 strategic supersonic bomber, on which the Myasishchev design bureau began work in the 1950s, was quite ambitious for its time. The aircraft was designed for flights in the speed range from 270 km / h (landing speed) to 2000 km / h at altitudes up to 16,000 meters. The maximum flight range, taking into account in-flight refueling, was supposed to be 15,000 kilometers. The maximum takeoff weight at launch with the use of boosters reached 253 tons, of which 170 tons were fuel.
Even with a fixed take-off distance of three kilometers, the use of rocket boosters was mandatory for the M-50 bomber. The calculations showed that without their use for takeoff with the maximum bomb load, the aircraft needed a concrete strip six kilometers long. For comparison, a 3.5-kilometer runway was built for the space shuttle Buran at Baikonur. At the same time, there were very few even three-kilometer runways in the Soviet Union. That is why, at the Myasishchev Design Bureau, simultaneously with the design of a supersonic strategic bomber, they began to work out projects that would facilitate the takeoff of a new aircraft, including a point launch system.
Supersonic strategic bomber M-50 (the only prototype) accompanied by MiG-21 fighters at the air parade in Tushino
Taking into account the dimensions and dimensions of the projected bomber, a launcher with a rail guide, as in the case of the MiG-19, was not even considered, a different scheme was needed. As a result, such a point launch option was proposed, in which the plane took off and rose into the sky using liquid-propellant rocket engines, like a real rocket. The launching position in this case consisted of a pendulum structure that deflected the bomber from the ground at the very beginning of the movement, the lifts necessary to mount the aircraft on the pendulum, as well as pits and reflective devices that were needed because of the rocket engine torches.
According to calculations, the two main bearings of the pendulum were supposed to take on 98 percent of the load, the rest of the load fell on the tail support. The rocket boosters were also located: the main two were placed under the wings of the aircraft, another one was located in the tail section of its fuselage. Two underwing rocket boosters with 8 nozzles, 136 tons of thrust each, were to be installed at an angle of 55 degrees. They created a vertical force that exceeded the take-off mass of a strategic bomber, and the horizontal thrust component was supposed to help the turbojet engines accelerate the aircraft. A third rocket booster located in the tail was supposed to remove vertical yaw. At the same time, lateral yaw had to be regulated by gas ailerons, which were installed in the jets of the main engines.
The point start of the M-50 strategic bomber was to take place as follows. First, the main turbojet engines of the aircraft were launched, after which the aircraft was stabilized by an autopilot. The takeoff boosters were so large that the entire takeoff process of the bomber was fully automated, while the pilot, due to overloads at that moment, was in a state close to fainting, so he could hardly somehow help in controlling the car. After the main engines, the tail rocket engine and rocket boosters located under the wings were launched, the stoppers were removed and the M-50 rose on a pendulum to a height of about 20 meters, where the disconnection process took place. After reaching the design speed of 450 km / h, the bomber went into the normal takeoff mode, and the spent rocket boosters were disconnected and landed with parachutes.
Point start for M-50, render: www.popmech.ru
Such a launch system had its own obvious advantages, which included the possibility of starting from the aircraft parking lot; any dispersal of starting points; a small amount of construction work with a small consumption of concrete; the ability to disguise the bomber well; the possibility of simultaneous take-off of a large number of bombers. But at the same time, there were also disadvantages: the need for gas controls and stabilization.
Be that as it may, no one was able to see such a bomber launch live. The M-50 point launch project, as well as the options for placing rocket boosters on special carts, was not implemented in metal, everything ended at the design stage. The unique launch systems turned out to be unclaimed after the successful tests of the R-7 ballistic missile by Sergei Korolev, which had a flight range of 12 thousand kilometers and was invulnerable to the air defense systems existing at that time. After successful tests of ICBMs in the USSR, they simply curtailed all work on supersonic strategic bombers.
