Igor Alekseevich Merkulov belongs to a wonderful galaxy of enthusiasts who, under the leadership of S. P. The Queen were the pioneers of rocketry. Older people remember him from his performances at the All-Union contests "Cosmos", where he talked about the dreams of K. E. Tsiolkovsky and F. A. Zander, imbued with the romance of interplanetary flights, about the work of the GIRD team. Igor Alekseevich himself made a significant contribution to aviation and rocket and space technology: in particular, he was the designer of the world's first rocket with an air-jet engine (it also became the first Soviet two-stage rocket), and the world's first aviation ramjet engines.
Merkulov purposefully walked towards his goal for almost five years. After graduating from technical school, working at TsAGI as a designer, he learns that the Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion - GIRD - has been created. He writes a letter to CS Osoaviakhim: “I am interested in starfishing. Please be admitted to the GIRD. " Merkulov is accepted, and he becomes a student of special engineering and design courses. And soon Igor Alekseevich was appointed the head of the section of scientific and technical literature and, on the instructions of the head of the GIRD, twenty-five-year-old S. P. Koroleva - Merkulov organizes the publication of the collections "Jet Propulsion".
During the years of study at special courses, Merkulov comes to the idea that it is most interesting to deal with air-jet engines and get a job at the experimental plant of the GIRD in the Pobedonostsev brigade. Here he participates in the world's first experimental studies of models of ramjet engines. Pobedonostsev placed them in a hull of three-inch artillery shells that were fired from a field cannon.
When this work began to curtail, Merkulov quit. Confident in the prospects that ramjet engines (ramjet) opened up for aviation and rocketry, Igor Alekseevich continues to work on them on a voluntary basis.
When the GIRD is transferred from a public organization under the Osoaviakhim to the Jet Research Institute, a Rocket Group is organized under the Military Scientific Committee (so as not to lose the public asset of the GIRD). Twenty-year-old Igor Merkulov is appointed its head. After the creation of the Stratospheric Committee, this group will become known as the Jet Section. Organizing her work, he immediately establishes correspondence with K. E. Tsiolkovsky, which lasted about one and a half years until the very last days of the scientist's life. Twelve letters will remain as a memory of the founder of cosmonautics. It was in the third brigade of the Rocket Section, which was also led by Merkulov, that he began theoretical studies of the ramjet engine.
History knows many examples when new theories, when tested experimentally, turned out to be untenable. In those years, everyone feared that this could happen with the theory of ramjet engines. Scientific works have already appeared in which it was proved that the maximum cross-section of the combustion chamber, therefore, of the engine itself, should increase forty or even ninety times in comparison with the inlet cross-section of the engine. The result was not a compact engine, but almost an airship. In a word, a dead end.
Merkulov's merit was that the opinion of the authorities did not bother him. He came to the conviction that first the problem must be solved in principle. He had mastered the method of mathematical analysis before, the mechanics and mathematics of the university, where he studied at the same time, gave more serious knowledge.
The work was laborious: three years of searching, incessant calculations. No matter how it counts, the thrust is low. If it is increased, the size of the engine will be catastrophically increased. Finally, theoretical searches were crowned with success. Merkulov comes to the conclusion that if we allow the loss of an insignificant part of the efficiency of the thermodynamic cycle, then one can gain on the dimensions of the cross section of the chamber.
Since in those years jet engines were treated as dangerous power plants, the designer decides that it is easier and safer to test it on a rocket. She flies without a person, so the risk is less. At first it was a project of a single-stage rocket with a combined engine, then a two-stage rocket with different types of engines - solid-propellant and ramjet. It turned out to be easier to create such a rocket. After the hassle, walking around the authorities, and also thanks to the support of scientists, in particular Professor V. P. Vetchinkin, Merkulov at the Aviakhim plant manages to build such a rocket, and then at the Osoaviakhim airfield near the Planernaya station, for the first time in the history of rocketry, on May 19, 1939, to conduct tests. He becomes the owner of two priorities at once - world and domestic. Only after that did Merkulov begin to create an aircraft ramjet engine.
In July 1939, a meeting of the Technical Council was held at the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry. It heard a report by Merkulov on the results of experiments with ramjet engines on missiles and plans for further work on their research, design improvement and use in aviation. Igor Alekseevich put forward the idea of using ramjet engines as additional engines mounted under the wings of fighters, thereby increasing their maximum speed. These engines would have to be included in the work when it was necessary to catch up with the enemy or to climb a great height.
The meeting was attended by leading experts from the aviation and defense industry. Many of them knew and approved of Merkulov's experiments. The technical management of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry also treated them positively. But there were also ill-wishers. Igor Alekseevich recalled that the work to which he decided to devote his life would have been completely ruined if it had not been for the director of the Aviakhim plant P. A. Voronin. At his own peril and risk, he made it possible to continue these developments.
In a short time, in August 1939, the first aircraft jet engines were developed and manufactured for bench tests. They were called additional motors - DM-1. Merkulov understood that since he was creating an engine that had no analogues in world practice, it should be thoroughly tested. But where to test the engine, from which a powerful fiery jet flies out? How to create a high-speed air pressure, without which the engine cannot work?
The thought suggested itself - to test in a wind tunnel. But at that time they were made of wood, since they did not involve working in them with an open fire. Merkulov decided to use an injector to test the engine. A similar idea in his time was proposed by Yu. A. Pobedonostsev. It consisted in using a liquid-propellant rocket engine to inject air into ramjet engines. But Pobedonostsev cooled it down, since there were no reliably working rocket engines at that time. And now, several years later, Merkulov again remembered the idea of injection. This time, he proposed to create an air flow using compressed air from a cylinder. It was much easier and faster to make such an installation. The engine was small - one and a half meters long, with a diameter of two hundred and forty millimeters.
The most difficult thing turned out to be to achieve stable combustion and the most complete combustion of gasoline. They fought over this for more than a month. But the design of cooling the combustion chamber was a success immediately. Merkulov applied a cooling system using fuel supplied to the engine. Although there was a distant analogy to liquid-propellant rocket engines, this was an innovation in aviation. And he made the proposed design quite ingeniously.
DM-1 tests were successful. In September, that is, two months after the memorable meeting in the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry, at which skeptics predicted the impossibility of creating a long-running ramjet engine, the DM-1 at the stand in Glidernaya worked for half an hour without burnouts (it was for this time that there was enough compressed air for injection) …
Soon, the DM-2 (400 mm in diameter, 12 kg in weight) was created, intended for installation on an aircraft and for flight tests. But first, it was necessary to conduct comprehensive ground tests.
This time it was impossible to do without a wind tunnel. It was required to make sure of the reliability and safety of the engine. And for this it was necessary to completely blow it, check the work in the air stream. But there was no point in even thinking about letting the researchers into some aerodynamic laboratory (and there were only three of them in Moscow). Then even large aviation design bureaus did not have their own wind tunnels.
We decided to build such a pipe at our factory. The management supported the engineers. Merkulov designed it together with his friend Alexander Maslov. It was a steel pipe of a rather impressive size. The diameters of the inlet and outlet sections of the diffuser and nozzle were three meters, the diameter of the working part was one meter, with a length of two and a half meters. The total length of the pipe was 12.5 meters.
A month after the end of the tests of the first engine, the more powerful DM-2 in the wind tunnel "held out" for two hours. Its stable performance allowed for official testing. They took place on October 22nd. Only after such a thorough examination does Merkulov decide that it is possible to install the engines on the plane. Director Voronin allocated an I-15bis fighter to Merkulov for testing ramjet engines.
Flight tests began in early December. On the eve of the first flight, Voronin sent the Deputy Chief Engineer Yu. N. Karpov to consult A. A. Mikulin - one of the leaders of the Soviet aircraft engine building. Mikulin said: “Your plane will explode and burn. You will be happy if the pilot descends on an unburned parachute. After that Voronin called the factory test pilot P. E. Loginov and acquainted him with the opinion of a well-known engine builder. Loginov had the right to refuse, and no one would have condemned him for this. “I believe in these motors and am ready to fly,” he said.
The first flight was unsuccessful. The engines did not start. The flow of air in flight was three times stronger than expected, and the flames were blown away. Besides, it was a fierce winter. It was very difficult to work off the ignition in a frosty air stream. Merkulov improves ignition. New tests, improvements.
Success came on December 13, 1939. From that day on, the engines worked steadily. And on January 25, 1940, official flight tests took place. A solid commission gathered: representatives of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry, headed by Deputy People's Commissar P. A. Voronin, the entire management of the plant, together with the director P. V. Dementyev (future minister of the aviation industry of the USSR), representatives of the party committee, factory committee.
Loginov on the I-15bis fighter made several circles over the airfield. Repeatedly started and switched off ramjet engines, increasing and decreasing their thrust. With mixed feelings of curiosity and apprehension, the members of the commission watched as tight fiery jets burst from the jet engines as the thrust increased. At maximum thrust, they even exceeded the length of the fuselage. The plane, as if nothing had happened, made turns, and the pilot, apparently, calmly controlled it.
In the act of the commission, drawn up in confirmation of this significant event, it was said: “by the work of the Aviakhim plant, an aircraft air-rocket engine has been created, which stably operates on an aircraft and increases flight speed. Operational safety, fire resistance and durability of the engine have been verified by long-term tests."
Only two and a half years later, the first foreign direct-flow engines were tested in Germany by Professor E. Senger on a Dornier plane. So, thanks to the work of Merkulov, our country has won priority in the development of ramjet engines.
In 1940, Merkulov created a more powerful ramjet engine DM-4 with a diameter of five hundred millimeters. The I-153 "Chaika" fighter with these additional engines flew faster by an average of forty kilometers per hour.
Successful flight tests of jet engines attracted the attention of aviation developers. In three design teams L. P. Kurbaly - A. A. Borovkova, I. F. Florov and A. Ya. Shcherbakov began to design piston aircraft, which provided for the installation of a ramjet engine at the same time. They were not conceived as suspended, but fit into the structure, making up an integral part of the wing or fuselage. For these aircraft, Merkulov makes calculations for ramjet engines.
At this time, Shcherbakov (head of the department of special designs of the Aviakhim plant), who successfully carried out work on high-altitude towing of gliders in the stratosphere using the so-called "air train", and also created the country's first pressurized cabins, suggested Merkulov to unite and seek to obtain the plant. Shcherbakov planned to deal with high-speed fighters with pressurized cabins, Merkulov - ramjet engines for them.
In March 1941, the country's leadership approved the decision to create such a plant. Shcherbakov was appointed chief designer, Merkulov - his deputy. But the plant was never opened - the war broke out. Merkulov receives the task to create ramjet engines for the A. S. Yakovleva - Yak-7. He is appointed as the head of a small SKB.
I had to work in difficult conditions. Evacuation. Novosibirsk, then Tashkent. There is disorder everywhere. In the spring of 1942, when the Germans were driven back, he returned to Moscow. There was no production base. Industry switched to meeting the needs of the front. Tests and fine-tuning of the new DM-4s ramjet engine with a diameter of five hundred millimeters advanced slowly.
Finally, the Yak-7 was equipped with additional motors. Merkulov intended to conduct large-scale research. In one of the flights with ramjet engines, an increase in speed was obtained - more than fifty kilometers per hour. The management of the flight test station decided to tune the airplane's speed indicator for more accurate measurements. But when flying on a measuring base (without ramjet engines), a malfunction occurs in the fighter, and test pilot S. N. Anokhin was forced to put him “on his belly” on a plowed potato field. As a result, the car was wrecked, and the hard work of the engine crew was destroyed.
The new fighter was not allocated to Merkulov. The tests, citing a small increase in speed, which were given by ramjet engines, a decrease in speed with the ramjet off, as well as the high consumption of gasoline, the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry decided to stop.
At the end of 1945, another interesting proposal by I. A. Merkulova is the first afterburner. Lavochkin was then creating the country's first swept-wing aircraft, the La-160. But it turned out to be somewhat heavy for the captured YuMO-004 turbojet engine, and with the forced engine proposed by I. A. Merkulov, he took off successfully.
Merkulov had a tense life full of dramatic events, when not all of his ideas were accepted and supported. So, in the mid-fifties, being the head of the CIAM ramjet engine department, Merkulov theoretically develops a new type of power plant, working according to a completely unusual thermodynamic cycle - with a variable mass of a working fluid and variable properties of a gas. But this idea has not yet found its embodiment.
In the early sixties, at the Institute of Engines of the Academy of Sciences, Merkulov finished work on another interesting type of engines. It was a gas turbine jet engine. But, like last time, it was not possible to build it.
At the end of 1960, Merkulov received an inventor's certificate for an ion engine. Then he took part in the preparation and testing of a similar engine on the Meteor-18 satellite.
Since the mid-seventies, as soon as the VNIIPItransprogress institute was organized to develop non-traditional modes of transport, Merkulov is a leading designer there. He is involved in the creation of a number of projects for ultra-high-speed ground transportation systems. Makes significant improvements to their turbojet engines.
Until the very last days of his life I. A. Merkulov was full of creative ideas. In his head, new projects were constantly born, up to hypersonic aircraft. But not all of the designer's ideas were realized.
