After the end of the First World War and a massive reduction in the arsenals of the air armies of the victorious countries, these machines were left out of work. Naturally, the question arose about their further use for the delivery of goods and passengers. There were projects for the adaptation and alteration of heavy combat vehicles for civilian purposes. From the very beginning of this process, two paths were outlined. The first way was to create transport vehicles through minimal alterations of basic combat vehicles - dismantling bomber and defensive small arms systems from an aircraft, adapting the freed up internal fuselage volumes for equipment for transporting goods or people.
This path gave the maximum cost savings in the alteration of base aircraft, but did not allow to get in operation a sufficiently economically viable transport aircraft due to the limited size, used fuselage volumes. The second way consisted in a radical alteration of the basic structure of the bomber aircraft by designing a new fuselage with increased dimensions and more suitable for the delivery of goods and passengers. At the same time, the wing design, the power plant and the composition of the aerobatic equipment remained practically unchanged.
In both cases, a great advantage was the possibility of using trained combat aviation crews, practically without retraining, as well as the use of the technical groundwork of the aviation industry for basic military aircraft for the operation and improvement of aircraft, but in a new, civilian capacity.
All this allowed, to a certain extent, at the first stage after the end of the war, to saturate the market of emerging aviation services with passenger aircraft, until the moment when more technically and economically advanced passenger aircraft appeared, originally designed for civilian purposes.
It should be noted that these two areas of use of bomber aircraft have been preserved throughout the past century and were especially pronounced after the end of the next world massacre, as well as in countries with a high militarization of the aviation industry, in particular, in the USSR, where the creation of civil aviation aircraft for many years was a matter of the second order.
The most striking tendency of "secondary" in the field of creating aircraft for the Civil Air Fleet can be traced in the activities of Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev. The first type of military aircraft developed by his design bureau, adapted for civilian purposes, was the light reconnaissance bomber R-3 (ANT-3). Development of this modification, later designated PS-3, began in early March 1928. It was then that TsAGI came out with a proposal to use serial P-3s for transporting mail after the necessary structural alterations of the observer's cabin.
The proposal was accepted, and the first "demilitarized" aircraft R-3 M-5 (PS-3) was sent in 1929 for operation on the Moscow-Irkutsk postal line. In total, three dozen P-3 reconnaissance aircraft were converted, which were operated in the Civil Air Fleet system until 1933. In the second half of the 30s, as the Air Force was decommissioned, disarmed twin-engine Tupolev heavy bombers TB-1, which received the designation G-1 in the Civil Air Fleet, began to arrive in the Civil Air Fleet as transport aircraft.
As a transport aircraft, the machines showed miracles of longevity, working mainly on the northern routes, flying off the entire Great Patriotic War, flying both in the rear and in the front line. The last G-1 worked in the north until 1948. Similarly, the four-engine TB-3 converted into "trucks" were used as a "truck" within the Civil Air Fleet units, and the G-2 in the Civil Air Fleet. These vehicles were heavily loaded during the war years for the transfer of emergency national economic and defense cargo across the country.
In the 1930s, Aeroflot began receiving PS-7 and MP-6 aircraft, which were civilian versions of the R-6 (ANT-7) multipurpose military aircraft. The aircraft in land and float versions was used for a long time in the eastern and arctic regions of the country.
High-speed postal and cargo aircraft PS-40 and PS-41, converted from serial high-speed bombers SB (ANT-40), became widespread at the very end of the 30s and during the war in Soviet civil aviation.
In 1936, the OKB was designing a passenger version of the MDR-4 (ANT-27). In August 1935, the OKB, commissioned by the SUAI, began designing a passenger version of the MTB-2 (ANT-44) naval heavy bomber, designed to carry more than one and a half tons of payload. It included 10-15 passengers with luggage and more than half a ton of cargo and mail. All these projects of civil flying boats did not leave the stage of initial technical studies and technical proposals. Similar work was carried out on the MK-1 (ANT-22) project.
In the 1920s and 1930s, in addition to resolving the issues of "demilitarization" of serial military aircraft, the Design Bureau created several all-metal passenger aircraft, in the design of which the units and technologies of the Tupolev combat vehicles mastered in the series were widely used. In 1929, the three-engine nine-seater passenger ANT-9 performed its first flight, in the wing structure of which the R-6 consoles were used. It was built in a fairly large series for its time and was in operation for a long time (the last car flew until 1946).
Later, in the course of modernization, they switched to a twin-engine scheme of the aircraft, the power plant of which was entirely taken from the R-6. In total, about 75 machines of the ANT-9 type were manufactured, mainly twin-engine versions were in operation. During the construction of the first domestic multi-seat five-engine passenger aircraft ANT-14 (32-36 passengers), used structural elements and TB-3 units. In addition, at the end of the 20s, the Tupolevites carried out preliminary work on the project of the passenger ANT-19 based on the TB-1 with a new enlarged fuselage and passenger compartment.
In 1932, TsAGI decided on the creation and launch into mass production of a passenger version of the heavy six-engine bomber TB-4 (ANT-16). Later, the units of the experimental "backup" TB-4 were used to build the propaganda ANT-20 "Maxim Gorky", designed to carry 72 passengers. Its development was ANT-20bis (PS-124). It became the first aircraft of a series of these gigantic machines intended to carry 60 people. PS-124 was sent into operation at the Civil Air Fleet and until 1942 worked on the lines of Aeroflot.
The 30s were marked by a significant improvement in aircraft performance data due to more advanced aerodynamic, layout and technological solutions. These include, first of all, the final transition to a cantilever monoplane with a smooth skin with retractable landing gear, improvement of specific and absolute parameters of engines, improvement of onboard equipment.
The creation of the SB high-speed bomber served in many respects as a constructive and technological basis for the passenger PS-35 (ANT-35), which made its first flight in 1936 and was launched in a small series. At the end of the 30s and during the war years, the PS-35 in the version for the carriage of 10 passengers was successfully operated on domestic airlines.
Work on the T-1 (ANT-41) torpedo bomber was also stimulated by the design of the high-speed twin-engine passenger ANT-50. Successful work on the heavy TB-7 (ANT-42) project in the second half of the 1930s made it possible to start designing the first Soviet airliner, ANT-53, a four-engine aircraft with a passenger pressurized cabin. Elements from TB-7 were to be used in its design.
The concept of the ANT-53 project was in many respects identical to the American Boeing 307 four-engine passenger aircraft, built on the basis of the B-17 bomber design solutions. Unfortunately, the ANT-50 and ANT-53 projects were not manufactured.
When designing the TB-7, the developers were faced with the task of creating a civilian aircraft on the basis of the bomber mastered in the series in the future. In the passenger version, the ANT-42 was designed to carry approximately three to four dozen passengers (in any case, in the landing version it was supposed to transport 50 paratroopers). For the implementation of the construction of a passenger vehicle in a mixed series (bomber + passenger aircraft), the maximum unification of the fuselage was assumed, which made it possible to relatively painless transition during serial construction from one version to another. With these requirements in mind, the first two prototypes were produced. When introduced into a series, unification for a passenger modification is partially abandoned. The central part of the fuselage is compressed midships, its shape is leveled for the sake of aerodynamics, the side windows are significantly reduced, the glazing area could now only satisfy the unpretentious, by definition, Red Army paratroopers, and not passengers, especially special flights.
In 1942, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union V. M. Molotov on a serial TB-7 bomber made a special flight to Washington with transit landings in Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Canada, and then back to Moscow via New Faunland, Greenland, Iceland and Scotland.
This flight to a certain extent intensified interest in the creation of a passenger aircraft for special flights based on the Pe-8 and other serial bombers. The People's Commissar of the Aviation Industry sets the Design Bureau of I. Nezval the task of re-equipping several Pe-8 bombers for long-distance flights of a small number of passengers, while preserving the entire composition of defensive weapons (the experience of the Molotov plane's flight over territories occupied or controlled by the enemy's air force was taken into account).
The task was to design and re-equip four Pe-8s with ACh-ZOB diesel engines into a modification for special transportation for 14 passengers, of which three are sleeping. The OKB quickly prepared the necessary design documentation for this. Four aircraft of the 12th final series of Pe-8 were subject to re-equipment. Later, the machine was assigned the code Pe-80N.
The main differences from the serial bomber were in the following structural elements. The airframe of the aircraft corresponded to the serial Pe-8. In the fuselage, in the center section compartment between the first and second spars, a cabin for 2-3 berths and one passenger cabin for 12 seats was equipped. The aircraft was equipped with a vertical tail of a larger area, with a developed fork. The engines of the serial ASh-82 aircraft were replaced by ACh-ZOB diesel engines with a capacity of up to 1500 hp. Propellers of a new type were installed with a vane position of the blades and electro-hydraulic control of the transfer of the propellers to this position. The system of heating and ventilation of passenger cabins, anti-icers of the "Goodrich" type on the wing and tail unit were installed. There was oxygen equipment for passengers of the "Pulmonary Automatic" system. The upper fuselage gun mount "TAT" was filmed.
Tests of the converted aircraft began in the winter of 1945. Flight tests were carried out by the crew of the serial plant number 22, headed by V. Govorov. In total, during the period of factory tests, 6 flights were performed, in which the maneuverability and controllability of the aircraft, the operation of the anti-icing system, heating and ventilation of the passenger cabin were tested, weapons were fired, new propellers were tested, the speeds and climb rates were determined at various engine operating modes in altitude, ceiling, costs fuel at altitude.
During tests with a take-off weight of 30,000 kg and an altitude of 6000 m, a maximum speed of 421 km / h was reached, the rate of climb to 4000 m was within 5, 1-4, 7 m / s. Fuel consumption at an altitude of 4 km and a speed of 300-330 km / h is in the range of 1.5-1.6 kg / km.. Tests of the aircraft ended at the end of February 1945. The conclusion on the tests, taking into account some comments on the engines and the passenger compartment, was generally positive. It pointed out the advantages of diesel engines in comparison with gasoline engines in operation, noted an increase in the flight range in comparison with the ASh-82 engines.
In the conclusion, it was said that the comfortable equipment of the passenger cabin, the availability of berths enable passengers to calmly endure long flights with rest on the way.
While the tests were going on, the re-equipment of the Pe-80N "backup" was also completed. When working on it, the test results of the first machine were taken into account. At the end of the winter of 1945, "understudy" flights began. However, during operation, these aircraft were not used for their intended purpose.
In addition to work on the Pe-80N, in 1945, the Nezval Design Bureau began developing a 50-seat passenger aircraft on the basis of the Pe-8 (the "E" aircraft). The aircraft was designed for ASh-82FN engines, in the first half of 1945 the project was presented, general views, plazas and working drawings for the tail unit and landing gear were worked out. The overall readiness of design work by mid-1945 on the project was 20%.
In July 1945, after the transfer of the Nezval Design Bureau to the B-4 (Tu-4) theme, all work on the topic was discontinued, simultaneously with the termination of work on the promising long-range heavy bomber of the Design Bureau.
At the end of 1943, the Tupolevites began work on a new long-range high-speed bomber, which received the code "64". Almost simultaneously with the work on the bomber, the OKB began work on its passenger version - "66". Both bomber and passenger projects were developed taking into account the maximum design unification. Changes of the bomber version in the serial construction to the passenger one were carried out by the following transformations of the "sixty-four" design: the central part of the fuselage was changed; the center section dropped down half a meter; above the wing in the fuselage, there was a free passage and an area for two bathrooms; the place of the bomb compartments was sealed, forming a common passenger compartment. Such alterations were envisaged in the design of the base bomber, which ensured the simultaneous serial production of both variants or the rapid conversion of one into the other. The possibility of converting the passenger version into a transport (in case of military need), landing and ambulance was also taken into account. It was possible to install equipment to turn the vehicle into a towing vehicle for large landing gliders. All of these options could be equipped with defensive weapons.
The overall dimensions of the "sixty-sixth" coincided with those of the "64" bomber. The calculated flight characteristics with the AM-43TK-300B engines of the 66 aircraft were close to those of the 64 bomber project. But work on "66" was curtailed simultaneously with the development of the basic version.
In addition to this project, in 1945 the engineer of the OKB N. V. Kirsanov (in the future the chief designer of Tu-142 and Tu-95MS) proposed a project for converting an experienced long-range bomber "62" (Tu-2D) into a passenger one for special transportation, designed for 15-20 people.
In the first half of 1946, Tupolev began designing a four-engine passenger aircraft with a pressurized cabin on the basis of the B-4 bomber, which would meet the highest world requirements for mainline liners.
This machine received the code "70" by the design bureau. By the spring of 1946, the production of a mock-up of a new aircraft began. In order to speed up the manufacture of the first prototype, the aggregates of two B-29 bombers were used. From them they took the wing consoles, engine nacelles, landing gear, tail units and equipment. The pressurized and center section was developed anew (the aircraft became a low-wing aircraft). On the "70", in comparison with the B-4, a more rational stepped form of the cockpit was used.
According to the project, the "seventy" was a passenger airliner intended for domestic long-distance and international flights, including transoceanic ones. The construction was planned in 3 versions: special government; mixed - for 40-48 seats; linear - 72 seats.
In the fall of 1946, the aircraft was built and submitted for testing. On the fourth test flight, the airliner made an emergency landing and was damaged. In flight, one engine collapsed, causing a fire. Test pilot Opadchiy saved the prototype, managing to land the car with the landing gear retracted.
A detailed investigation of the incident revealed a serious design defect in the American version of the turbocharger control system used. By the way, it was this design defect that caused the death of the first prototype of the B-29 during tests in the United States. The Americans could not find this defect. In December 1947, state tests were completed.
In June 1948, a decree was issued to build a series of 20 Tu-70 aircraft. However, the passenger aircraft was not put into production. The reason was the loading of serial factories with the release of the B-4 bomber. And most importantly, the passenger traffic on the Soviet air lines of that time did not require such a spacious airliner. Aeroflot had enough room for the Li-2 and Il-12.
The creation in the country in the early 1950s of heavy long-range bombers equipped with turbojet and turboprop power plants made it possible to start developing the first Soviet jet passenger aircraft.
When creating these first-borns, the country's leading design bureaus followed different paths: S. V. Ilyushin relied on the design of a completely new aircraft, which did not have a military prototype at its core, believing that this was the only way to get a cost-effective aircraft. This direction led to the creation of a successful medium-haul IL-18 with a theater of operations.
OKB O. K. Antonova was engaged in the design on the basis of a common unified structural base of two aircraft - the military transport An-12 and the passenger An-10, which had a large number of common structural units and assemblies.
Design Bureau A. N. Tupolev went the usual way. Using the experience of creation and structural elements of the Tu-16 aircraft, the Tupolevs quickly created the first Soviet jet aircraft Tu-104, the introduction of which into operation caused a real revolution. Then, on the basis of the Tu-95 strategic bomber, the Tu-114 was created - the first domestic intercontinental passenger aircraft.
Realizing the complexity of developing a new passenger jet engine "from scratch", A. N. Tupolev in 1953 turned to the government with a proposal to create the first Soviet airliner with a turbojet engine on the basis of the Tu-16 bomber. According to the OKB estimates, it was necessary to raise the resource of the jet aircraft to 25,000 flight hours (piston ones had 10,000 hours) in order to increase the economy; increase the payload by creating cars for 60-100 passenger seats; increase the cruising speed by increasing the cruising speed to 760-850 km / h.
The main economic effect, according to Tupolev, was to provide an evolutionary path for creating a civilian aircraft based on the Tu-16 serial bomber, this was the main focus of the report. The experience of creating and operating a military aircraft was fully used, which made it possible to count on the high reliability and safety of operation required for a passenger aircraft.
Reduced costs for implementation in a series, which reduced the cost and increased its economic characteristics; the problems of training pilots and ground personnel were significantly facilitated by attracting specialists trained in the Air Force.
Changes to Tu-104 from Tu-16 were made by replacing the fuselage with a new one, increased by 0.6 m in diameter with a pressurized cabin from nose to tail. The scheme of the aircraft was changing: instead of the midplane, it became a low-wing, therefore, the center section with engine nacelles was also redesigned. Detachable wing consoles, landing gear, main landing gear nacelles and tail assembly were used from the bomber.
At the end of the summer of 1954, the preliminary design of the Tu-104 was ready. At the same time, detailed design and construction of an experimental vehicle were carried out. In June 1955, flight tests of a prototype began.
Simultaneously with the factory tests, preparations were underway for the launch of the Tu-104 into series. And just a year after the government decree, the first production car was produced.
On September 15, 1956, the Tu-104 performed its first regular flight from Moscow to Irkutsk. International flights to Prague opened on October 12. The active operation of the machine began, marking a new era not only in domestic passenger aviation, but also influencing the development of world civil aviation.
In the Tu-104 series it was modified many times. The AM-3 engines replaced the more economical RD-3, RD-ZM and RD-ZM-500. Versions with an increased number of passenger seats were prepared. All kinds of equipment were continuously updated. About twenty modifications of the Tu-104 are known. From 1957 to the 1960s, 26 world records for speed and payload were set on its various modifications, more than on any other jet passenger aircraft in the world.
Mass operation of the Tu-104 continued until the end of 1979. But for a long time it was exploited in the interests of civilian and military organizations. For 23 years, Tu-104 aircraft carried about 100 million people, having spent 2 million flight hours in the air and made 600 thousand flights. Tu-104 prepared the domestic Civil Air Fleet for the operation of next generation jet airliners.
The launch of the intercontinental Tu-95 into a series made it possible for the OKB to start developing a passenger Tu-114 on its basis. By the decision of the chief designer, subsequently all passenger aircraft of the OKB A. N. Tupolev, had to be assigned a code ending in "four". Work on the car started in the spring of 1955. Similar to the work on the Tu-104, during the transition from the Tu-95 to the "one hundred and fourteenth" the aircraft layout changed, it became a low-wing aircraft, the center section device was changed, the fuselage with a passenger pressurized cabin was developed anew. The wing planes, the main landing gear, the tail unit, the power plant, and many elements of the equipment remained the same.
By the summer of 1957, a prototype of the Tu-114 "Russia" was manufactured and handed over for testing. A year later, the first serial Tu-114 was produced. Until March 1961, the new car was undergoing operational tests. In April, the first flight Moscow - Khabarovsk was performed on it, the Tu-114 became the flagship of our civilian fleet for many years.
In 1959, the production of a new airliner began at Aviation Plant No. 18. In total, 31 production vehicles were built until 1965. The aircraft was produced in two modifications - for 172 and 200 seats.
Up to ten different modifications of the Tu-114 are known. This airliner was one of the most economical aircraft used on long haul routes. The fuel consumption was only 34 g / pass-km. Over the 15-year period of operation, the "hundred and fourteenth" have performed about 50 thousand flights and delivered more than 6 million passengers. The airliner has established itself as an unusually reliable aircraft. For all the years of flights, there was the only disaster that occurred during takeoff at Sheremetyevo airport in 1966. But it was also caused by a violation of the operating rules.
Tu-114 marked the beginning of the active development of ultra-long international routes. In 1959, on a prototype, N. S. Khrushchev in the USA. In the summer of 1962, a technical flight was made to Havana with a transit landing at Conakry, later regular flights to Cuba were carried out across the North Atlantic with a transit landing near Murmansk. In 1966, flights began to Tokyo, and in October to Montreal.
In 1961-1962 on Tu-114 the crews of I. Sukhomlin and A. Yakimov set 32 world records for range, speed and altitude.
At the very beginning of the development of the Tu-114, the OKB received a task to convert two Tu-95 bombers into special-purpose passenger vehicles. In the OKB, the project received the code "116" or the official - Tu-116, in open sources the plane was called Tu-114D ("D" - diplomatic).
In the first half of the 50s, the Tupolev Design Bureau began designing heavy jet combat aircraft of a new generation, capable of developing supersonic speeds. The result was the creation and transfer into series at the end of the 50s of the long-range supersonic bomber Tu-22 and the interceptor Tu-128, as well as the development of promising projects of supersonic long-range and intercontinental strike aircraft “106”, “108”, “109” and “135 . These work on combat aircraft became the basis for the design bureau for finding optimal ways and approaches to create the future Tu-144, the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft.
The work took place according to the scheme familiar to Tupolev: the project of a combat vehicle was taken as a basis and a passenger version was developed on its basis. These works received the code "134" (Tu-134). At the initial stage, the development was carried out on the basis of the project of the bomber "105A" (Tu-22), and then the study on the aircraft "106" was taken as the basic model.
In particular, one of the variants of the project "106" was considered, the aircraft "106A" with engines in wing nacelles, and on its basis the department prepared projects of the machine "134" with a turbojet engine NK-6 or with VD-19R2. In 1962, at the suggestion of the MAP, the OKB carried out preliminary work on a supersonic passenger aircraft developed on the basis of the project of the intercontinental single-mode supersonic Tu-135, on which the OKB had been working since 1958. The passenger Tu-135P was planned to be equipped with four NK-135 engines (the civilian version of the military NK-6) and was intended for flights at a speed of M = 2 at a range of 6000-6500 km.
Tu-135P became one of the preliminary projects under the program for creating the future Tu-144, the design of which was officially assigned by the Design Bureau a year later, in 1963.
Since 1962, the Ilyushin Design Bureau began work on a new long-range Il-62, which later replaced the Tu-114 in service. In 1963, the Tupolev Design Bureau began designing a medium-haul passenger Tu-154 aircraft of a new generation, the first OKB passenger aircraft, which did not have a military prototype at its core. In 1968, the Tu-154 began to undergo tests, and from the beginning of the 70s it entered service, gradually displacing the first-generation Tu-104 and Il-18 jet passenger aircraft from the GVF fleet.
All subsequent promising programs of the OKB for passenger aircraft were also based on original projects that did not have military prototypes.
However, in the 90s, in the conditions of well-known shifts in the economic life of the new Russia, A. A. N. Tupolev stubbornly searched for new ways of developing its aviation programs. A sharp reduction in the military sector of orders for new aviation equipment has increased the interest of the management and developers in non-traditional samples of civil aviation equipment for the OKB, as well as in conversion programs.
Hence the appearance in the 90s of projects of several administrative aircraft, which led to the creation of the regional Tu-324. The development of the base Tu-204 family towards the creation of a whole range of vehicles of various classes and purposes, the emergence of projects for long-haul passenger aircraft of large and extra-large passenger capacity, and cargo aircraft of various classes.
In the field of conversion programs, in the early 90s, with the participation of the OKB, work was carried out to convert the serial anti-submarine Tu-142M and Tu-142MZ into economical transport vehicles for transporting goods and fuel. For civilian use (in particular, for environmental monitoring), the OKB proposes to use the Reis-D unmanned reconnaissance complex (Tu-243). As the first stage for the launch of commercial satellites, the OKB worked on an aircraft missile system based on the Tu-160 multi-mode missile carrier.
At the end of the 90s, the chief designer on the topic of supersonic passenger aircraft A. L. Pukhov, together with A. A. Pukhov presented the company's management with a technical project for converting a multi-mode serial missile carrier Tu-22MZ into an administrative passenger Tu-344. In the course of considering the possibility of creating such a modification, several transformations of the basic design of the Tu-22MZ were considered. In option "A" it was proposed to place 10 passengers in the cabin at the place of the aircraft's cargo compartment. In variant "B" it was a question of a deeper revision of the basic structure with alteration of the fuselage in the center section area, taking into account the accommodation of up to 24-30 passengers. In option "C" it is proposed to accommodate up to 12 passengers behind the cockpit.
Compared with the base model Tu-22MZ, the fuel reserve is increased and the design of the center section-fuselage section is being finalized. The subsonic flight range of the Tu-344 was planned to be up to 7700 km. On this, work on the transformation of military versions of aircraft into civilian vehicles at the Tupolev Design Bureau ended.
