There is a dispute over the primacy in creating an aircraft with a disc-shaped fairing
In the Russian military-technical literature devoted to long-range radar detection and control aircraft (AWACS), it is widely accepted that the priority in using the structural layout scheme of an AWACS aircraft with the placement of the antenna of the main radar station (radar) of a specialized radio engineering complex (RTK) in a characteristic dorsal disk-shaped rotating fairing belongs to domestic specialists.
It is believed that for the first time such a scheme was used on a Soviet Tu-126 aircraft. And only then, allegedly being borrowed, was embodied in the American aviation complex of a similar purpose E-3 AWACS (WACS is an abbreviation of Airborne Warning And Control System, "early warning (or detection) and air–based control system").
At the same time, the ship's aircraft of a similar purpose W2F-1 - the future carrier-based AWACS aircraft of the type E-2A "Hawkeye" (Hawkeye) – for some reason is generally forgotten.
However, if we discard all sorts of fantastic versions, then on the basis of purely documentary and reliable data, we can conduct a completely objective analysis and make the following assumptions.
UNITY OF VIEWS
Firstly, it is quite reasonable to assume that the idea to use the scheme of the AWACS aircraft with the location of the antenna of the main radar of a specialized RTK motionless in a rotating disc-shaped fairing could arise independently from both Soviet and American designers. This has already happened in the history of armaments, and more than once.
This is explained by the fact that the development of science and technology as a whole proceeds in accordance with the same laws (physics and other sciences).
However, there is a certain "but" here. Here's the thing.
In the available domestic sources on this topic, the author could not find a more or less accurate date of the proposal by Soviet specialists to place the antenna of the main radar of the specialized RTK of the first domestic aircraft of this class in a rotating fuselage fairing. Those experts in the field of aviation technology and aviation history, with whom the author communicated personally or with the help of third parties (intermediaries), could not answer this question either.
At the moment, it is reliably known and documented that the task of creating a Tu-126 long-range radar detection aircraft was first set by OKB-156 according to the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 608-293 of July 4, 1958 and the order of the State Committee for Aviation Technology No. 211 of July 17, 1958. And the technical appearance, the so-called face of the new aircraft, which provided for the above-mentioned placement of the antenna of the main radar complex "Liana", was approved on January 30, 1960. This, in particular, is described in the fundamental work of Alexander Zatuchny, Vladimir Rigmant and Pavel Sineoky "Turboprop aircraft of the Tu-95/Tu-114/Tu-142/Tu-95MS family", published in the Moscow publishing house "Polygon-press" in 2017.
However, in the foreign open press, reports about such a design and layout scheme, successfully applied by American aircraft designers on an aircraft of a similar purpose, appeared at least in August 1956 (in more detail – a little below). And such publications in the USSR in the interests of domestic military, scientific and industrial departments and organizations were written out and carefully studied. Although they were practically inaccessible to the ordinary man in the street.
It seems that it is too early to put an end to this issue, rather an ellipsis or even a question mark will do here. This topic requires a separate very painstaking and impartial research, including a thorough study of the archives and official correspondence of the organizations of the Soviet defense industry of that time period.
However, regardless of who was the first to put forward the idea, the first to implement it in practice, "in hardware" – that is, the aircraft of this class was built according to such a design and layout scheme - nevertheless, the specialists of our probable enemy. Moreover, they did it in two versions at once – land-based and sea-based (ship-based) aircraft. The customer both there and there, interestingly, was the US Navy.
PRACTICAL DEBUT
In the first case, we are talking about an experimental machine built on the basis of the airframe of the AWACS WV-2 (EC-121K; factory number 126512), which initially received the designation WV-2E, and since November 1962 was renamed EC-121L. This aircraft was built in order to test a new radar with an increased detection range, the antenna of which was placed in a rotating disk-shaped fairing. The aircraft made its first flight on August 8, 1956.
In the work of Dominic Breffor "Lockheed Constellation: from Excalibur to Starliner. Civilian and Military Variants. Histoire & Collections", dedicated to the history of civil and military variants of the Lockheed Constellation family of aircraft, indicates that at that time an experimental AN/APS-82 long-range detection radar was installed on the machine. The antenna of the latter, which had a diameter of 17 feet 6 inches (5.33 m), was placed in a disc-shaped fairing, the rotation of which was provided by a hydraulic drive from Vickers. Moreover, as indicated in the book, the disc-shaped fairing was installed on the AN/APS-45 radar fairing, which is standard for AWACS aircraft of the WV-2 type. The latter was at that time in its regular place, although the ventral radar and its fairing were removed.
The test results were generally positive: the large disc-shaped fairing did not have much effect on the aerobatic characteristics of the aircraft, but the range of detection of aerial targets compared to the AN/APS-45 radar increased almost threefold. However, this work has not received further development – as the author points out, primarily for financial reasons. The aircraft itself was transferred to the US Navy, after which it was used as a flying laboratory.
After completing all research work in the interests of the US Navy, this machine was sent for storage on June 5, 1962 to the Naval Air Base Litchfield Park, Arizona. It was here that, after World War II and up to 1968, decommissioned aircraft of the US Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard aviation were collected for storage.
In 1968, it was decided to "assemble" all decommissioned aircraft of all types and branches of the US Armed Forces at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. And the Litchfield Park base was closed, creating an airport in its place, which today is called Phoenix Goodyear. However, the unique machine did not even live to see this day: according to available data, it was disposed of on February 18, 1965.
HYBRID OF AN AIRPLANE WITH A SAUCER
The work on the WV-2E aircraft was widely covered in the foreign press. In particular, the Flight and Aircraft Engineer magazine already in No. 2482 of August 17, 1956, published information about the tests of the new aircraft. In a note entitled "Curious Constellation", which can be translated as "Unusual (curious) "Constellation", it was told that a new aircraft is being tested in Burbank, California. It was created by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation on the basis of a WV-2 type AWACS aircraft and looks like "a flying saucer caught the plane." Further, with reference to the developer company, it was indicated that inside the disc-shaped fairing with a diameter of more than 30 feet (9.14 m) there is a "radar antenna measuring the range".
The note also reported that the first tests - high-speed taxiing - should provide information on the aerodynamic characteristics of the new fairing and show whether such a design affects the stabilization of the aircraft and its controllability. Then the car should be sent by road to Edwards Air Force Base, California, for flight tests with a full set of its special equipment. There was also a photo of the "miracle plane", on which the disc-shaped fairing mounted on the fuselage was clearly visible.
It contains information about the WV-2E aircraft and in the issues of the named magazine for January 18, 1957 and June 20, 1958. And this time - in reviews of reconnaissance aircraft and radar detection and control aircraft from around the world.
In turn, in the Michigan Technic magazine No. 6 for March 1958, the article "DEW Line Extended" indicated that on January 24, 1958, flight tests of the WV-2E aircraft began, on which a more advanced and "most powerful air-based radar" of the AN/APS-70 type was installed.
This machine is also mentioned on the pages of the American aerospace weekly Aviation Week Including Space Technology (today – Aviation Week and Space Technology). And in the issue of the same publication dated September 22, 1958 (Vol. 69, p. 64), the plane with the "plate that captured it" is completely presented in the advertisement of the manufacturer of flame and overheating sensors by Fenwal.
In the case of a ship-based AWACS aircraft, the situation was as follows.
THE "TRACER" IS REPLACED BY THE "HAWKEYE"
The tactical and technical requirements for the ship-based AWACS aircraft, which was to gradually replace the E-1B Tracer aircraft of a similar purpose in the aircraft carrier aviation of the American Fleet, were formulated by the customer – the US Navy – back in 1956.
In March of the following year, the American admirals opted for the Grumman project. On October 21, 1960, the developer took off the first flight prototype, which was not equipped with a radio complex and was used to study the aerodynamic characteristics of the machine. And on April 19, 1961, the first flight was made by an aircraft already fully equipped with all the necessary systems.
And although the first serial "Hawkeye" entered service with the US Navy only in January 1964, the idea was implemented earlier by the Americans "in hardware". And the first domestic AWACS Tu-126 aircraft was adopted a year later than its overseas "vis-a-vis".
Of particular note is the fact that, from a chronological point of view, the Hokai was actually the first aircraft in the history of world aviation, which was originally created as an AWACS aircraft. That is, an aircraft with the capabilities of both long-range radar detection of air targets and transmitting data on them to its command posts (tasks of a long-range radar patrol), and targeting these targets of its aircraft.
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Summing up our military-technical investigation, it should be emphasized once again: it is too early to finally put an end to the issue of priority in the formation of the idea of placing the antenna of the main radar of a specialized RTK in a characteristic dorsal disk-shaped rotating fairing.
But in order to do this, it is necessary to fully determine, on the basis of documented facts, the sequence of actions of domestic aircraft designers, the result of which was the choice of the layout of the radar antenna of the main RTK, which was used on the Tu-126. Therefore, it seems that Russian aviation historians still have a chance for a sensation.
Vladimir Shcherbakov
Deputy Executive Editor of HBO
Vladimir Leonidovich Shcherbakov is a military expert, journalist, and historian.
