Dmitry Khazanov — about the pride and bitterness of the history of the T-4 strike and reconnaissance bomber, hundreds of samples of airplanes, helicopters, aircraft engines and other aviation products are collected at the Central Air Force Museum in Monino, near Moscow.
The works of Pavel Sukhoi, one of the founders of Soviet jet and supersonic aviation, are also quite fully represented — 20 cars produced under his leadership are on display. However, one of the planes attracts special attention of both ordinary people and experts visiting the museum. We are talking about the T-4 strike and reconnaissance bomber, otherwise called "product 100". The very appearance of the car with the tail number 101 indicates that it has very high flight characteristics: made according to the "tailless" scheme with a triangular wing with a thin leading edge, a front horizontal tail, an elegant fuselage.
The T-4 prototype first took to the air on August 22, 1972. In the tandem cockpit were the leading test pilot of the Sukhoi Design Bureau Vladimir Ilyushin and navigator Nikolai Alferov, the flight lasted 40 minutes.
By the end of 1973, the prototype aircraft made nine flights, reaching in one of them a speed of mach 1.36 (1,445 km / h) at an altitude of 12 thousand meters.
It seemed that the car was waiting for a bright future and a long service. However, it turned out differently — it did not go further than the prototypes, and the departure on January 22, 1974 was the tenth and last for the car.
The history of this aircraft causes me both pride and bitterness: domestic scientists, designers, engineers, technologists, motorists were able to create a product that was far ahead of its time; but it was not possible to launch a series and accept a flight model or its modifications into service.
Prerequisites for the grandiose work By the end of the 1950s, it became clear that the USSR was not yet able to fully confront the United States in the field of strategic aviation and the navy.
The adoption of intercontinental ballistic missiles could, on occasion, equalize the chances of potential opponents. However, around the same years, the first nuclear-powered missile submarines capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 2,200 km began to enter service with the United States. Carrier—based formations would have prevented them from effectively resisting them - their deployment sites were covered by carrier-based aircraft.
The Soviet command considered the creation of an aviation strike complex to be the most realistic way to combat aircraft carriers. The Pavel Sukhoi Design Bureau started working in this direction in 1961.
The Bureau was created before the Great Patriotic War. Its most massive aircraft was the Su-2 short—range bomber - 893 copies were built in the period from 1940 to 1942. In 1949, the Design Bureau was closed, but in 1953, shortly after the death of Joseph Stalin, it started working again. The outstanding designer, later twice Hero of Socialist Labor Pavel Sukhoi, was still at the head. Since then, design programs in the Design Bureau were divided into two groups: "program T" ("triangular wing") and "program C" ("swept wing"). Experimental aircraft began to be assigned indexes in accordance with these gradations.
Pavel Sukhoi liked the project of the new aircraft — the T-4, which was prepared by engineer Oleg Samoilovich. It was with him that the Design Bureau was later able to bypass the collectives of aircraft designers Alexander Yakovlev and Andrei Tupolev. A distinctive feature of this project is the provision of exceptionally high flight speed, which, according to experts, promised a significant reduction in the vulnerability of the machine when exposed to enemy air defenses. According to the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of December 3, 1963, an aircraft of this type was required to provide a cruising flight speed of 3000 — 3200 km/ h at altitude 24 000 — 25 000 m, the flight range was supposed to be 7 thousand km. Sukhoi appointed an experienced Naum Chernyakov as the chief designer for the T-4.
With the start of work on the project, the machine-building design bureau "Burevestnik" was separated from the Tushinsky Machine-Building Plant (TMZ) into an independent enterprise. About 100 of the most qualified designers of the plant were selected there. The chief designer of TMZ Alexander Potopalov was appointed the responsible head of the ICD.
The newly organized team began to help the Sukhoi Design Bureau in preparing the design and working drawings of the T-4 aircraft. In total, four gliders were assembled at TMZ in 1966-1974, one of which was used for static tests, and three (products 101, 102 and 103) were intended for flight tests. In addition, the plant in Tushino had a reserve of units for three more cars.
So, the Sukhoi Design Bureau began work on a variant of the aircraft with a variable sweep wing T-4M in accordance with the adjusted requirements of the customer. Later, they began to create the T-4MS project ("product 200"), which was significantly different from the original T-4. But even here, the matter did not move beyond the drawing boards.
Design features of the samoletaT-4 was a truly unique aircraft that required no less unique engines.
Initially, it was supposed to install three different types of engines, but in the end they settled on one — RD36-41, which was developed by the Rybinsk OKB-36 (now NPO Saturn) under the leadership of Peter Kolesov. In total, they were installed four pieces per car, the thrust of each was 16,150 kgf. In this project, for the first time, a multi-mode nozzle was used, which provided high thrust efficiency in all flight speed ranges. The power plant of the aircraft included fire extinguishing systems, cooling, protection of air intakes from icing, starting engines on the ground and in the air.
One of the design features of the T-4 fuselage is the downward—deflecting nose compartment, which gave the aircraft the nickname "Snake Gorynych". In this compartment, an antenna and radar units and other systems were installed under the radio-transparent fairing. In the nose there was a rod for refueling the aircraft with fuel in the air. The presence of emergency fuel discharge systems, pressurization of tanks with neutral gas and fuel pumping, providing a given alignment of the aircraft in flight, increased the reliability and safety of the machine. At the same time, all units of the fuel system were heat-resistant, and a new grade of thermostable fuel was developed for refueling the T-4, which received the name "naphthyl".
Of the radio-electronic equipment, multifunctional control panels were of the greatest interest at that time, which provided continuous determination of the aircraft's location in space and the issuance of navigation data to the automatic control system. Created on the basis of a modern forward—looking radar with a long detection range, the sight made it possible to control air-to-surface missiles. In addition, a side-view radar station was used on the T-4 for the first time in domestic practice.
To solve the main task of defeating an enemy aircraft carrier, the T-4 was armed with two hypersonic anti-ship missiles with a launch range of 500 km, placed on two underwing attachment points. The free-falling bombs were located in a drop container under the fuselage. The integrated onboard system of the aircraft allowed to receive autonomous information about the target situation on the ground and in the sky and hit targets without entering the enemy's air defense zone.
Contribution to materials science During the creation of the T-4 aircraft, the technology of aviation production changed significantly.
Monolithic panels have replaced the usual designs of riveted parts. Aircraft builders needed new modern materials.
Domestic metallurgical plants with the scientific support of the All-Union Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) and the All-Union Institute of Light Alloys (VILS) have achieved considerable success here. Thus, one of the largest materials scientists in the country, the director of the VILS, Academician Alexander Belov, led the work on the theoretical justification and practical implementation of granule metallurgy. The titanium processing technology he proposed was one of the most difficult operations in the construction of the T-4 aircraft. Currently, it is difficult to find an engine, an airplane or a helicopter where titanium would not be used. At that time, Pavel Sukhoi's team made a breakthrough in using this lightweight, durable and promising, but intricate in processing material.
The ideas and calculations of Academician Sergey Kishkin made it possible to develop heat-resistant alloys of the types and types necessary for aviation. They have become the main materials not only in this field, but are also used in rocket engines for launching spacecraft, satellites and other rocket and space objects into orbit.
There was no continuation, why did the Sotki project not receive development and was closed?
In my opinion, the main reason was the lack of an appropriate production base for the team. It was not possible to launch such a complex aircraft with numerous innovations as the T-4 at a small factory in Tushino. A well-equipped enterprise in Kazan was suitable, where the Tu-22 had already been built since 1959. The Tupolev Design Bureau was also ready to replace it on the conveyor with a modernized version. It is known that the Minister of Aviation Industry, Pyotr Dementiev, had exceptional confidence in Andrei Tupolev and apparently decided not to risk launching a completely new T-4 aircraft, so he agreed to launch the Tu-22M and then the Tu-22M-3 into production in Kazan. The upgraded bomber with a variable sweep wing and much more powerful engines was also a new aircraft, therefore, it was still far from the end of this work.
It turned out to be difficult to carry out simultaneously the production programs of the Tu-22M bomber, the Tu-144 supersonic passenger liner (which was also planned at the Kazan plant) and the T-4 missile bomber. In addition, numerous innovations implemented in the "sotka" made the project very expensive.
Many sources indicate that the cost estimates provided by the Sukhoi Design Bureau for the T-4 amounted to 1.3 billion rubles (at that time a truly astronomical amount). As a result, on February 28, 1976, Peter Dementiev issued an order to close work on the "product 100" in order to concentrate forces and resources on the development of a Tu-160 bomber similar in parameters. Although the cost estimates submitted by the Tupolev Design Bureau for the development of the Tu-144 and the creation of the Tu-160 project exceeded the spending on the T-4 by two or more times. The T-4 entered the history of the domestic aircraft industry as a unique combat aircraft with very high design flight data, in the design of which a large number of the latest technical solutions were implemented for the first time in the USSR.
For employees of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the team of the Burevestnik ICD, and other specialists involved in the creation of the T-4 aircraft, this work was a good school for creating modern high-speed multi-purpose aircraft made on the most advanced technological base. The team was able to solve even more complex tasks. This is confirmed by the implementation of the T-10 project, which was embodied in a multi-purpose all-weather supersonic heavy fighter of the fourth generation Su-27. Dmitry KHAZANOV is a member of the Association of Historians of the Second World War, Candidate of Technical Sciences</span> The editorial opinion may not coincide with the opinion of the author</span>
