Soviet flying submarine. Soviet flying submarine Engine under the hood

In 1934, a naval engineer developed and demonstrated to the leadership of the Soviet military-industrial complex the first project of a submarine-aircraft. Externally, it was a powerful seaplane with three motors, equipped with a periscope. The examination of the project lasted two years, after which the engineer was summoned to the Ministry of Defense and categorically stated that his project was interesting, worthy of attention and immediate implementation in practice.

Further work on the creation of a submarine-aircraft was to take place under the auspices of the Military Research Committee. But, unfortunately, when the detailed study of the project began in 1937, it was considered too complicated and closed. However, Boris Ushakov had a completely different opinion about his offspring.

He continued to work on the creation of a submarine-aircraft on his own. The scientist sincerely believed that the implementation of his project was essential for the Soviet Navy. With the help of this mechanism, it was possible to conduct naval reconnaissance, unexpectedly attack ships and coastal cities, successfully overcome sea minefields by air, and also create a barrier for enemy ships with a length of up to 10 km with just three submarines - aircraft.

At the same time, the technical side of the project was fully thought out and technically feasible. The boat had six compartments. Three of them housed aircraft engines. This was followed by a living room, a battery pack and a compartment with a propeller motor. All flight instruments were in sealed compartments and could not be damaged by water.

The hull of the submarine - aircraft was to be made of duralumin, while the wings were supposed to be made of steel. The saddest thing is that in 1938, during a second discussion of the possibility of creating a submarine - an aircraft, the government commission recognized the project as technically feasible, but closed it due to low speed under water.

This book is an attempt to give at least a cursory glance some of the most original and intricate facts from the field of military history and, if possible, to give their own interpretation. This material should be considered only as a fairly well-founded, but version of the reasons that made the described events possible. To what extent these versions are plausible, it is up to the readers to decide. Another focus of the book is an attempt to piece together some of the most fantastic records set in the military realm.

Submarine aviation

Submarine aviation

In military history, the assertion that no bomb has ever fallen on the territory of the United States is a kind of axiom. However, this statement is not true. To prove this, let's make a short digression into the practice of using aviation from aboard ... submarines.

The experience of the combat use of Kaiser's submarines at the beginning of the First World War revealed not only their brilliant qualities, but also a number of serious technical shortcomings. And above all - the limited view. Indeed, even when the submarine surfaced, only 10-12 miles of the water surface was visible from the height of its cabin. This, of course, is very small, especially when single submarines of very large displacement capable of staying at sea for more than 100 days act on ocean communications.

Their autonomy was limited by the supply of torpedoes, so such submarines had strong artillery armament (150 mm), which made it possible to spend torpedoes only as a last resort. For example, the world's first submarine of this class - the German U-155 - left Kiel on May 24, 1917, and returned only 105 days later. During the campaign, the boat traveled 10,220 miles, of which only 620 were under water, and sank 19 ships (10 of them with artillery), which calmly followed their path without any cover.

The result of this raid, unprecedented in duration, was the forced expansion by the Entente countries of the area of ​​application of convoys. In the report on the results of the campaign, the commander indicated that main difficulty for the crew there were weeks of waiting for a target, even in areas with fairly busy shipping due to limited visibility.

And then the designers thought: how to raise the "eyes" of the boat? The answer suggested itself - to try to equip the boat with an airplane. He could search for enemy ships, point a submarine at them, provide communication with a squadron or base, take out the wounded, deliver spare parts, and even protect the boat from enemy attacks. In general, the aircraft, of course, could significantly improve the combat qualities of the submarine. However, the designers faced huge technical difficulties. The fact that only a small floating, moreover, collapsible airplane was suitable for a submarine was obvious. But how to make a hangar on board, how will it affect the characteristics of the boat, especially its buoyancy, where and how to store fuel and supplies for the aircraft? In addition, a psychological barrier had to be overcome: at that time, the idea of ​​a boat plane sounded frankly fantastic, like flying to the moon. In practice, there were only isolated experiments on taking off aircraft from battleships, that is, the largest surface ships. Maybe this is another "idea fix"? Only experiment could answer these questions.

In 1916, a series of giant submarine cruisers of the U-139-U-145 type, with a displacement of 2483 tons, a length of 92 meters and a crew of 62 people, was laid down in Germany. Boat

was armed with two 150-mm guns, six 500-mm torpedo tubes, developed a speed of up to 15.3 knots and could travel 17,800 miles with an 8-knot course. In the same year, the Hansa Brandenburg company received an order for an aircraft for this "underwater dreadnought". This order was taken up at that time by a young, but later world-famous designer E. Heinkel. Already at the beginning of 1918, tests began on the W-20, a small collapsible biplane boat with an 80 hp Oberursel engine. However, the car was far from shining with its data: the speed was some 118 km / h, the flight radius was 40 km, the height was up to 1000 m, the wingspan was 5.8 m, the length was 5.9 m. disassembling the biplane took only 3.5 minutes, and it weighed only 586 kg.

The defeat of Kaiser Germany stopped all work on the construction of both submarines and aircraft for them. Only U-139, which entered service, was returned from its first combat campaign halfway and transferred to the French fleet for reparation, where it served safely until 1935.

The chief designer of German submarine cruisers O. Flam with a group of his engineers was invited to work in Japan, and American sailors became interested in boat planes. They contacted E. Heinkel and ordered two V-1 aircraft from the German Gaspar plant. They were supposed to be stored inside the boat, so the new aircraft was even smaller than the W-20: weighing 520 kg with a 60 hp engine that provided a speed of 140 km / h. These experimental machines never found practical application, and in 1923 one of them was sold to Japan.

A year later, the Americans themselves built a similar aircraft - "Martin MS-1" - for the ocean-going submarine cruiser "Argonaut", which entered service in 1925. In fact, the Americans simply improved the design of the captured U-139 without changing anything in principle. An ultralight seaplane weighing 490 kg developed a speed of 166 km / h, but its assembly and preparation for flight took 4 hours, and disassembly even more. Submariners categorically refused such an assistant.

In 1926, another American "underwater" aircraft, the X-2, was ready, which could take off from the Argonaut when it was in position. Pre-launch operations on this machine were completed in 15-20 minutes, but the submariners did not like it either: they did not take the aircraft into service and stopped all experiments of this kind. The Americans were finally convinced of the futility of collapsible aircraft and concluded that winged vehicles for submarines should be folding and stored in a hangar.

The baton in the creation of "hydrofoils" was taken by the British. In 1917-1918, the Grand Fleet was replenished with three unusual underwater monitors, boats armed with 12-inch guns taken from old ironclads. As conceived by the Admiralty, these huge submarines with a displacement of 2000 tons were intended to support torpedo attacks and shelling the coast. They had a length of 90 m, a crew of 65 people and could reach speeds of up to 15 knots. The idea did not justify itself, and soon the lead boat M-1 died in an accident. M-3 decided to convert

into an underwater mine layer, and the M-2 into an underwater aircraft carrier. The twelve-inch was dismantled, and in its place, near the cabin, a light hangar 7 m long, 2.8 m high and 2.5 m wide with a large hermetic end hatch was built. When immersed in water, the hangar was filled with compressed air so that its walls could withstand the pressure.

The Admiralty proposed to create an aircraft for a submarine aircraft carrier small firm Parnel, which built sports airplanes. And on August 19, 1926, a Peto seaplane with a 128 hp Lucifer engine took off. Despite the modest dimensions of the machine (length - 8.6 m, wingspan - 6.8 m), two people were placed in its cockpit - a pilot and an observer. After testing, a more powerful engine (185 hp) was installed on the second copy of the Peto, and the speed increased to 185 km / h. With the previous dimensions, the weight was 886 kg, and the flight altitude reached 3200 m. It was this highly commended machine that was put into service. True, the tests that began in 1927 showed a very low efficiency of the system due to the very long time spent on take-off, since the one originally removed from the Peto-2 was launched using a rotary crane, and it ran up and took off on its own. Then a pneumatic catapult was installed on the boat, which instantly threw the plane into the sky. All this made it possible to reduce the take-off time to quite acceptable 5 minutes. The experiment was considered successful and began to think about its wider implementation ...

On January 26, 1932, the M-2 submarine sank in the English Channel along with the Peto aircraft and the entire crew. When the English divers descended to the crash site, they found that the hangar hatch was open. This tragic incident dealt a mortal blow to British submarine aviation.

Decided to acquire a submarine aircraft carrier and the command of the fleet of Italy. In 1928, a hermetic hangar was built on the deck of the Ettore Fierramosca cruising boat, and the Macchi company to next year built a small single-seat collapsible seaplane M-53 with an 80 hp Citrus engine. Despite the good results of flight tests, the program was unexpectedly closed. It turned out that the upgraded boat did not want to dive with an aircraft on board, since the spacious hangar had too much buoyancy.

The French were more successful. In 1929, they launched the giant submarine cruiser Surkuf with a displacement of 4,300 tons and a length of 119.6 m. The boat was intended to guard Atlantic convoys and was supposed to engage in artillery combat with any auxiliary cruiser-type raider, and attack warships with torpedoes. Therefore, the armament of the French submarine had no more analogues: armor, turret 203-mm guns, four 37-mm machine guns and 12 torpedo tubes (four internal bow and four twin external ones) were installed on it. For the timely detection of enemy raiders, the boat was equipped with a small reconnaissance hydroplane. The crew of this giant submarine consisted of 150 people. The highest speed reached 18 knots.

The aircraft hangar, 7 m long and 2 m in diameter, was located on the deck behind the wheelhouse. After the boat surfaced, the aircraft was brought to the stern, assembled, the engine was started, and the hatch to the hangar was battened down. The boat occupied a positional position (sinked), the water washed away the plane, and the pilot began to take off. First, the Besson MV-5 with a 120-horsepower engine was based on Surkuf. The plane weighed 765 kg, developed a speed of 163 km / h and could climb to a height of 4200 m. The length of the car was 7 m, the wingspan was 9.8 m. the same motor. The weight of the car reached 1050 kg, length - 8 m, and wingspan - 11.9 m, but the technical characteristics were quite high: speed - 185 km / h; flight altitude - 1000 m, range - 650 km, and most importantly - it took less than 4 minutes to assemble and disassemble.

"Surkuf" successfully served until 1940. After the defeat of France, the boat went to England, where its crew joined the forces led by Charles de Gaulle. MV-411 flew reconnaissance several times, but in 1941 it was seriously damaged and was no longer used. And on February 18, 1942, the Surkuf itself died in the Caribbean Sea - guarding the convoy, it was rammed by the ward transport. There were no survivors...

In the Soviet Union, the well-known creator of seaplanes, I. V. Chetverikov, took up the development of hydrofoils in the early 30s. For cruising boats of the K series, he proposed an aircraft that takes up extremely little space and is called SIL. The representatives of the fleet liked the idea, and in 1933 the construction of the first version of the amphibian began, on which they checked the design and made sure of its stability in the water and in the air.

At the end of 1934, the SPL was made, transported to Sevastopol, and the naval pilot A.V. Krzhizhenovsky conducted tests. According to its scheme, the SPL was a two-seat flying boat with a free-carrying wing, above which was an M-11 engine with a pulling propeller. The tail, stabilizer and two keels were mounted on a special frame. The structure was made of wood, plywood, canvas and welded steel pipes. The weight of the empty aircraft was only 590 kg, and the takeoff weight did not exceed 875 kg with two crew members. But the main advantage of the machine was the ability to quickly assemble and disassemble it. All this took less than 3 minutes. The assembly was carried out in the reverse order in 3-4 minutes. At the same time, not traditional nuts and bolts were used to dock the nodes, but quick-release pins-clamps.

After the Nazis came to power, the admirals of the Kriegsmarine remembered the exotic airplane created in 1918 by Heinkel. However, by this time the meter itself was busy with much more serious developments, so the development of the idea was entrusted to the Arado company, which by the beginning of 1940 had built a single float reconnaissance hydroplane Ar-231 with a 160 hp engine. The wingspan of this aircraft reached 10.2 m, length -

7.8 m, flight weight - 1050 kg, and it was placed in a hangar with a diameter of only 2 m. km. It seems to be not bad, but it took about 10 minutes to assemble the Ar-231, which the sailors considered unacceptable. And then the designers tried to give the submariners a different novelty.

In 1942, the Focke-Angelis specialists came up with the Fa-330A tethered kite autogyro - an outwardly fragile structure, weighing 200 kg (together with the pilot), consisting of a light frame with an observer's seat and an instrument panel topped with a three-blade propeller-rotor. Units of the apparatus were stored in two steel canisters on the deck of the boat and after 5-7 minutes were turned by three assemblers into ready product. The reverse procedure took only 2 minutes.

To launch this structure, the boat picked up maximum speed, the propeller-rotor was spun by compressed air, and the kite obediently took off on a 150 m long leash to a height of about 120 m. changing course, which sharply limited its maneuverability. In addition, the descent from the maximum height could take more than 10 minutes, which put the submariners in a very dangerous position in the event that an enemy aircraft was detected. And yet, despite these inconveniences, in 1943, the autogyro was adopted and built more than 100 copies, most of which were placed on boats located in the Indian Ocean.

However, the Japanese have undoubtedly advanced the farthest in the creation of submarine aviation. Methodically preparing for war in the ocean, Japanese intelligence was interested in all the latest in the field of the navy and naval aviation. And therefore, it cannot be considered accidental that it was the Japanese who bought the German V-1 from America in 1923. In the mid-20s, Japan began designing huge ocean-going boats equipped with reconnaissance aircraft. Six submarines of the Yun-sen 1M type, which entered service in 1931-1932, had a displacement of 2920 tons and a range of 14,000 miles; their armament consisted of two 150-mm guns and six torpedo tubes, and the crew consisted of 92 people. A cylindrical hangar for a seaplane and a catapult to launch it were installed in the bow.

The aircraft was stored folded, and for its maintenance in the hangar there was access in a submerged position. The first Japanese submarine to receive an airplane was the submarine cruiser I-5. These submarines were built to operate on ocean communications, and aircraft - for reconnaissance and search for targets, but events developed in such a way that these crumbs had to be used to solve completely different problems.

On April 18, 1942, several twin-engine aircraft approached Tokyo from the Pacific Ocean. Bombs rained down on the city, fires broke out.

It is clear that this raid was in more political demonstration than military action. The fact is that the long distances and the difficulties of taking off coastal aircraft from aircraft carriers did not allow them to take a significant bomb load. But Japan was then at the zenith of its power, and the raid on the capital of the empire was perceived as a slap in the face. The wounded samurai pride demanded revenge, but the technical capabilities of the country clearly lagged behind the ambitious plans of its politicians.

On August 15, 1942, the I-25 submarine left the Yokosuka naval base for the American shores, carrying an aircraft converted into an ultralight bomber. A single-engine hydroplane of the Ayagumos type was taken into the forward deck hangar of the submarine. A small and equally unreliable car was fired into the air by a catapult and could make three-hour flights at a speed of 165 km / h.

Of course, two 75-kilogram bombs that the plane could lift did not make it a formidable means of attack, and the lack of defensive weapons, the primitiveness of navigation equipment and poor flight performance turned the pilot into a close resemblance of a kamikaze. But the command was sure that there would be no shortage of volunteers. The object of the attack, given the complete defenselessness of the Ayagumos, was the deserted forests of America. One night, shortly before dawn, I-25 surfaced off the coast of Oregon and launched her plane into the sky. An hour later, the pilot, Captain Fujita, was convinced that he had reached the goal. The land of the formidable adversary, who boasted of his invulnerability, stretched under the fabric planes of his plane. Fujita pressed the bomb release button, and phosphorus bombs flew down. A few minutes later, two columns of thick smoke rose above the forest, and an hour later the Ayagumos splashed down safely at the side of the submarine. On the same day, after sunset, the flight was repeated. However, this time it did not go so well, because on the way back the pilot got lost. Paradoxically, he was saved by the poor technical condition of the I-25: the boat left an oil trail behind it, and it was along this trail that Fujita found it. The results of the raid turned out to be even better than the Japanese themselves expected: two severe fires broke out. The fire destroyed entire villages, killing several people. However, the use of "ayagumos" had to be abandoned: the Japanese were well aware that the fact that Fujita got lost was not at all an accident. An accident is that he managed to find the boat. They decided to repeat the raid on more advanced machines.

Since 1938, new boats of the Kaidai I series began to enter the Japanese fleet - powerful submarines 102 m long, with a displacement of 2440 tons, armed in addition to one 140-mm cannon and six torpedo tubes with two reconnaissance aircraft. The hangar and the catapult stood in front of the wheelhouse. But by this time, the designers had created a two-seater Watabane-E9DCH biplane with a Hitachi Temp engine with a power of 350 hp. and ten-meter wings, folding back. Its dimensions just fit under the hangar of a new boat (however, only one aircraft fit there). The 1250-kilogram E9W1 had good flight data: maximum speed 233 km / h, ceiling 6750 m. It could stay in the air for more than 5 hours, but the service of this aircraft was short-lived: it was soon replaced by a more advanced E14W1 monoplane, created by Yokosuka. The newcomers' baptism of fire took place on December 7, 1942, when, taking off from the I-9 and I-15 submarines, they shot panoramas of the American base at Pearl Harbor,

just attacked by Japanese naval aviation. "Glen" (bully), as these machines were called, weighed 1450 kg, the Hitachi Temp engine allowed him to reach speeds of up to 270 km / h and make five-hour flights. The armament consisted of a 7.7 mm turret machine gun, three 50 kg bombs and a complete set of navigational equipment. In the absence of a second crew member, the bomb load could be increased to 300 kg.

In September 1942, the I-9 and I-15 launched their planes off the coast of Arizona. This time, the cars with red circles on the planes operated openly, causing considerable commotion among the townsfolk, who were already used to the fact that the fighting was taking place somewhere far away, in the other hemisphere. Of course, six 50-kg bombs are a purely symbolic blow, but he satisfied the samurai ambitions a little.

However, reconnaissance was still the main thing for boat planes: they made several effective reconnaissance flights over the territory of Australia and New Zealand, and the Glen with I-15 even showed its red circles over Sydney. On May 31, 1942, an I-10 aircraft carried out reconnaissance of the Diego Suarez Bay on the island of Madagascar, based on the data of which a successful attack on ships by ultra-small submarines was carried out.

But for Admiral Yamamoto, an ardent admirer of naval aviation, intelligence alone was not enough. He planned to inflict a really serious blow on America - to disable the Panama Canal by bombing its locks. Putting his plans into practice, Japanese shipyards laid down supersubmarines of the A1 series with a displacement of 4750 tons. The lead one, the I-400, was intended for two aircraft, but then the hangar was rebuilt for three bombers. The Japanese succeeded

build three such submarine aircraft carriers, but they did not have time to distinguish themselves in battle: the war ended. And two years earlier, the Aihi company brought the M6A1 to the test - quite

modern bomb carrier "Seyran" ("Mountain Fog"). The car weighed 4925 kg and was equipped with a 1250 hp engine, which allowed it to develop quite a decent speed of 480 km / h. The length of the aircraft is 11.5 m, the wingspan is 12.5 m, the crew is 2 people, the bomb load is from 350 to 850 kg (with a minimum of fuel) or one torpedo. To launch the seaplane into the sky, a 40-meter pneumatic catapult was provided. In general, it was indeed a real submarine aircraft carrier, but, fortunately for the Americans, he never managed to fight.

Preparations for the raid on Panama began in February 1945 and were carried out with exceptional care. For training, mock-ups of canal locks were even built. However, the military situation was getting worse, and the spectacular, but far from the most urgent operation was being postponed and postponed. Finally, they decided to carry it out, but along the way to solve a number of other tasks. On August 25, an attack on the Ulithi Atoll was planned, and then the submarine aircraft carriers were to head for Panama. On August 6, I-400 and I-401 went to sea, and it is difficult to predict how this voyage could end, but on August 16 the order came to surrender and return to base. The Seirans were ordered to be destroyed, and they were simply thrown overboard.

In the 1980s, proposals were also put forward in the United States to convert the Helibad nuclear submarine into a submarine aircraft carrier. For this purpose, it was supposed to install a hangar for two Harrier vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. However, so far not a single project of a modern submarine aircraft carrier has been implemented.

The concept of an aircraft launched from a submarine is as old as naval aviation itself. On January 6, 1915, the modified Friedrichshafen hydroplane was launched from the deck of the German submarine U-12. In the autumn of 1917, the "Brandenburg" was tested in the same Germany, already adapted for storage directly on board a diesel submarine.

Between the end of World War I and the start of World War II, virtually all major maritime powers seriously considered launching aircraft from submarines. But only in Japan, this concept has undergone significant changes. This series even had the name "Sen Toki". From an auxiliary means of reconnaissance, the aircraft almost turned into the main weapon of submarines. The appearance of such an aircraft for a submarine as the Seiran turned out to be in fact an element of a strategic weapon, which included a bomber aircraft and a submersible aircraft carrier. The plane was called upon to bomb targets that no conventional bomber could reach. The main bet was placed on complete surprise. The idea of ​​a submarine aircraft carrier was born in the minds of the Japanese Imperial Naval Staff a few months after the start of the Pacific War. It was supposed to build submarines, superior to everything created before - especially for transporting and launching attack aircraft. A flotilla of such diesel-powered submarines was to cross the Pacific Ocean, just before the chosen target, launch their aircraft and then dive. After the attack, the planes were supposed to go out to meet with submarine aircraft carriers, and then, depending on the weather conditions, the method of grazing the crews was chosen. After that, the flotilla again plunged under water. For a greater psychological effect, which was put above physical damage, the method of delivering aircraft to the target should not have been disclosed.

Further, the submarines had to either go out to meet supply ships to receive new aircraft, bombs and fuel, or act in the usual way, using torpedo weapons. The program, of course, developed in an atmosphere of heightened secrecy, and it is not surprising that the Allies first heard about it only after the surrender of Japan. At the beginning of 1942, the Japanese high command issued an order to shipbuilders for the largest diesel submarines built by anyone until the beginning of the atomic age in shipbuilding. It was planned to build 18 submarines. In the process of designing, the displacement of such a submarine increased from 4125 to 4738 tons, the number of aircraft on board from three to four. Now it was up to the plane. The fleet headquarters discussed the issue with the Aichi concern, which, starting from the 1920s, built aircraft exclusively for the fleet. The Navy believed that the success of the whole idea depended entirely on the high performance of the aircraft. The aircraft had to combine high speed to avoid interception with a long range of 1500 km. But since the plane provided for actually one-time use, the type of landing gear was not even specified. The diameter of the hangar of an underwater aircraft carrier was set at 3.5 m, but the fleet demanded that the aircraft be placed in it without disassembly.

The Aichi designers considered such high demands a challenge to their talent and accepted them without objection. As a result, on May 15, 1942, requirements for an experimental bomber "for special assignments" appeared. The chief designer of the aircraft was Norio Ozaki. The development of the aircraft, which received the brand designation "AM-24" and the short "M6A1", progressed smoothly. The aircraft was designed for the Atsuta engine, a licensed version of the Daimler-Benz DB-601 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine. From the very beginning, the use of detachable floats was envisaged - the only dismantled part of the Seypan. Since the floats significantly reduced the flight performance of the aircraft, it was possible to drop them in the air in case of such a need. In the hangar of the submarine, respectively, mounts for two floats were provided. At the end of the autumn of 1944, the imperial fleet began to train the pilots of the Seirans, the flight and maintenance personnel were carefully selected. On December 15, the 631st Air Corps was created under the command of Captain Totsunoke Ariizumi. The hull was part of the 1st submarine flotilla, which consisted of only two submarines - I-400 and I-401. The flotilla included 10 Seirans. In May, the submarines I-13 and I-14 joined the flotilla, participating in the preparation of the crews of the Seirans. During six weeks of training, the release time of three Seirans from a submarine was reduced to 30 minutes, including the installation of floats, however, in battle it was planned to launch aircraft without floats from a catapult, which required 14.5 minutes. The original target of the 1st flotilla was the locks of the Panama Canal. Six planes were supposed to carry torpedoes, and the remaining four - bombs. Two planes were assigned to attack each target. The flotilla was supposed to depart along the same route as the Nagumo squadron during the attack on Pearl Harbor three and a half years earlier. But it soon became clear that even if successful, such a raid was absolutely pointless in order to influence the strategic situation in the war. As a result, on June 25, an order was issued to send the 10th submarine flotilla to attack American aircraft carriers on the Ulithi Atoll. On August 6, I-400 and I-401 left Ominato, but soon a fire broke out on the flagship due to a short circuit. This forced the start of the operation to be postponed until August 17, two days before which Japan capitulated. But even after that, the headquarters of the Japanese fleet planned to carry out an attack on August 25th. However, on August 16, the flotilla received an order to return to Japan, and four days later - to destroy all offensive weapons.

The commander of the flagship diesel submarine I-401, Captain 1st Rank Arizumi, shot himself, and the crew ejected the planes without pilots and without starting the engines. On the I-400, both aircraft and torpedoes were simply pushed into the water. Thus ended the suicidal operation, which involved kamikaze pilots and the latest torpedo bombers based on the world's largest submarines. Even in this case, along with the use of the most advanced and modern weapons, Japanese engineering and military thought could not do without the help of kamikaze. All this once again testifies to the adventurism of the top military leadership, fixated on the use of suicide bombers, relying on the "Japanese spirit" and developing the most incredible systems in the hope of a miracle.

All "submarine aircraft carriers" were delivered for study at the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), but already in May 1946 they were taken to the sea, shot down by torpedoes and flooded due to the fact that Russian scientists demanded access to them.
In March 2005, an underwater expedition of the University of Hawaii discovered the sunken Japanese submarine "I-401" at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Acting director of the underwater research laboratory At the University of Hawaii, John Wiltshire reported that the remains of the hull of the I-401 submarine, which had broken into two parts, were found at a depth of 820 meters and visually examined using a descent submersible. "I-402" was decided to be converted into a submarine. Construction was stopped in March 1945 at 90% readiness.

Technical characteristics of the submarine aircraft carrier:
Length - 120 m;
Width - 12 m;
Displacement - 6550 tons;
Power reserve - 3500 miles;
Immersion depth - 100 m;
Power plant - diesel;
Speed ​​- 18 knots;
Crew - 144;
Armament:
Gun 140 mm -1;
Gun 25 mm -3;
Torpedo tubes - 8;
Aircraft - 3

flying submarine - aircraft, combining the ability of a hydroplane to take off and land on water and the ability of a submarine to move underwater.

If you have ever watched or are going to watch the movie "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", then you will be able to see just such a submarine aircraft from the main character.

In the USSR, on the eve of the Second World War, a flying submarine project was proposed - a project that was never implemented. From 1934 to 1938 the flying submarine project (abbreviated: LPL) was led by Boris Ushakov. The LPL was a three-engine, two-float seaplane equipped with a periscope. Even while studying at the Higher Marine Engineering Institute named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky in Leningrad (now the Naval Engineering Institute), from 1934 until his graduation in 1937, student Boris Ushakov worked on a project in which the capabilities of a seaplane were supplemented submarine capabilities. The invention was based on a seaplane capable of submerging under water.

In 1934, a cadet of VMIU them. Dzerzhinsky B.P. Ushakov presented a schematic design of a flying submarine (LPL), which was subsequently revised and presented in several versions to determine the stability and loads on the structural elements of the device.

In April 1936, in the recall of Captain 1st Rank Surin, it was indicated that Ushakov's idea was interesting and deserved unconditional implementation. A few months later, in July, the LPL semi-draft project was considered by the Scientific Research Military Committee (NIVK) and received a generally positive review, containing three additional points, one of which read: “... It is desirable to continue developing the project in order to determine the reality of its implementation through making the relevant calculations and the necessary laboratory tests ... " Among the signatories of the document were the head of the NIVK, a military engineer of the 1st rank Grigaitis and the head of the department of tactics of combat weapons, the flagship of the 2nd rank, Professor Goncharov.

In 1937, the topic was included in the plan of department "B" of the NIVK, but after its revision, which was very typical for that time, it was abandoned. All further development was carried out by the engineer of department "B" military technician of the 1st rank B.P. Ushakov during off-duty hours.

On January 10, 1938, in the 2nd department of the NIVK, the sketches and main tactical and technical elements of the LPL, prepared by the author, were reviewed. What was the project? The flying submarine was designed to destroy enemy ships on the high seas and in the waters of naval bases protected by minefields and booms. The low underwater speed and limited range under water of the LPL were not an obstacle, since in the absence of targets in a given square (area), the boat itself could find the enemy. Having determined its course from the air, she sat down over the horizon, which excluded the possibility of her premature detection, and sank on the ship's path. Until the target appeared at the salvo point, the LPL remained at depth in a stabilized position, without wasting energy with unnecessary moves.

A possible repetition of the approach to the target was considered as one of significant benefits underwater-air torpedo bomber in front of traditional submarines. Particularly effective was the action of flying submarines in a group, since theoretically three such devices created an impenetrable barrier up to nine miles wide in the path of the enemy. The LPL could penetrate the harbors and ports of the enemy at night, dive, and during the day conduct surveillance, direction finding of secret fairways and, if possible, attack. The design of the LPL provided for six autonomous compartments, three of which housed AM-34 aircraft engines with a power of 1000 hp each. every. They were equipped with superchargers that allowed boosting in takeoff mode up to 1200 hp. The fourth compartment was residential, designed for a team of three people. It also controlled the ship under water. In the fifth compartment there was a battery, in the sixth - a propeller motor with a capacity of 10 l, s. The robust LPL hull was a cylindrical riveted structure with a diameter of 1.4 m made of 6 mm thick duralumin. In addition to durable compartments, the boat had a lightweight wet-type cockpit, which was filled with water when immersed. At the same time, flight instruments were battened down in a special shaft.

Sheathing of the wings and tail was supposed to be made of steel, and the floats of duralumin. These structural elements were not designed for increased external pressure, since during immersion they were flooded with sea water, which flowed by gravity through scuppers (holes for water drainage). Fuel (gasoline) and oil were stored in special rubber tanks located in the center section. When diving, the inlet and outlet lines of the water cooling system of aircraft engines were blocked, which excluded their damage under the pressure of outboard water. To protect the hull from corrosion, painting and varnishing of its skin was provided. Torpedoes were placed under the wing consoles on special holders. The design payload of the boat was 44.5% of the total flight weight of the device, which was common for heavy vehicles.

The dive process included four stages: battening down the engine compartments, shutting off the water in the radiators, transferring control to underwater, and transferring the crew from the cockpit to the living compartment (central control post).

Submerged motors were covered with metal shields. LPL was supposed to have 6 sealed compartments in the fuselage and wings. In three compartments sealed during immersion, Mikulin AM-34 motors of 1000 hp were installed. With. each (with a turbocharger in takeoff mode up to 1200 hp); in the pressurized cabin should have been located instruments, battery and electric motor. The remaining compartments should be used as tanks filled with ballast water for diving LPL. Preparation for the dive should have taken only a couple of minutes.

The fuselage was supposed to be an all-metal duralumin cylinder with a diameter of 1.4 m and a wall thickness of 6 mm. The cockpit was filled with water during the dive. Therefore, all devices were supposed to be installed in a waterproof compartment. The crew had to move to the diving control module located further in the fuselage. Bearing planes and flaps should be made of steel, and floats of duralumin. These elements were supposed to be filled with water through the valves provided for this, in order to equalize the pressure on the wings when diving. Flexible fuel and lubricant tanks should be located in the fuselage. For corrosion protection, the entire aircraft had to be covered with special varnishes and paints. Two 18-inch torpedoes were suspended under the fuselage. The planned combat load was to be 44.5% of the total mass of the aircraft. This is the typical value of heavy aircraft of that time. To fill the tanks with water, the same electric motor was used, which provided movement under water.

Specifications:

Specifications: Parameter Indicator

Crew, pers. 3

Takeoff weight, kg 15 000

Flight speed, knots 100 (~185 km/h).

Flight range, km 800

Ceiling, m 2 500

Aircraft engines 3 × AM-34.

Takeoff power, hp 3×1200

Maximum extra. excitement at

takeoff / landing and immersion, points 4-5

Underwater speed, knots 2-3

Immersion depth, m 45

Power reserve under water, miles 5-6

Underwater autonomy, hour 48

Rowing motor power, h.p. 10

Dive duration, min 1.5

Ascent duration, min 1.8

Armament 18″ torpedo, 2 pcs.

coaxial machine gun, 2 pcs

In 1938, the Research Military Committee of the Red Army decided to curtail work on the Flying Submarine project due to the lack of submerged mobility of the submarine. The decree stated that after the discovery of the LPL by the ship, the latter would undoubtedly change course. Which will reduce the combat value of the LPL and, with a high degree of probability, will lead to the failure of the mission.

It should be noted that this was not the only domestic project of a flying submarine. At the same time, in the thirties of the last century, I.V. Chetverikov presented a project for a two-seat flying submarine SPL-1 - “an aircraft for submarines”. To be more precise, it was a seaplane that was stored in a disassembled form on a submarine, and when it surfaced, it could be easily assembled. This project was a kind of flying boat, the wings of which folded along the sides. The power plant leaned back, and the floats located under the wings pressed against the fuselage. The tail “empennage” was also partially folded. The dimensions of the SPL-1 when folded were minimal - 7.5x2.1x2.4 m. Dismantling the aircraft took only 3 - 4 minutes, and preparing it for flight - no more than five minutes. The container for storing the aircraft was a pipe with a diameter of 2.5 and a length of 7.5 meters.

It is noteworthy that the building materials for such a boat-aircraft were wood and plywood with linen sheathing of the wing and “feathers”, while the weight of an empty aircraft was reduced to 590 kg. Despite such a seemingly unreliable design, during testing, the pilot A.V. Krzhizhevsky managed to reach a speed of 186 km / h on SPL-1. And two years later, on September 21, 1937, he set three international records on this machine in the class of light seaplanes: speed at a distance of 100 km - 170.2 km / h, range - 480 km and flight altitude - 5.400 m.

In 1936, the SPL-1 aircraft was successfully demonstrated at the International Aviation Exhibition in Milan.

And this project, unfortunately, never entered the mass production.

German project

In 1939, large submarines were planned to be built in Germany, it was then that the project of the so-called “Submarine Eyes” of a small float aircraft was presented, which could be assembled and folded in the shortest possible time and placed in a limited space. At the beginning of 1940, the Germans began to produce six experimental vehicles under the designation Ar.231.

The devices were equipped with 6-cylinder Hirt HM 501 air-cooled engines and had a lightweight metal structure. To facilitate folding of the wings, a small section of the center section was braced above the fuselage at an angle so that the right console was lower than the left, allowing the wings to be folded one over the other when pivoting around the rear spar. The two floats detached easily. When disassembled, the aircraft fit into a pipe with a diameter of 2 meters. It was assumed that Ar.231 was supposed to descend and climb aboard the submarine using a folding crane. The process of dismantling the aircraft and its cleaning in a tubular hangar took six minutes. Assembly took about the same amount of time. For a four-hour flight, a significant supply of fuel was placed on board, which expanded the possibilities when searching for a target.

The first two devices Ar.231 V1 and V2 saw the sky at the beginning of 1941, but they were not successful. The flight characteristics and behavior of the small aircraft on the water proved to be inadequate. In addition, Ar.231 could not take off at wind speeds of more than 20 knots. In addition, the prospect of being on the surface for 10 minutes during the assembly and disassembly of the aircraft did not suit the submarine commanders very much. In the meantime, the idea arose to provide aerial reconnaissance using the Focke-Angelis Fа-330 autogyro, and although all six Ar.231s were completed, the aircraft did not receive further development.

"Fa-330" was the simplest design with a three-bladed propeller, devoid of a mechanical engine. Before the flight, the propeller was spun with a special cable, and then the gyroplane was towed by a boat on a 150-meter-long leash.

In essence, the Fa-330 was a large kite, flying at the expense of the speed of the submarine itself. Through the same cable, a telephone connection was made with the pilot. At a flight altitude of 120 meters, the viewing radius was 40 kilometers, five times greater than from the boat itself.

A design flaw was the long and dangerous procedure for landing the autogyro on the deck of the boat. If she needed an urgent dive, she had to abandon the pilot along with his helpless unit. In extreme cases, the scout relied on a parachute.

Already at the end of the war, in 1944, the Fa-330, which was not very popular with German submariners, was upgraded to the Fa-336, adding a 60-horsepower engine and turning it into a full-fledged helicopter. This innovation, however, did not greatly affect the military successes of Germany.

American RFS-1 or LPL Reida

The RFS-1 was designed by Donald Reid using parts from planes that had crashed. A serious attempt to make an aircraft capable of serving as a submarine, Reid's design came to him almost by accident when a set of model aircraft wings fell off the skin and landed on the fuselage of one of his radio-controlled submarines, which he had been developing since 1954. Then the idea was born to build the world's first flying submarine.

At first, Reid tested models of various sizes of flying submarines, then tried to build a manned vehicle. As an aircraft, it was registered N1740 and equipped with a 65 hp 4-cylinder engine. In 1965, the first flight of the RFS-1 took place, under the control of Don's son, Bruce, he flew over 23 m. Initially, the pilot's seat was in the engine pylon, then before the first flight it was moved to the fuselage.

In order to convert the aircraft into a submarine, the pilot had to remove the propeller and cover the engine with a rubber "diving bell". On auxiliary power, small 1 HP the electric motor was located in the tail, the boat moved under water, the pilot used scuba gear at a depth of 3.5 m.

Underpowered, Reid's RFS-1, also known as the Flying Submarine, actually flew, briefly, but still managed to maintain flight and was capable of submerging in water. Don Reid tried to interest the military in this device, but to no avail. He died at the age of 79 in 1991.

Japan also could not ignore such an exciting idea. There, aircraft have become almost the main weapon of submarines. The very same car from a reconnaissance aircraft turned into a full-fledged strike aircraft.

The appearance of such an aircraft for a submarine as the Seiran (Mountain Fog) turned out to be an out of the ordinary event. It was actually an element of a strategic weapon, which included a bomber aircraft and a submersible aircraft carrier. The plane was called upon to bomb targets in the United States of America that no conventional bomber could reach. The main bet was placed on complete surprise.

The idea of ​​a submarine aircraft carrier was born in the minds of the Japanese Imperial Naval Staff a few months after the start of the Pacific War. It was supposed to build submarines superior to anything previously created specifically for transporting and launching strike aircraft. A flotilla of such submarines was supposed to cross the Pacific Ocean, just before the chosen target, launch their aircraft, and then dive. After the attack, the planes were supposed to go out to meet with submarine aircraft carriers, and then, depending on the weather conditions, a way to save the crews was chosen. After that, the flotilla again sank under water. For a greater psychological effect, which was put above the physical damage, the method of delivering the aircraft to the target should not have been disclosed.

The program, of course, developed in an atmosphere of heightened secrecy, and it is not surprising that the Allies first heard about it only after the surrender of Japan. In early 1942, the Japanese High Command issued an order to shipbuilders for the largest submarines built by anyone until the beginning of the atomic age in shipbuilding. It was planned to build 18 submarines. During the design process, the displacement of such a submarine increased from 4125 to 4738 tons, the number of aircraft on board from three to four.

Now it was up to the plane. The fleet headquarters discussed the issue with the Aichi concern, which, starting from the 1920s, built aircraft exclusively for the fleet. The Navy believed that the success of the whole idea depended entirely on high performance aircraft. The aircraft had to combine high speed to avoid interception with a long range (1,500 km). But since the aircraft was actually meant for one-time use, the type of landing gear was not even specified. The diameter of the hangar of an underwater aircraft carrier was set at 3.5 m, but the fleet demanded that the aircraft be placed in it without disassembly - the planes could only be folded.

The designers of Aichi, led by Tokuichiro Goake, considered such high demands a challenge to their talent and accepted them without objection. As a result, on May 15, 1942, 17-Ci requirements for an experimental bomber for special missions appeared. Norio Ozaki became the chief designer of the aircraft.

The development of the aircraft, which received the corporate designation AM-24 and the short M6A1, proceeded surprisingly smoothly. The aircraft was created under the Atsuta engine, a licensed version of the 12-cylinder liquid-cooled Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine. From the very beginning, the use of detachable floats was the only dismantled part of the Seyran. Since the floats significantly reduced the flight performance of the aircraft, it was possible to drop them in the air if necessary. In the submarine hangar, accordingly, mounts for two floats were provided.

In the summer of 1942, a wooden model was ready, on which the folding of the wings and plumage of the aircraft was mainly practiced. The wings hydraulically turned leading edge down and folded back along the fuselage. The stabilizer was manually folded down, and the keel to the right. For work at night, all folding nodes were covered with a luminous composition. As a result, the overall width of the aircraft was reduced to 2.46 m, and the height on the ejection truck to 2.1 m. Since the oil in the aircraft systems could be heated even while the submarine was under water, the aircraft could ideally be launched without a landing gear 4.5 minutes after ascent. It took 2.5 minutes to attach the floats. All preparations for take-off could be performed by only four people.

The structure of the aircraft was all-metal, except for the plywood sheathing of the wingtips and the fabric sheathing of the control surfaces. Double-slotted all-metal flaps could be used as air brakes. The crew of two people was placed under a single lamp. In the rear of the cockpit, from January 1943, it was decided to install a 13 mm Type 2 machine gun. Offensive armament consisted of 850 kg torpedoes or one 800 kg or two 250 kg bombs.

At the beginning of 1943, six M6A1s were laid down at the Aichi plant in Nagoya, two of which were made in the training version of the M6A1-K on a wheeled chassis (the aircraft was called Nanzan (South Mountain)). The aircraft, with the exception of the keel tip, did not differ much from the main version, even retained the attachment points to the catapult.

At the same time, in January 1943, the keel of the first I-400 submarine aircraft carrier was laid. Soon two more submarines I-401 and I-402 were laid down. Production of two more I-404s and I-405s was being prepared. At the same time, it was decided to build ten smaller submarine aircraft carriers for two Seirans. Their displacement was 3300 tons. The first of them, I-13, was laid down in February 1943 (according to the original plan, these boats were supposed to have only one scout on board).

At the end of October 1943, the first experimental Seiran was ready, flying the next month. In February 1944, the second aircraft was also ready. The Seiran was a very elegant seaplane, with clean aerodynamic lines. Outwardly, it was very reminiscent of the D4Y deck dive bomber. Initially, the D4Y was indeed considered a prototype for a new aircraft, but even at the beginning design work this option was rejected. The unavailability of the AE1P Atsuta-32 engine determined the installation of the 1400-horsepower Atsuta-21. The test results have not been preserved, but they, apparently, were successful, since preparations for mass production soon began.

The first serial M6A1 Seiran was ready in October 1944, seven more were ready by December 7, when an earthquake seriously damaged equipment and stocks at the plant. Production was almost restored when an American air raid on the Nagoya area followed on March 12. Soon it was decided to stop the mass production of Seyran. This was directly related to the problems of building such large submarines. Although I-400 was ready on December 30, 1944, and I-401 a week later, it was decided to convert I-402 into submarine transport, and production of I-404 was stopped in March 1945 at 90% readiness. At the same time, the production of submarines of the AM type was also stopped; only I-13 and I-14 were brought to readiness. The small number of submarine aircraft carriers has consequently limited the production of submarine aircraft. Instead of the original plans to produce 44 Seirans, only 14 were produced by the end of March 1945. They still managed to produce six Seirans before the end of the war, although many machines were at various stages of readiness.

At the end of the autumn of 1944, the Imperial Navy began to train pilots of the Seirans, the flight and maintenance personnel were carefully selected. On December 15, 631 Air Corps was created under the command of Captain Totsunoke Ariizumi. The corps was part of the 1st submarine flotilla, which consisted of only two submarines I-400 and I-401. The flotilla included 10 Seirans. In May, the submarines I-13 and I-14 joined the flotilla, participating in the training of the crews of the Seirans. During six weeks of training, the release time of three Seirans from a submarine was reduced to 30 minutes, including the installation of floats, although in battle it was planned to launch aircraft without floats from a catapult, which took 14.5 minutes.

The initial target of the 1st flotilla was the locks of the Panama Canal. Six aircraft were to carry torpedoes and the remaining four bombs. Two aircraft were assigned to attack each target. The flotilla was to follow the same route as Nagumo's squadron during the attack on Pearl Harbor three and a half years earlier. But it soon became clear that even if successful, such a raid was absolutely pointless in order to influence the strategic situation in the war. As a result, on June 25, an order was issued to send the 1st Submarine Flotilla to attack American aircraft carriers on Ulithi Atoll. On August 6, I-400 and I-401 left Ominato, but shortly after, a fire broke out on the flagship due to a short circuit. This forced the start of the operation to be postponed until August 17, two days before which Japan capitulated. But even after that, the headquarters of the Japanese fleet planned to launch an attack on August 25th. However, on August 16, the flotilla was ordered to return to Japan, and four days later to destroy all offensive weapons. On I-401, the planes ejected without starting their engines and without crews, and on I-400 they were simply pushed into the water. Thus ended the history of the most unusual scheme for the use of naval aviation during the Second World War, which interrupted the history of the underwater aircraft for many years.

length - 11.64 m

height - 4.58 m

wing area - 27 sq.m

Our days

The US is currently working on the Cormorant aircraft.

American engineer L. Rail created the Cormorant project - a silent jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicle based on a submarine, which can be equipped with both a melee weapon system and reconnaissance equipment.

Skunk Works, owned lockheed martin, is developing an unmanned aircraft that will launch from a submarine from a submerged position. Skunk Works is famous for developing the U-2 Dragon Lady and SR-71 Black Bird reconnaissance aircraft in the 60s of the last century.

The new development is called Cormorant (cormorant). The aircraft will be able to launch from the Ohio-class submarine's Trident ballistic missile silo. These strategic missile carriers were no longer in demand with the end of the Cold War, and now some of them are being converted into special operations submarines.

The aircraft will be launched using a manipulator that will bring it to the surface. After that, the drone will open its folded wings and be able to fly. He will land on the water, after which the same manipulator will return the plane to the submarine.

However, building an aircraft that can withstand the pressure at a depth of 150 feet and yet be light enough to fly is not an easy task. Another complication, submarines survive by being silent, and a plane returning back to the boat can give away its location. The Skunk Works answer is a four-ton aircraft with gull-wings that can fold along the body of the aircraft so that it can fit into the shaft.

The design of the aircraft is durable - the body, made of titanium, is designed for overloads that can occur at a depth of 45 meters, and all voids are filled with foam, which increases strength. The rest of the body is compressed by an inert gas. Inflatable rubber seals protect weapon bays, engine inlets, and other aircraft components. The hull geometry is made according to a complex scheme, which reduces its radio visibility. The aircraft will be capable of performing reconnaissance or strike missions, depending on the equipment with which it will be equipped.

And back in 2008, according to www.flightglobal.com, "The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense (DARPA) formulated the tactical and technical requirements for an aircraft of a fundamentally new type, which can not only fly, but also swim in the surface and submerged position. According to Flight Global, the concepts of the flying submarine and proposals for their experimental evaluation must be submitted by interested companies before December 1, 2009.

The requirements, in particular, provide for a flight range of at least 1850 kilometers, as well as the possibility of overcoming 185 kilometers on water and 22 kilometers under water in no more than 8 hours. The carrying capacity of the aircraft should be 910 kilograms, the cabin capacity is 8 people.

Snorkeling will be performed at shallow depths. Air supply and exhaust gases are planned to be carried out by means of a snorkel - a retractable twin pipe.

The aircraft is planned to be used for covert delivery of special forces groups to coastal areas. The concept of its use also implies the possibility of being near the landing site for three days until the mission is completed. In standby mode, the aircraft will most likely be on the surface.

Previous attempts by the Pentagon to create a flying submarine ended in vain. A feature of the new project should be the transformability of the apparatus, depending on the density of the external environment.”

I won’t tell you in detail how things are now with these developments, maybe like this:

The undeniable dominance of the armed forces of one country over the whole world - these are the main priorities of the leading powers of the 20th century, and even now. It is not surprising that the USSR and the USA have always been secretly or openly fighting for power superiority. In such a competition there are never winners and losers, since everything is relative, but it is worth crossing the fine line, and the real war is just around the corner.

In order to remain among the leading countries in the world, the USSR could not afford to lag behind in the development of both civilian and military technologies. Thanks to this arms race, many of the greatest and very promising projects of the past are currently gathering dust in the archives of both countries. In the current era of the declassification of the "TOP SECRET" documents of the KGB and the CIA, many crazy projects of scientists have become known to mankind, for example, "Atomic Bullets" or "Flying Submarine". So what is a flying submarine (LPL) and where could it be used?

Having received a go-ahead from Stalin regarding the creation of a fundamentally new navy of the country through large-scale scientific research and the introduction of advanced technologies, technical minds from all over the USSR receive a certain freedom of thought. Since the 1930s, scientists have been developing new ships, guns, and some unimaginable projects. Among them is the idea of ​​​​creating an LPL - a flying submarine.

Now it is difficult to imagine a submarine-aircraft. But we must pay tribute to the talented engineer Boris Ushakov, who, while studying at the Higher Maritime Institute. Dzerzhinsky (1934-1937) was able to create on paper a project for a future flying submarine.

Another idea, ahead of its time, arose as much as 30 years earlier than Western competitors thought about it. At first, Ushakov's plan was received with a bang, however, a few years later, the NIVK (research military committee) decided to freeze the project. No, this does not mean that the studies were fruitless or unpromising: the committee simply regarded the brainchild of Boris Ushakov as too difficult to implement, moreover, too energy- and financially costly.

The official reason was composed something like this: "The project is curtailed due to insufficient speed under water, although the commission considered it very promising for the Soviet Navy." Of course, the scientist could not come to terms with such a decision and continued to work on his own. But without serious funding, the implementation of the LPL was still impossible.

LPL design, purpose and effective application

The most interesting information is technical specifications aircraft submarines. Firstly, in appearance, the device was a 3-propeller aircraft with a cockpit in which a periscope was installed.

Secondly, according to the internal arrangement, the compartments were divided:

• the first three aircraft engines with AM-34 engines;
• one living compartment;
• a room with a battery installation;
• compartment with a propeller motor.

Although the project remained only on paper, all the technical aspects were carefully thought out and calculated, that is, they are quite feasible. All flight instruments were located in sealed capsules and could not be exposed to water. The body of the aircraft was supposed to be made of duralumin (light, but quite durable metal), but the wings were made of steel. Tanks with fuel and oily liquids were made of rubber to prevent damage and fuel leakage.

The range of applications for such an air-underwater monster was as wide as possible. Imagine a rough picture of the actions. An LPL with a crew of 3 takes off from a military airfield. After some time, it flies to the target, from a bird's eye view it detects the course of the ship. Further, the aircraft quietly maneuvers and splashes down over the horizon along the course of the object. By the way, the process of splashdown and full immersion takes only 1.5 minutes. Maximum diving depth - 45 m, autonomy - 48 hours. Since acoustic systems may well detect an unidentified object at sea, it is recommended for LPLs to maintain complete silence and wait a bit until the target comes within range of the shot. Soon a torpedo is fired, and the submarine floats up and takes off into the sky.

Given its considerable flight speed and altitude limit (185 km / h, maximum height- 2.5 km), it will not be difficult to quickly hide. The flight range also cannot but please - 800 km, however, the speed under water is 2-3 knots, which, translated into understandable kilometers, is 3-5 km / h. It was this fact that did not play in favor of research.

Another situation. It is necessary to approach the enemy shores and carry out bombing. The aforementioned aircraft-submarine will also help here, which can equally hide both in the water and high in the clouds.

There are plenty of pluses, for example, minefields for such a boat are not an obstacle. And you can use LPL both for reconnaissance purposes and for military operations. If you create small groups of 3 aircraft each, then such flying submarines could create a barrier for warships at a distance of more than 10 km. Three Ushakov submarines had 2 torpedoes and 2 twin machine guns each. For 10 km of space, 6 torpedoes are quite enough to stop the enemy.

However, even such advantages could not influence the opinion of the leadership, and in 1937 the project was frozen.

American fantasies - UFO or secret development of the USSR

In 1963, a significant event took place near the state of California. The film captured the appearance of a UFO from the water, which looked like an ordinary plane. The information obtained from the declassified archives suggests that the object that soared into the sky was not of alien origin, but of a completely human construction. And if you listen to the Americans, then in general it should say “Made in USSR”. But is it?

Thanks to the report of Richard Colen (a sheriff's assistant who worked at the time of the appearance of the UFO), it is known from his words and taking into account the video footage he shot that the object has the shape of an airplane, and reality does not allow it to be considered a UFO. Immediately after the video was made public, the White House claims that Soviet intelligence was testing its new weapon prototype off Katolina Island. From the words of Charles Brown (employee of the Office of Special Investigations of the US Air Force in 1965-1983), it becomes clear that the leadership of the United States was sure that this phenomenon was nothing more than the intrigues of the USSR. Moreover, they were convinced that such an open appearance of a UFO-like object was an oversight by the intelligence forces of the Soviet Union.

In response, the USSR is silent. It seems that the version of Russian involvement is confirmed, but this cannot be. After all, it is already known for sure that the project to develop a flying submarine was closed back in 1937, and for 3 years of development, the whole color of Soviet science did not manage to create a single real full-size sample. So, is it still a UFO or a flying submarine? How to know? Many documents are still kept under a special stamp, and some of them will never be declassified.

The West does not sleep - analogues of the US LPL

Despite the fact that the United States came up with the idea of ​​​​creating a flying underwater vehicle quite late, in the end, the project came to an end, through the jungle of underfunding and other problems.

At first, the Americans tried to create an ordinary drone that would take off at depth from a submarine, and then take off into the air.

The first attempt was 10 years after the Soviet surveys - in 1945. For unknown reasons, the project was soon closed. The second such attempt was embodied much later - in 1964, and in two projects at once:

It turned out that the United States brought to life the idea of ​​\u200b\u200ba flying submarine

Finally, the third attempt was successful. The American concern Lockheed Martin in 1975 introduced the first workable copy called "Carmoran". The ability to quickly take off from a depth of 150 meters was invested in its performance characteristics, and the maximum acceleration rates reached 400 km / h. Moreover, the Stealth system made the device invisible to

Photo of the device (side). Streamlined shapes are visible, which equally well help to develop decent speed both in airspace and under water.

At the moment, LPL Karmoran is the only one of its kind. But let's not forget the immortal project of Boris Ushakov. In fact, the Americans created an unmanned submarine, but they could not create a manned vehicle with the indicated properties, like the Soviet LPL Ushakov.

One can only hope that the current Russian scientists will remember the developments of Ushakov, gathering dust on the shelves of history, and will be able to approach the implementation of the issue from a modern point of view, that is, better than it could have been at that time.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.