Russia again, this time an experimental craft trying to push the limits of speed for the time. In 1932 this was developed with several experimental features trying to achieve maximum speed. To reduce drag, theres basically no canopy at all. The pilot opened up the small windowed section of the fuselage and poked his head out of the plane to see for takeoffs and landings, but had basically no visibility. The flush canopy made for less drag, and used a water cooling system running through double-skinned wings of stainless steel. The landing gear closed up under flaps to reduce drag as well, a single central wheel with smaller wing wheels. It was made of wood with corrugated metal panels for airflow, and actually got to very high speeds for the time. The water cooling was used to keep everything smooth and internal to make as sleek a plane as possible. In time they put a more substantial canopy on the thing so the poor pilot could see to fly and the Steel-8 was developed from it. However, before it ever saw action, the Soviet rejected it as having too vulnerable a cooling system. A few holes in the wings and the engines would over heat, basically. General characteristics Crew: 1 Length: 6.88 m (22 ft 6-3/4 in) Wingspan: 9.0 m (29 ft in) Wing area: 14.3 m² (154 ft²) Empty weight: 850 kg (1,874 lb) Gross weight: 1,080 kg (2,381 lb) Powerplant: 1 × V-1570 Curtiss Conqueror, 469.8 kW (630 hp) Performance Maximum speed: 420 km/h (261 mph) Rate of climb: 21 m/s (4,135 ft/min)
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 14:30:56 +0000
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