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Beriev-Bartini VVA-14 (Vertikal no-Vzletayuschaya Amphibia)

1972 COLD WAR X-PLANE

History of Beriev-Bartini VVA-14 (vertical no-Vzletayuschaya Amphibia)

The Polaris anti-submarine missile, introduced by the West during the Cold War (1947-1991), caused enough frustration among the Soviet ranks that some measures were taken to counter the perceived threat. One such enterprise became the Beriev-Bartinin VVA-14, an amphibious anti-submarine (ASW) aircraft that appeared in the early 1970s. In the end, the aircraft has only reached the prototype and testing stages, with two complete examples.

The design is credited to Italian engineer Robert Bartini (1897-1974), who worked on the project with the Soviet aircraft company Beriev.

Italian Communist Party member Baldini found himself in the Soviet Union after the rise of fascism in Italy in the 1920s and worked as an aeronautical engineer in the Soviet army. In 1928, he was appointed head of the experimental group responsible for the development of a new amphibious aircraft.

Like others who served during the brutal Stalinist regime, he spent several years in prison but continued to work in aviation, joining the Beriev company when he was already a prisoner. He was released in the mid-1950s and continued to advance the design of amphibious aircraft until his death in 1974.

The main feature of his VVA-14 design was the use of "ground wing effect" movements. This allowed the aircraft to fly very close to the surface and passed many Soviet-era Cold War designs, such as the Lun Ekranoplan (described in detail elsewhere on this site). Essentially, these seaplanes can fly over water and even take off and land like a traditional airshipwhile being able to achieve and maintain useful high speeds over a considerable operating range.

The advent of practical jet engines only encouraged the idea of ??such a plane.

The

Beriev company is known for its many years of development of amphibious seaplanes and seaplanes for the Soviet Empire. Some of his designs proved record-breaking at the time.

Engineers at Bartini and Beriev created a very unique aircraft with a tubular central fuselage. Hybrid is used to attach the main mass of the aircraft to a nacelle designed to accommodate floating hardware, and involves main aircraft with shoulder-mounted wings (these are straight attachments with truncated tips).

The heavy glass cockpit was placed at the very forward end of the fuselage. Two floating gondolas ran across the fuselage almost the entire length of the plane. A horizontal tail was used on the tail with a pronounced swept back, while the twin rudder arrangement completed the tail. Jet engines were used to provide the required inline propulsion, which became 2 Soloviev D-30M turbofans, each with 15,062 pounds of thrust.

The nacelles are paired forward of the empennage, aft of the midship and vented between the vertical fins via a dorsal mounting arrangement. Although primarily used for offshore operations, the aircraft is also equipped with wheeled retractable landing gear for ground takeoff and landing.

There are three operators.

As planned, the design will carry no less than 12 RD-36-35 PR "lift" turbofan engines, each producing 9,666 pounds of thrust to lift the massive machine from the water. However, the products were never matched, so the configuration was never really tested.

Dimensions include a length of 85 feet, a wingspan of 98.4 feet, and a height of 22.2 feet. Curb weight is 51,120 lbs and total weight is 114,400 lbs.

The VVA-14M1 was the first prototype, which appeared in 1972 and made its first flight (with rigid pontoons) on September 4 of that year. It was tested with retractable landing gear and took off from a runway in the traditional sense. The prototype later received inflatable pontoons for evaluation flight tests and water taxis. The M1 served as the primary test bed for aerodynamics and basic functionality before turning attention to a follow-up design, the VVA-14M2, for the required lift testing.

Control support should come from earlier versions of fly-by-wire (FBW) technology. In addition, there is the VVA-14M3, designed to mimic a production-quality model, equipped with expected anti-submarine warfare weapons and equipment, as well as all the proven systems and features of previous M1 and M2 products.

Despite the plans, interest in this special mission aircraft waned eventually by the Soviet authorities as Battini's death slowed it down in 1974, and only two M1 prototypes were completed. The design was never tested with the intended lift engine, and the prototype made a total of 107 flights.

Only one airframe has stood the test of time and is in dire condition in the Russian Monino Museum outside Moscow. As a result, the Soviets took more practical anti-submarine measures.

Aircraft performance specifications listed include a top speed of 472 mph, a cruise speed of 400 mph, a range of up to 1,520 miles and a service ceiling of up to 32,800 feet.