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Pulp Kalinan K-7B

Page history last edited by Michael 13 years, 8 months ago

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A gigantic amphibious airplane, developed in the Soviet Union. There are transport, bomber and air tanker versions; the first example is named Nadezhda Krupskaya .

 

 

  • Wingspan 328' (nearly 6' at figure scale), length 174' in all versions. The center section of the wing is 16' thick, 90' wide, with a chord of 70'. There are two levels within the main fuselage and center wing, plus the pontoon-like floats are 85' long, 9' deep and 10' wide each. The maximum weight they would support as floats is about 900,000 lbs (before submerging), so probably when afloat in fresh water the plane has a draft of 8' and a freeboard of 1'.
  • Empty weight at least 300,000 lbs, takeoff weight at least 800,000 lbs.
  • Engines 20 supercharged AM34FRN liquid-cooled V12 of 1200 HP each; 72,000 gallons of fuel carried.
  • Top speed 145 mph, cruise speed 112 mph, landing speed about 90 mph, ceiling 13,100', range 5000 miles (enough to fly Moscow to Mombasa non-stop). Speed will decrease if external loads are fitted (parasite fighters, fuel tanks, etc.), but worst cruise speed is still 105 mph. Takeoff from land requires 1200' of runway, landings require 1000'.
  • Four externally-carried 7,000 gallon droppable fuel tanks can extend the range to 7000 miles; and air-to-air refuelling from a specialized tanker version can extend the range even further. The air tanker can take off with about 105,000 gallons of fuel aboard (no external tanks needed or possible at that weight).
  • Crew as transport:  16 (six pilots, four engineers, two mechanics, 2 stewards, navigator, radio operator), passengers 128+.  As bomber, at least 27 crew (six pilots, four engineers, two mechanics, navigator, bombardier, radio operator, twelve gunners); plus 56 seats for nicely-accomodated paratroops (more could be crammed in for shorter flights, probably two companies of infantry).
  • Equipment:  multiple radios, sick bay. 24 wheel (6' diameter each) retractable landing gear - the floats are mostly full of wheels when retracted. There are no landing gear doors, but rather seals around the vertical retraction pylons. Air-to-air refueling hatch on upper wing.
  • Armament (bomber version):  eight  flexible ShKAS machine guns (four in the floats, two on the upper tail boom surface, two on the tail boom ends) and four turret-mounted ShVAK autocannons; possibly more flexible ShKAS machine guns on the "balcony" around the cockpit; bomb load of at least 42,000 lbs., or two or more parasite fighters (externally carried), or up to two air-droppable amphibious tanks (up to 8.4 tons weight each), or half a dozen Na-12 Kolossus walking tanks; man-ape paratroops ...

 

Notice the two "mystery rooms", 30 feet on a side or so. These might be labs, VIP quarters, cells, or other mission-specific items.

 

 

upper deck

 

 

lower deck

 

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:  the Kalinin K-7 aircraft of 1933 was much smaller than this fantasy aircraft. Despite the failure of the K-7, Stalin has become convinced of the utility of large aircraft, and ordered the development of this much larger plane.

 


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