Recently, the media published a laconic message about the report of Vladimir Denisov, an employee of the Russian scientific and production space center. It voiced the idea of building a spacecraft in a monoblock design, capable of flying to the Moon or Mars, flying around Venus.
The spacecraft, by design, will carry out movement in the field of gravity of the planets using a combined propulsion nuclear installation. The flight in orbit is planned to be carried out at the expense of "electric rocket engines" powered by a nuclear power station on board.
The speaker also mentioned that the basis for such a project has already been developed by Russian scientists, in particular Myasishchev Vladimir Mikhailovich. At the same time, the speaker tactfully kept silent about the military rank of the named person.
He was a major general engineer.
The relevance of the issue raised in the report
Vladimir Denisov, announcing a possible research topic, clearly hinted at the Myasishchev MG-19 aircraft, developed in the 70s of the last century, brought to the stage of working drawings.
It was a promising model. In the case of its creation, which was planned by the end of the 80s, the USSR would have far outstripped the United States in space by significantly “replaying” the American Space Shuttle program. The M-19 project was not completed, but for two generations of Soviet space engineers it became a legend.
From today's perspective, the program for Myasishchev’s project was voluntarily closed in the 80s. Admittedly, the aircraft of the Soviet aircraft designer Vladimir Myasishchev MG-19 was not the only victim. Interim managerial officers then destroyed all military science, which required appropriations and yielded results only after years, while hiding behind demagoguery.
According to modern calculations, a dozen Myasishchev planes would have provided an excess of Earth-Space cargo turnover for the period until the end of the 21st century. With the help of these aircraft, systems of satellites and orbital stations would be created much cheaper and larger . The combat capabilities of space systems increased by an order of magnitude.
The universal project - the Myasishchev MG-19 aircraft - simultaneously achieved four scientific goals, creating:
- atomic supersonic aircraft;
- hypersonic cryogenic fuel aircraft;
- aerospace aircraft;
- spacecraft driven by a nuclear reactor.
At the same time, the Soviet project Buran-2, which replaced MG-19, pursued only one of these tasks: designing an aerospace aircraft. Simply put, it was just an adequate response to the American Space Shuttle program, nothing more.
Vladimir Mikhailovich, before taking up the space program, glorified his name in the field of aeronautical engineering, creating heavy supersonic bomber aircraft. This article is devoted to his biography and technical research.
Myasischev Vladimir Mikhailovich. Carier start
This man’s life was full. Myasischev enjoyed authority among colleagues. He was respected by S. Korolev, two prominent aircraft engineers were connected by close friendship. His ideas overtook time, and the development was always over-relevant. It’s enough to mention that Myasishchev’s aircraft set 19 world records.
The future General Designer OKB-23 was born in 1902, in the family of a wealthy merchant in the Tula province. Interest in aviation arose in childhood, when a detachment of red pilots landed in his hometown of Efremov. The boy touched their planes with his hands and "got sick" with them for life.
He graduated from Myasishchev MVTU im. Bauman at 25 years old and at the same time married - Elena Spendiarova, daughter of an Armenian composer.
After graduating, he worked at Tupolev Design Bureau for twelve years. He studied the intricacies of design with his leader Petlyakov V. M. Vladimir Myasischev. The aircraft “Maxim Gorky”, ANT-20, TB-3 became the fruit of the work of the engineering and technical team, where the hero of this article gained experience.
Vladimir Mikhailovich stood out among his colleagues with fundamental physical and mathematical knowledge. In 1934, he led the creation of the ANT-41 torpedo bomber, while he was the head of the TsAGI brigade.
Since 1937, Myasischev established the mass production of Li-2 as the chief designer of the plant number 84 (Khimki). This became a recognition in him of a manufacturing practitioner.
Rescue arrest
It was not easy for the army when all its elite was repressed. To the credit of certain NKVD workers, the "brains of the Armed Forces" were tried to save. Perhaps that is why, in 1938, acting in advance of Beria’s bones, the leading aircraft engineers were arrested, forced to sign a confession, were sentenced and sentenced to serve their sentence in Prison Design Bureau No. 23.
Once there, Myasischev was surprised to see familiar faces: his mentor Petlyakov, Tupolev, Korolev, and another dozen aviation specialists who had been arrested earlier. They not only worked together, but also lived in the same room.
However, the NKVD was never a charity. Vladimir Mikhailovich's liabilities included a 10-year prison term and confiscation of property. The asset includes a saved life, working capacity, and talent, which allow them to be rehabilitated in the future.
The designer was a good family man. Hope to help him survive the hope of returning to his family again. As he recalled, only thanks to the letters of his wife did he not break.
Aircraft industry. Teaching work
The aircraft designer understood that creativity and unconventionality were required of him. The project of innovative long-range bomber in 1939 was developed by Myasischev. Soviet-made aircraft, its predecessors, lagged behind him for a whole generation. Vladimir Mikhailovich introduced a whole range of new products: remotely controlled machine gun and cannon equipment, a thin wing and built-in tanks, a chassis with one driving wheel. In 1940, the aircraft designer was released ahead of schedule.
Since 1943, Vladimir Mikhailovich, after the death of his predecessor, headed the Kazan Design Bureau Petlyakov. Under his leadership, the PE-2I bomber was produced, surpassing the German counterparts in characteristics.
In 1945, his project of creating a four-engine bomber was recognized as unpromising and the development was closed. From 1946 to 1951 Myasishchev works as dean of the TsAGI Aircraft Construction Faculty. He purposefully deepens his knowledge. He, the Major General Engineer, was awarded the academic title of professor.
From strategic bombers to spaceships
Myasishchev was fundamentally disagreeing with the fact that in 1946 he was "expelled from applied aviation" because of the futility of the development. As a professor, he was able to fundamentally prove the accuracy of his research, which he outlined in 1950 in a personal letter to Stalin. They believed him. In 1951, a major general was appointed chief designer for the development of the M-4 strategic bomber.
The project was more than successful. Vladimir Mikhailovich created the Soviet strategic bomber, which became the forefather of a whole family of these vehicles (M-50, M-52, M-53, M-54).
In 1956, the designer first faced the challenge of creating a nuclear engine. The engineer-general improved his previous model of the intercontinental bomber M-50. With good combat capabilities of the machine, however, fuel consumption was criticized: 500 tons for a one-way flight to the American continent. To the honor of the hero of this article, the engine manufacturer was not his design bureau.
This drawback for launching the aircraft in mass production was critical. The designer decided to eliminate it in the next model.
M-60 Myasishchev - a strategic bomber driven by a nuclear reactor - was supposed to become a more advanced intercontinental weapon. However, the project was stopped. The point is not even that science of that level could not solve the problem of radiation. It’s just that Secretary General Khrushchev decided that ballistic missiles are much more promising for intercontinental attacks.
Subsequently, the aircraft designer decided to develop aircraft for space. Since 1956, his design bureau No. 23 was the first in the USSR to work on the creation of a rocket plane landing in an airplane. Myasischev possessed considerable research experience. He was ready to develop space planes from scratch, because they were described only in the most general terms by theorists. In parallel with domestic scientists, the Americans developed a similar Space Shuttle program. The Soviet version of the space shuttle was called Buran-1.
Vladimir Mikhailovich phased planned work on an aircraft, which had no analogues. To begin with, his design bureau has developed four possible options for its design:
- winged with angles of attack small for entry and decelerating hypersonic shields;
- winged with angles of attack large entrance and landing planning;
- wingless with a rotor descent;
- cone-shaped with a parachute landing.
The design approved the design of a triangular type with a flat bottom. Difficult survey work was carried out step by step, but fate prepared another blow to the gifted scientist. Topic closed. Myasischev could not even have foreseen such a subjective intervention in science: spacecraft in the USSR were supplanted by missiles. Secretary General Khrushchev, inspired by the success of S.P. Korolev, decided: "We will not pull both programs!" By resolution of the Council of Ministers, work on the creation of the first Buran was terminated.
The last project of the scientist
Vladimir Mikhailovich was a tough nut: he was repressed, and he became one of the leading scientists in the world in the field of astronautics. The themes of his research were forcibly closed twice, but he did not give up. Only one let the scientist down - age. Myasishchev knew that, having begun global work, he would not finish it. He once said this to his first deputy: “This project will be my swan song. I will not find her result. However, I can start it in the right direction. ”
The sixty-four-year-old designer, as if having dropped forty years, enthusiastically took up the development of the global topic “Cold-2”, the result of which was the project “Suborbital aircraft Myasishchev MG-19”. A fundamentally new aircraft was created.
The necessary basic research, design, testing and, finally, the full implementation of the project were planned for about twenty years. Initially, it was planned to develop a technology for the consumption of cryogenic fuel, then the rest of the design work.
Vladimir Mikhailovich created and rallied a professional and creative team to resolve research and development work. Myasishchev's colleague A. D. Tokhunts became the head of the project complex, I. Z. Plyusnin was the chief designer, A. A. Brook and N. D. Baryshov were appointed leading specialists in the areas.
Suborbital aircraft Myasishchev. Engine
The unique propulsion system was the hallmark of the 19th model. It turned out to be a stumbling block for many scientists. Some of them considered the technical characteristics of the project to be fundamentally unattainable. Others considered it impossible to create a nuclear engine that did not threaten the cosmonauts themselves with radiation.
However, the team, managed by the designer, calculated the necessary technical parameters of the engine, due to which the plane of Vladimir Myasishchev MG-19 ceased to seem like a fantasy. A combined propulsion system using the energy of a nuclear reaction gave him the opportunity not only to develop near-Earth space, but also near the moon. The nuclear installation made it possible to use promising types of space weapons: beam, beam, and climate.
The project also resolved the problem of crew exposure. The radioactive circuit was isolated using a special heat exchanger. On this issue, Vladimir Mikhailovich held a planned consultation with the presidents of the Soviet Academy of Sciences A.P. Aleksandrov. Tot praised the newly created aircraft of Vladimir Myasishchev MG-19, making a firm statement that in ten years a serial combined engine with a nuclear installation would be created.
More about the engine
Consider the scheme of the nuclear engine Myasishchev. The working fuel for it is hydrogen, which is supplied to the engine. An oxidizing agent is not needed for this fluid system using a nuclear reactor. Fuel burning in a controlled chain reaction heats up hydrogen, which turns into plasma, is ejected through nozzles under considerable pressure and makes the “space shuttle” move.
Project who fell victim to schemers
Computational studies have confirmed the impressive technical capabilities of an aerospace aircraft. However, on a project requiring further five-year study, the Damocles sword of closure suddenly hovered. Minister of Defense Ustinov supported the faster project of Academician Glushko V.P. “Energy-Buran”. Against the background of the position of the fourth-rated person in the USSR, the position of the Minister of Aviation, Dementiev P.V., supporting the Myasishchev nuclear plane, was not critical. Pyotr Vasilyevich, having studied the documentation, understood that if it was created, MG-19 would mark a qualitative separation of the Soviet space program, and the Buran project would be only a symmetrical answer to the Pentagon.
For some time the Minister of the Aviation Industry tried to delay the implementation of the program of Academician Glushko. However, the enterprises subordinate to him involved in the creation of space planes were transferred by order from Minaviaprom to the Ministry of General Engineering.
So power intriguers stopped the project creating a suborbital aircraft of aircraft designer Vladimir Myasishchev MG-19. Vladimir Mikhailovich turned into a subordinate chief designer of Lozino-Lozinsky V.G. Work on the aerospace plane began to be phased out, and after the death of Myasishchev in 1978, its development was closed.
How to understand the statement of the Khrunichev center?
Readers who already have a general idea of what Myasishchev V. M. MG-19 is now can more clearly imagine what was implied in a recent statement by a representative of the Russian space department.
It contains a certain share of guile. Far from being a pacifist, Major General Myasishchev was. The study of deep space declared in the Khrunichev report is in fact today for Russia is not priority No. 1. First, the necessary conditions must arise.
Let us cite the idea expressed last year by the head of the department of the Institute for Space Research of the RAS Igor Mitrofanov. He noted that research flights into space will become a reality in 25 years, when the problem of protecting the ship and crew from space radiation will be resolved.
The temptation is too great to use the unlimited military capabilities of outer space. Suborbital aircraft of the Soviet aircraft designer Vladimir Myasishchev significantly reduces the cost of component delivery and installation of space systems. These may be weapons that strike the enemy’s electrical equipment with an electromagnetic pulse, intercept their missiles with a powerful laser, or remotely controlled moon-based rocket launchers. Current designers are developing a rather exotic weapon:
- climatic;
- catching asteroids and redirecting them to ground targets.
Thus, if it was possible to create the Myasishchev M-19 aircraft today, then this would mean only one thing - a new round of the arms race in the already studied near space. Indeed, a focused study of the distant complex is predicted by scientists only after two decades.
It is naive to believe that the Khrunichev Center will receive allocations for this project not from the military department.
Conclusion
Once the USSR Minister of Aviation Industry Dementiev had the imprudence to say at a meeting of aircraft designers that Myasishchev's projects would be realized when their descendants forgot the graves of all those present.
It seems that he was not mistaken. Today, the development of the seventies, the suborbital plane of Vladimir Myasishchev MG-19, is again gaining relevance in the 21st century.
In terms of its scientifically substantiated capabilities, the aircraft conceived by the Major General exceeds the functionality of the shuttle in many basic indicators:
- all-azimuth launch;
- self-return to the launch pad and the possibility of self-relocation;
- increased economic efficiency;
- use of a larger range of types of orbits;
- the capabilities of a space aircraft alternately become airborne at an altitude of 50-60 thousand km, and then again return to space.
However, with all the "pluses" of the MiG-19 Miasishchev aircraft, it will not take on significance in the study of a distant complex right now. Before releasing brave people into it, it is necessary to scientifically and technically solve the problem of their radiation safety.