Designed by World War I aviator
Konstantin Kalinin with a wingspan greater than a B-52's and a much
greater wing area, the K-7 was one of the biggest aircraft built before
the jet age. It was only one engine short of the B-52 as well, having
the curious arrangement of six pulling on the wing leading edge and one
pushing at the rear. The K-7's very brief first flight showed up
instability and serious vibration caused by the airframe resonating with
the engine frequency. The solution to this 'flutter' was thought to be
to shorten and strengthen the tail booms, little being known then about
the natural frequencies of structures and their response to vibration.
On the 11th flight, during a speed test, the port tailboom vibrated,
fractured, jammed the elevator and caused the giant aircraft to plough
into the ground, killing 15. Undaunted by this disaster, Kalinin's team
began construction of two further K-7s in a new factory, but the
vicissitudes of Stalin's Russia saw the project abandoned, and in 1938
the arrest and execution of Kalinin on trumped up espionage and sabotage
charges. More images after the break...
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