Be10 Aircraft

Be10 Aircraft - A dual-control trainer modification for the Be-10 was developed, but it is unclear if there were any updates of production machines to that configuration. There was also work on an ASW variant; a target spotting variant with an Uspekh radar system to designate naval targets for long-range

antiship missile attack; and a "Be-10N" missile carrier, with a K-12 missile under each wing and a bulbous nose radome for targeting radar. None of these variants ever flew. There are tales of a Be-10 in the colors of Aeroflot,

Be10 Aircraft

but only because of an imaginative image to that effect on a Soviet postage stamp issued in 1965. To hide all ads and enable 50+ premium features, view our subscription options here. If you're already a subscriber, log in here.

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Or to continue using RadarBox with ads, please disable any ad-blocking software on your browser and reload this page. The MBR-2 could carry up to 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of external stores, such as bombs or depth charges, on external racks.

It was powered by a Mikulin M-17B water-cooled vee-12 engine, with 545 kW (730 HP), mounted on struts on the back of the aircraft to keep it out of the water. The M-17 was derived from the German BMW VI engine, which had been used to power the

prototype. Like the Seamaster, the Be-10 was a pure flying boat -- no landing gear except for detachable beaching gear -- of all-metal construction; with all-swept flight surfaces, the high-mounted wings with a strong dihedral and

tipped with fixed floats; as well as defensive armament consisting solely of a tail turret. Beyond that, everything else was different, most notably that the Be-10 was substantially smaller, about two-thirds the empty weight of the Seamaster.

[] Beriev Be-

There were a number of concepts for a larger Tupolev flying boat, devised under the designation of "ANT-11", ultimately leading to the development of the "ANT-22". This aircraft was something of a grotesque monster, amounting to

two large flying boat hulls without cockpits joined together, with a central cockpit pod at midwing, the aircraft being roughly the same weight as the later Beriev Be-6. The ANT-22 was powered by six vee-inline engines, mounted

in tractor-pusher pairs on struts above the wing; the right hull had nose, dorsal, and tail gun turrets, while the left hull appears to only have had the dorsal turret -- the armament configuration is very unclear.

Munitions were carried in bays in the wing center section and on external racks. * Although the MDR-5 did not enter production, it did provide a basis for a development of a more formidable twin-engine flying boat, the "Be-6", for the

[] Footnote Tupolev Flying Boats

maritime patrol and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) roles. Development started in 1943, leading to initial flight of a prototype, the "LL-143", in 1945. Refinement and enlargement of the LL-143 design led in turn to the initial Flight of the first production in February 1949, the type entering service

1950. Munitions were carried in an internal weapons bay with waterproof bomb bay doors, total warload being up to about 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds). There were doors on top of the fuselage for downloading ammunition into the weapons

bay. The tail turret was fitted with twin AM-23 23-millimeter cannon, the tail gunner directing the weapons with an optical sight and Argon radar. There were also twin fixed AM-23 cannons in the nose, fired by the pilot

through a gunsight. Avionics included radios, radio navigation aids, IFF, chaff-flare dispensers, tail warning radar, and a Kurs-M search radar, peering through a radome in the nose under the navigator's position. * In the meantime, the Tupolev OKB had "inherited" a flying-boat design

[] Beriev Be-

generated by Chyetverikov, which was rethought by Tupolev engineers to result in the "ANT-27", with initial flight of the first prototype in 1934. It was broadly similar to the ANT-8 but about twice as heavy, with three

inline engines mounted high on struts instead of two -- the center engine being of pusher configuration, the others of tractor configuration. The last of the Tupolev flying boats was the most impressive of the lot.

In In 1934, the Short Brothers firm of the UK, well-known for its flying boats, had offered to sell the USSR a leading-edge long-range flying boat design. The The Soviets gave the idea a look-over, to conclude that the Tupolev OKB should

develop such a flying boat, using the short proposal as a starting point. The basic design of the "ANT-44" was in hand by 1935, with flight of the first prototype in 1937. As with the R-1, there were three crew -- navigator / bombardier in the nose,

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pilot under the bubble canopy, and radio operator / tail gunner in the tail. Crew accommodations were pressurized. The navigator and pilot got into the aircraft from a watertight door on the right side of the forward fuselage;

the navigator also had a top hatch, and the pilot's canopy hinged open to the right. The tail gunner had a door to his compartment on the right. The navigator and pilot had ejection seats, the tail gunner got out through a

ventral hatch -- ejecting through the tailfin was clearly not an option. The aircraft carried a set of one-man inflatable life rafts and a larger one inflatable dinghy. Trials began in 1934, but performance was disappointing;

given the complexity of the aircraft, development was likely to be protracted, and it was judged likely to be obsolete by the time it was introduced. The ANT-22 was abandoned. It should be noted that the ANT-22's sea-keeping capability was

[] Beriev Mbr-

excellent, that consideration being one of the drivers for the unorthodox twin-hull configuration, and it had an impressive load capability. Its configuration and load capability led to an extremely imaginative proposal for operating the ANT-22 as a mini-submarine carrier.

* In the prewar period, the Soviet design bureau under Andrei N. Tupolev built a number of flying boats, none of which entered full production, but might as well be briefly discussed here for completeness. The first was the

"ANT-8", "ANT" of course standing for its designer -- this aircraft being roughly along the lines of the Beriev MBR-2, but about twice as heavy and with twin vee inline pusher engines, mounted in individual nacelles on struts

above the wing. The ANT-8, which had a service designation of "MDR-2", performed test flights in 1931, but it was a demonstrator for larger flying boat designs, not really intended as a production aircraft. Flight controls were conventional, with ailerons, one-piece flaps (split at

[] Be- In Service / Be- Variants Modifications

the engine), elevators, and rudders, all manually controlled. There was no defensive armament; up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of stores could be carried in a weapons bay, with belly doors behind the hull step, stores

including homing torpedoes, depth charges, mines, and sonar buoys ("sonobuoys"). Two stores pylons could be fitted to each wing outboard of the engine for carriage of torpedoes or depth charges -- with two charges per pylon -- but it is unusual to find images of the Be-12 with store pylons

fitted, suggesting they usually weren't in operational service. Of the production machines, one was built in the mid-1960s as a "Be-14" SAR aircraft, external differences being the MAD boom bobbed off, additional doors, and the observation blister moved forward;

a pop-up searchlight was added to the back of the blister. A doctor and a flight technician were added to the crew; the aircraft carried rescue kit, such as inflatable life rafts, and could carry a nominal load of 15 passengers, more in overload

Shsht Beriev Be- Chaika

condition. * The Be-10 was an innovative and impressive aircraft in its way, one stripped-down machine being used to set records for flying boat performance. It wasn't as graceful as the Seamaster, more inclined to the muscular

appearance, as was Soviet preference. It was also a failure, never being formally adopted for operational service. The main problem was that its mission had become irrelevant; while a flying boat would make sense for ASW

and SAR operations, the Be-10 was too much for such roles. In addition, the bombing / mining / reconnaissance role could be just as well handled by land-based long-range aircraft and the torpedo-bombing role was simply

obsolete. The initial prototype of the new flying boat, designated simply "Aircraft Number 25", proved successful in trials, and so it was ordered into production as the Beriev "Marine Short-Range Reconnaissance (Morskoi Blizniy Razvedchik) 2" or just "MBR-2". It was a tidy monoplane flying boat of

[] Comments Sources Revision History

mostly wooden construction and a crew of three, including a pilot, a nose gunner, and a rear gunner. Both gunners were armed with a single PV-1 7.62-millimeter (0.30-caliber) machine gun on a flexible mount. Early trials demonstrated the engine intakes had a nasty tendency to gulp up

water during sea surface operations; the engines also tended to flame out from gun gas ingestion. As a result, a production machine was refitted with engine intakes that extended forward and up from the previous intake

location, while the cannons were fitted with blast gas deflectors to dissipate the gun gas. Trials showed that the extended intakes, to no surprise, choked down airflow and reduced performance, so no other Be-10 had them -- production machines being fitted instead with a prominent "strake"

around the nose to deflect sea spray. Even in refinement, the Be-10 was a bit of a handful on sea take-offs and landings, mostly because of its height speed it was not considered as an appropriate assignment for a novice pilot.

Sources give total Be-6 production as about 150 aircraft, all built at Taganrog -- a handful apparently being provided to Aeroflot, the Soviet civilian airline service, as transports for Arctic service. It was assigned to NATO

reporting name of "Madge". From the mid-1950s, Be-6 aircraft in the Red Navy service were given an updated equipment fit, most notably with the tail turret removed and replaced by a magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) boom for the

ASW mission. In its updated guise, the Be-6 was the first Soviet aircraft properly optimized for the ASW mission to go into operational service. Defensive armament consisted of twin NR-23 23-millimeter cannons remote-control tail and dorsal turrets, or four cannons total;

sources also mention an NR-23 on a flexible mount in the nose position, but it appears it was deleted early on. The Be-6 could carry up to four tonnes (8,800 pounds). of ordnance, such as depth charges, torpedoes, or mines, on underwing

stations; Illustrations show a station inboard and outboard of the engine on each wing. It could also haul a relief crew; or up to 40 troops in an assault transport role; and of course could be used for the search and rescue

(SAR) mission. It could extend a search radar radome from the rear fuselage. The first prototype crashed, killing three of its crew, within a week of it first flight, but a second prototype, the "ANT-27bis", was quickly finished

to perform trials. It crashed, too, but the ANT-27 did go into modest production, with 15 built as either "MDR-4" patrol aircraft or "MTB-1" bombers. Notions for a 14-seat airliner version were not followed up. The

service history of the ANT-27 is very obscure, the type apparently being retired after a few years of service. * Work on the improved jet flying boat design, initially given to the OKB designation of "izdeliye (product) M", began in late 1953. It was intended

for reconnaissance, antiship attack, minelaying, and bombing of naval bases and coastal installations. A full-scale mockup of the "Be-10", as it was officially designated, was available for inspection by the summer of 1954, with hydrodynamic tests performed using a subscale model, deployed from a

boom mounted on the front of a torpedo boat racing along the river Don. The tailfin had a straight trailing edge and a swept leading edge, with a forward fin fillet. The tailplane was mounted at mid-height on the tailfin,

with a bullet fairing at the joint. Flight control surfaces were conventional -- one-piece flaps, split by the engines; ailerons; rudder and elevators; and trim tabs. The flight surfaces and engine inlets were de-iced by engine bleed air;

the canopy was electrically de-iced. * From the early 1930s, Soviet aircraft designer Georgiy Mikhailovich Beriev developed a series of flying boats for the USSR, with his organization still in that line of work. This document describes Beriev flying boat designs up

to the 1960s, most notably the "Be-6", "Be-10", and "Be-12". It also provides a survey of flying boats developed by the Tupolev organization in the prewar period. * The Be-12 persisted in first-line Red Navy service through the 1980s, with

a few also flown by the Red Air Force to give personnel training in ASW procedures. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, numbers of Be-12 machines in the ranks declined steadily, the Ilyushin Il-18 land-based patrol

Aircraft taking over the ASW mission. A number of Chaikas ended up in service with the Ukrainian Navy, while several that still had useful airframe life were passed on for Russian civil service: * With the introduction of turbojet engines during World War II, during the

Postwar period there was a general interest in updating a range of aircraft accordingly. In 1947, the Beriev organization began studies of a jet-powered seaplane, with the development of the "R-1" -- where "R" apparently stood for

"Reactivniy (Reaction)", loosely translated as "jet" -- formally initiated in 1948. The prototype performed its initial flight on 30 May 1952, the crew being pilot I.M. Sukhomlin and flight engineer S. Kontratenko. The ANT-44 was remarkably similar to the famous Short Sunderland flying boat,

being a tidy modern design with four radial engines, plus nose and tail turrets. It was by no means a "clone" of the Sunderland, the ANT-44 prototype having flown several months before the Sunderland, and the two

machines had visible differences -- the ANT-44 being most notable distinguished by its gull wing, as opposed to the flat wing of the Sunderland. Avionics were sophisticated for the era, including radios, identification friend or foe (IFF) transponder, and radio navigation aids.

There was a Kurs radar in a nose radome for search and navigation. The R-1 also had a reconnaissance capability, with pivoting film cameras on each side of the fuselage for oblique photography. Interesting minor details included floats

that hinged up to the wingtips, plus a pop-open vent on the fuselage at the trailing edge of the wings, which provided venting to the boat hull step. Early trials had shown the R-1's sea handling to be downright terrifying, the

aircraft having a vicious tendency to pitch up to the extent of threatening to flip over, or otherwise throw itself to its destruction; the vent did much to tame the beast. The Be-12 saw little foreign service.

Following the 1967 Mideast Six-Day War, in 1968 three Be-12 machines were sent to Egypt to perform patrols. These aircraft were given Egyptian markings, but they were still under Soviet control control and had Soviet crews.

They came back home in 1971. Four Be-12s were handed over to Vietnam in the early 1980s. The initial prototype performed its first flight from the Black Sea on 20 June 1956, the crew being pilot V.V.

Kuryachiy, V.S. Fadeyev, and G.V. Galyatin. State trials began in October 1958, with the first production machine being rolled out in the summer of 1959. Including the prototype, a A total of 27 Be-10s were built in 1961. It was assigned to the obscure NATO

reporting name of "Mallow", after an herbaceous plant, following a flight of the Be-10 at the 1961 Moscow-Tushino air show. Armament included twin fixed forward-firing NR-23 23-millimeter cannon, aimed by the pilot through a gunsight, and a tail barbette with twin Sh-1

23-millimeter cannon, aimed by the tail gunner from blisters on each side of the rear fuselage of the aircraft. Bombs and other stores, up to a tonne (2,200 pounds) total, were carried on store attachments under the inner

wing. The bombardier dropped ammunition with an optical bombsight. The Be-10 also had a design defect in that it used an aluminum alloy that was prone to corrosion. Following a crash in August 1961, the tail gunner being

the sole survivor, the Be-10 fleet was grounded; the crash was judged due to pilot error, but the analysis revealed the corrosion problem. The Be-10 was formally phased out in 1963, with the survivors parked, and then scrapped

in 1968. Sadly, none survived. The Seamaster had a tee tail; the Be-10's tailplane, featuring a steep dihedral, was mounted at the base of the tailfin. The Seamaster had a conventional side-by-side crew cockpit; the Be-10 had a bubble canopy.

Another distinctive feature of the Be-10 were two wing fences on each wing -- a typical design element for swept-wing Soviet aircraft, the fences preventing airflow from "defecting" down the length of the wing. * In the late 1920s, Georgiy Beriev was a design engineer at the Soviet

Central Aerodynamics & Hydrodynamics Research Institute (TsAGI in its Russian acronym) in Moscow. In 1930, he was posted to Taganrog on the Sea of ​​Azov work on license production of an Italian-designed Savoia-Marchetti flying boat; from this experience, he came up with a design for his own flying boat, and in

1931 asked the authorities for permission to proceed on it. There was thought of going on to a more refined "R-2" seaplane, with uprated VK-5 engines and other improvements, as a step towards production -- but in

In 1953, the decision was made to move on to a much better next-generation jet seaplane, and so the single R-1 ended up being a technology demonstrator for its successor. The R-1 remained in test and trials for several years, to be

finally scrapped in 1959. The Be-6 remained in production until 1957 and in military service early 1970s, lingering for a few years after that in the fisheries patrol mission. The Chinese also obtained a number of Be-6 aircraft, updating

survivors with open WJ-7 turboprop engines in the 1970s.

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