"Tanks. Dat heeft onze missie nodig" *brigade der Cavalerie.
So the Soviet Air Force ordered Oleg Antonov to design a glider for landing tanks. A 40 In confirms sheer ambition and readiness of Antoniv A-40. Antonov was more ambitious, and instead added a detachable cradle to a T-60 light tank, bearing large wood and fabric biplane wings and twin tail. Such a tank could glide into the battlefield, drop its wings, and be ready to fight within minutes.
A 40's unit was towed by a heavy bomber such as the Petlyakov Pe-8 or Tupolev TB-3.Whilst Western sources say the KT never left the ground, Soviet sources say a single successful flight was made in 1941 or 1942. ( see below )
With only limited official support, the programme was cancelled shortly after that time. A-40 had maximum takeoff weight as 8200 kg. Its wing span was 15m and length was 11.5 m. Its towing speed and landing speed were 160km/h and 110 km/h resp.
(49ft 2.5 in and length 37 ft 8.25)
A 40 discusses about the challenges faced by air-dropping vehicles. The biggest problem with air-dropping vehicles is that their crews drop separately, and may be delayed or prevented from bringing them into action. Gliders allow crews to arrive at the drop zone along with their vehicles. They also minimize exposure of the valuable towing aircraft, which needn't appear over the battlefield.
Volando en mi tanque: http://talako.blogspot.com/2007/05/volando-en-mi-tanque.html
When I heard him I could not believe it, Antonov was insane, how on earth would a tank plan?. Reconozco que en un principio pensé que era una tontería como tantos otros proyectos de los ingenieros, pero luego me dí cuenta que la idea podría funcionar. I admit that at first I thought it was nonsense like so many other projects of engineers, but then I realized that the idea might work.
El martes nos presentaron el proyecto del A-40 Krylya Tanka , antes habían probado lanzar tanques desde Bombarderos pesados, pero está vez el Tanque sería lanzado como si fuera un planeador, el proyecto a simple vista era simple: Adherir un tanque T-40 a un Bombardero TB-3 y luego dejarlo caer para que pudiera aterrizar en tierra.
On Tuesday, we presented the draft A-40 Krylya Tanka, before they tried to launch heavy tanks from Bombers, but this time the tank would be launched as if it were a glider, the project was simple at first glance: Join a tank T-40 to Bomber a TB-3 and then drop so that he could land on earth.
No sé bien si algunos tanques fueron desplegados de esta manera, pero si se corrió el rumor de que los paracaidistas los utilizaron en varias operaciones.
I do not know either if some tanks were deployed in this way, but if they ran the rumor that the paratroopers used in a number of operations.
Jamás se me hubiera pasado por la cabeza el que un tanque pudiera volar hasta el campo de batalla y eso era lo que más me atraía del proyecto, ver las caras de mis comandantes al verme llegar en ese tanque sano y salvo o quizás ver como el enemigo veía descender del cielo a esas bestias de acero que los atacarían como aves salvajes.
I had never gone through the head on a tank that could fly to the battlefield and that was what attracted me most of the project, see the faces of my commanders to see me get in that tank safe or maybe watch the enemy looked down from heaven to those steel beasts that attack as wild birds.
El proyecto era tan secreto que ni yo sabía cuando eran las pruebas, sólo pasaron por mí y me dieron un paracaídas, al llegar a la pista de aterrizaje ví a un enorme TB-3 que tenía acoplado un T-40 en su parte inferior.
The project was so secret that neither I knew when the tests were only passed by me and gave me a parachute, to reach the runway I saw a huge TB-3 which was docked a T-40 at its bottom. Yo tendría que saltar luego de que el tanque fuera lanzando y seguirlo hasta su punto de caída.
I would have to jump after the tank was throwing up and follow their point of collapse.
Muchas dudas llegaron a mi mente, no sabía como se iba a comportar el tanque al descender, ni tampoco los daños que tendría.
Many questions came to my mind, I did not know I was going to behave as the tank to descend, nor would damage.
Tovarich, suba al avión y espere ordenes- me dijo mi Mayor, luego de sobrevolar la zona un par de veces me dieron la orden de saltar, junto a mí pasó el tanque T-40 planeado por el cielo, fue increíble ver eso, poco a poco comencé a caer y tuve que abrir mi paracaídas, lamentablemente no era muy diestro con el uso de ese artefacto, por lo que no pude seguir al Tanque como yo lo esperaba, terminé a más de 40 metros del tanque y luego de una dolorosa caída corrí a ver como estaba.
Tovarich, raise the plane and wait for orders-told me my Mayor, then flying over the area a couple of times I gave the order to jump, next to me passed the T-40 tank planned by the sky was incredible to see that, little by little I started to fall and I had to open my parachute, unfortunately it was not very clever with the use of this device, so I could not follow the Tank as I expected, finished more than 40 meters from the tank, and after a painful fall ran to see how it was.
No lo podía creer, el tanque había resistido el impacto y había aterrizado sin problemas, rápidamente me subí al tanque que tenía muy poco combustible y estaba casi desarmado, sólo tenía su cañón.
No. He could not believe it, the tank had withstood the impact and had landed without any problems, I quickly got the tank that had very little fuel and was almost disarmed, only had his gun.
Viaje de vuelta a la base y mis oficiales me enviaron a las barracas, el proyecto era casi un éxito, lamentablemente no habían suficientes aviones para llevar a los Tanques y nunca más supe del proyecto, pero varias veces oí el rumor de que las unidades aerotransportadas los utilizaron. Travel back to the base and I was sent to my official barracks, the project was almost a success, unfortunately not had enough planes to carry the tanks and never knew of the project, but several times I heard the rumour that airborne units used them.
Lástima que mi unidad tuvo que servir como regulares en la defensa de Leningrado. Unfortunately my unit had to serve as a regular in the defense of Leningrad.
Escrito Por Talako a las 6:39 PM Written By Talako at 6:39 PM
