Shuttle Fighter
The system "Spiral" included the aircraft, taking the ship into orbit, accelerating stage and directly single-space module. This system was created for combat use in space, as well as for the inspection of any space objects in order to establish their purpose or liquidation. This information was announced on TV on Russia channel 17 on April 2010.
The improved form of "Spiral" is a multipurpose space interceptor MAX. Although MAKS could be used for military purposes, it was developed mainly for economic purposes - for placing people and cargo into orbit, for use in conjunction with the orbital space station. The developer was NPO "Lightning".
In 1969, the Experimental Piloted Orbital Plane (EPOS) was tested - the atmospheric analogue of the Spiral. We were already ready for space supremacy at that time. But where are all these ships? Where did they go? In the race for America, the original projects were not needed.
Everyone knows the American fantasy movie "Star Wars". But we were the first to propose and implement the idea of Star Wars. We were already ready for a battle in space at that time. If the American Shuttle is limited in its maneuverability in space and is not able to fly in the atmosphere, then the Soviet orbital complexes were developed and tested as full-featured systems.
In 1961, Yury Alekseevich Gagarin made the first space flight in the history of mankind around the Earth. And already in 1965, in the USSR, Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky designed the Spiral, a space-controlled fighter-interceptor, which was called the hunter for Shuttles. It was a warship for war in the atmosphere and space, having a cruising speed of 6000 km / h. He had an unusual shape and, of course, it would be wrong to call him an airplane. Possessing a wide, semi-circular fuselage, he looked more like a slightly flattened shark. His belonging to the class of aircraft gave out only the small sloping back wings, which gave him the outlines of a swift bird. The first "Spiral" did not have marching engines, so it descended to the airfield, planning in the air. "Spiral" could be used both in automatic mode and with manual control.
In the "Spiral" was provided a system for rescuing a pilot from any height in the form of an emergency capsule and a conventional ejection system. At the same time, a secret team was organized to train pilots to operate ships of this type. It included the well-known Dzhanibekov, and German Titov was appointed commander of the combat astronauts. The first model of the "Spiral" - its subsonic counterpart, the EPOS, was launched on December 6 1969 on the height of 40 km. The first strategic hypersonic Rocket carrier aircraft was developed, designed to launch it into orbit. And here the Soviet engineers went unconventional: in a military confrontation, it would be enough to destroy the stationary Space Launch Complex and bring the combat vehicles into space from nowhere. And you can launch them with the help of an airplane from almost any specially equipped heavy airfield, it is mobile. The plane lifted the ship into the stratosphere and it started with the engines turned on right from its back. Therefore, the aircraft was designed for a very large carrying capacity in order to withstand the recoil at the start of the Spiral or EPOS.
The first launch of the EPOS was made in 1976 year, the test was successful. According to experts, the EPOS had unique aerodynamic characteristics. Igor Volk, Valery Menitsky and Alexander Fedotov tried it on. In addition to the EPOS, even small-size automatic models of an orbital ship under the general name “Bor” - Unmanned Orbital Rocketplan were tested.
The Spiral was ready for serial production, but the Minister of Defense Grechko sent the project to the basket with a stroke of a pen, saying:
- There is nothing to do fiction!
The intervention of DF has also contributed to the freezing of the project. Ustinov, who was at that time the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Due to false political ambitions at the insistence of D.F. Ustinov and the Minister of General Engineering S.A. Afanasyev started the race with the Americans and their project Space Shuttle, while sacrificing Spiral, a system that, according to competent domestic and foreign experts, is much more progressive.
- If you add that the USSR was perhaps the only country where space problems were separated from aviation and the aviation industry, and even in the absence of a powerful coordinating organization, such as the American NASA, it is surprising not the gradual elimination of the Spiral work, but how much has been done. - Writes by Lebedev Vitaly Vladislavovich, member of the St. Petersburg Section of the History of Aviation and Cosmonautics at the IIET them. S.I. Vavilova RAS.
Lozino-Lodz was invited to do a new project - "Buran", which he successfully did. But Buran, compared to Spiral and MAKS, turned out to be a much more expensive project. The same EPOS flew four times, testing the insulation for the Buran. The first full launch of Buran in 1982 was successful, then it landed near Australia. But Gleb Evgenievich did not cease to be engaged in his brainchild, in parallel with the project “Buran” he perfected and tested “Spiral”. Its new modification was developed: “MAKS” - Multipurpose Aerospace System. MAKS was intended for orbital patrols in space over the territory of our country. She could, for example, move closer to US satellites, examining them for the degree of danger to the country, she was also equipped weapons for the destruction of both satellites and the "Shuttle". The MAX consisted of a space double module, but already with main engines, which made it maneuverable in the atmosphere and a discharged fuel tank. In addition to the two pilots, MAX is capable of delivering seven tons of cargo into orbit, or in its place, passengers.
This “design” was to be emitted into the atmosphere by a special aircraft. By that time there was already a similar project - the heavy transport aircraft “Mriya”. When calculating the cost of putting one ton of cargo into orbit for different spacecraft, including American Shuttles, MAKS turned out to be the cheapest carrier. In addition, it could be sold abroad, as there is infrastructure for civil aviation in any camp.
When 15 November 1988, the Buran made its full-fledged first and last flight in automatic mode, the Americans were very surprised. They asked Lozino-Lodzinsky:
- How so? After all, you do not have software!
It turns out that everything is there. Only it is not clear why we still use American Windows. Who knows what kind of "cockroaches" lurk in it, and if we do not lose the entire Internet, happen that serious ...
"Buran" was ready for production. Moreover, our designers did not create a copy of the Shuttle, but a more efficient ship in all respects. Even his only flight proved it. He was ready to perform applied tasks in space and to ensure the regular delivery of people and goods into orbit.
But ... here Mikhail Gorbachev signs a disarmament agreement with Reagan in Reykjavik, and the project was crushed. He was not needed! Long live world peace! Hooray! A "Buran" - in his basket!
- With an external similarity with the Shuttle, the Buran is a fundamentally more advanced spacecraft; and the main result of the long-term efforts was the triumphal twin-turn unmanned flight of the Buran with the automatic landing of 15 on November 1988 of the year. The flight duration of 206 minutes began. At 9 hour 11 minutes, at the height of 50 km, Buran contacted the tracking stations in the landing complex area, and at 9 hour 24 minutes 42 seconds, just a second ahead of time, Buran, overcoming side wind gusts at 263 km / h speed, gracefully touched the strip and after 42 seconds, ran 1620 m, stopped at its center with a deviation from the centerline of only 3 m! - Vyacheslav Kazmin writes in his article.
It was the high point of the Chief Designer of Buran, Doctor of Technical Sciences Gleb Evgenyevich Lozino-Lozinsky.
28 November 2001, Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky dies, without waiting for the production of his Spirals, Max and Buran. But in the spring of this year, the Americans, declaring that the Shuttle project was rolling out, are launching a completely new spacecraft into space ... which, outwardly, is like two peas in a pod like Spiral. They developed it themselves or bought a finished project, because in the era of market relations everything is sold and bought? Who knows. Moreover, we have just signed with the hypocritically smiling US President another treaty on yet another disarmament. However, why does America really need outdated weapons, if it now has its own - American MAXS? A rhetorical question ... Only now they will “sniff” and control our military satellites, not we them ...
Currently, something has moved forward in this direction: Roskosmos announced a competition to create a reusable manned spacecraft of a new generation. It is created for the transport-technical maintenance of manned orbital stations and other objects of the near-earth orbital group.
The Clipper project is already in the process of development. It is designed not only for going into orbit, but also for the flight to the moon. Clipper is a six-seater reusable spacecraft, launched with the help of an Energia carrier rocket.
PS This information does not pretend to be complete on this topic. It is obtained from open sources. Official documents are still classified.
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