Belarusian "Celina". Unknown project MAZ-7904
In the Soviet Union, Belarus was responsible for the development of heavy multi-axle military equipment. It was in Minsk in 1954 that a special design office was created at the Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ) for the development of multi-axle high-tech vehicles for the military and civilian economy. In 1991, this production was separated into a separate enterprise - the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant (MZKT). The multi-axle wheeled vehicle produced in Minsk is used today in the armies of Russia and other countries of the post-Soviet space, and is also actively exported to other regions of our planet.
The unusual projects of the Minsk designers include the giant 140-tonne 12-wheeled chassis MAZ-7904, created in the framework of the project "Celina". The carrier for a promising rocket complex was built in Minsk in a single copy, but the developed chassis became the starting point for a whole family of heavy wheeled vehicles, which simply did not exist. Thus, in the framework of the project “Tselina-2” (a mobile soil complex based on the RT-23UTT rocket) in Minsk, the 24-wheeled monster MAZ-7907 was created in Minsk, in the design of which the designs of the previous projects were used.
The appearance of a new six-axle car is impossible to imagine outside the context of the Cold War. The Tselina project itself was a response to the emergence of new American intercontinental ballistic missiles and the result of another round of global tension and an arms race, which accelerated in the 1980-ies in the wake of the exacerbation of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. The promising development of the Minsk designers was to become the basis for a new ground-based missile system.
The machines created in the framework of the Tselina project have remained secret developments for many years, for the first time they really started talking about them only in the 2000s. The automobile equipment created in Minsk was not only distinguished by its colossal size, but also by the use of new layout solutions, new designs. Employees of UGK-2 (Second Directorate of Chief Designer) of the MAZ plant were in charge of the detailed study and production of multi-axle wheeled machinery of the increased cross-country capacity; It is believed that the new car was created as a carrier of the new RTB-23 “Stilet” ICBM, on which engineers of Yuzhnoye Design Bureau from Dnepropetrovsk worked. The rocket, equipped with a split head, weighed more than 100 tons and carried up to 10 nuclear charges over a distance of 10 thousands of kilometers.
Especially for the solution of the tasks set by the military, 100 designers and families, who were provided with apartments at the expense of the Ministry of Defense, were seconded to Minsk. At the same time, the chief designer of SKB MAZ Boris Lvovich Shaposhnik, who at that time was already an aged man (the designer died in 1985, at the age of 82 years), became the owner of a personal elevator to the office located on the third floor of the administrative building. It is important to understand that during the years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union did not spare money and other resources for the creation and development of nuclear deterrence forces. Created in 1980-ies by engineers of the MAZ special design bureau, multi-axle wheeled tractors still impress everyone who is familiar with this project or simply looks at photographs of equipment designed and assembled in metal.
The experimental car was completely ready and built in the 1983 year, as it turned out later, the car was made in one single copy. In June, the car, which received the factory index MAZ-7904, for the first time left the factory floor. The weight of the giant built in Minsk was 140 tons, the total carrying capacity was estimated at 220 tons. The gross weight of the vehicle with a load exceeded 360 tons, which is about 60 African elephants, which are the largest land mammals on our planet. When viewed from the side, the new car looked like heavy chassis for various Soviet missile systems already being produced in Minsk, but the entire mass of the new product made it necessary to immediately dismiss such comparisons from the head.
The dimensions of the new chassis were to match the full mass. The total length of the six-axle vehicle exceeded the 32 meter, the width of the 6,8 meter, the height of the cab level was the 3,45 meter. Ground clearance was also impressive and was 480 mm. At the front overhang of the MAZ-7904 frame, the designers carried out two fiberglass cabs for two people. Such cabins for many years have become a kind of classic of the Minsk enterprise. The new chassis received three biaxial carriages, which were the base for 12 wheels, the diameter of which was almost three meters. Tires for these wheels were specially purchased in Japan from the Bridgestone company, in the USSR they were imported under the guise of wheels needed to equip new mining dump trucks. At that time, Soviet enterprises could not provide production of tires capable of withstanding comparable loads, each wheel had up to 30 tons of complex weight.
To put such a colossus in motion, non-standard solutions and non-standard equipment were required. The ship's diesel engine, produced by Zvezda, became the heart of the car. Most likely, it was one of the varieties of the ship's V-shaped 12-cylinder diesel engine CHN18 / 20. Mounted on the MAZ-7904 engine developed a maximum power of the order of 1500 HP. In addition, another diesel engine was installed on the car - a Yaroslavl V-shaped 8-cylinder YMZ-223F with turbocharging, which produced the maximum power 330 hp. The second diesel engine was used as a drive for various auxiliary equipment of the vehicle to which the brake compressor or the steering hydraulic pump belonged.
The main engine of the vehicle MAZ-7904 was installed between two double cabs. The power plant powered two four-stage hydromechanical transmissions, which transmitted torque to the three front and three rear axles of an unusual car. According to the project, the four wheels of the front and rear carts were steerable, and the approximate turning radius of the car was 50 meters. The steering mechanism of the car received power. Each of the 12 wheels was mounted on a hydropneumatic suspension.
The first factory tests of the Minsk designers began in the second half of 1983. Since the project was created within the framework of complete secrecy, the test complex near Minsk was organized in the dark, the car left the factory at night and returned back before dawn. The test schedule was coordinated with the military, who provided information about when there are no foreign spy satellites over the territory of Belarus. Thus, the factory tests of the new MAZ-7904 high-capacity car took place in quite specific conditions.
After the completion of the factory test cycle, it was decided to send the car to Baikonur in order to carry out tests already in the Kazakhstan steppes, to which the name of the project “Celina” was so favorable. For transportation across the country, the car was dismantled and loaded onto a special trailer. In Kazakhstan, MAZ-7904 arrived in January 1984. At the spaceport, a new car had to be re-assembled. It is believed that according to one of the cover legends, a new Minsk car was planned to be used for transporting large-sized units of the Energia rocket system in the MIK - Test and assembly building, or for transporting the spent first-stage units in a reusable rocket system, such a rocket project really existed. Perhaps the car, like many other multi-axle wheeled tractors, really planned to be used not only in the military, but also in the civilian sphere.
The second phase of testing a special wheeled tractor began in the Kazakh steppes already in February 1984, the whole car traveled about four thousand kilometers. Now the car was tested with a maximum load simulator on board. Such tests quickly enough helped to reveal the inherent flaws of the machine, the main of which was a great pressure on the ground - up to 60 tons fell on each axle. For this reason, the new tractor showed low off-road or off-road coverage. The tests also demonstrated poor handling of the MAZ-7904 and low speed.
The fate of the project conducted in Kazakhstan tests the worst way. The project was decided to collapse. A special wheeled tractor pushed aside the following projects of the Minsk Automobile Plant. Rejecting the project “Celina”, the military turned to the project “Celina-2”, for which a new vehicle was required. As part of the work on this topic, two more unique multi-axis monsters were assembled in Minsk - the MAZ-7906 car with 16 wheels and 8 axles and the MAZ-7907 with 24 wheels and 12 axles, but this is a completely different story. And the life path of the MAZ-7904 ends with a sad ending. Since 1991, the unique car was stored in one of the hangars at the Baikonur cosmodrome, where, judging by the documents placed in the public domain, it was disposed of in the 2010 year.
The unusual projects of the Minsk designers include the giant 140-tonne 12-wheeled chassis MAZ-7904, created in the framework of the project "Celina". The carrier for a promising rocket complex was built in Minsk in a single copy, but the developed chassis became the starting point for a whole family of heavy wheeled vehicles, which simply did not exist. Thus, in the framework of the project “Tselina-2” (a mobile soil complex based on the RT-23UTT rocket) in Minsk, the 24-wheeled monster MAZ-7907 was created in Minsk, in the design of which the designs of the previous projects were used.
Prerequisites for creating a wheeled chassis MAZ-7904
The appearance of a new six-axle car is impossible to imagine outside the context of the Cold War. The Tselina project itself was a response to the emergence of new American intercontinental ballistic missiles and the result of another round of global tension and an arms race, which accelerated in the 1980-ies in the wake of the exacerbation of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. The promising development of the Minsk designers was to become the basis for a new ground-based missile system.
MAZ-7904
The machines created in the framework of the Tselina project have remained secret developments for many years, for the first time they really started talking about them only in the 2000s. The automobile equipment created in Minsk was not only distinguished by its colossal size, but also by the use of new layout solutions, new designs. Employees of UGK-2 (Second Directorate of Chief Designer) of the MAZ plant were in charge of the detailed study and production of multi-axle wheeled machinery of the increased cross-country capacity; It is believed that the new car was created as a carrier of the new RTB-23 “Stilet” ICBM, on which engineers of Yuzhnoye Design Bureau from Dnepropetrovsk worked. The rocket, equipped with a split head, weighed more than 100 tons and carried up to 10 nuclear charges over a distance of 10 thousands of kilometers.
Especially for the solution of the tasks set by the military, 100 designers and families, who were provided with apartments at the expense of the Ministry of Defense, were seconded to Minsk. At the same time, the chief designer of SKB MAZ Boris Lvovich Shaposhnik, who at that time was already an aged man (the designer died in 1985, at the age of 82 years), became the owner of a personal elevator to the office located on the third floor of the administrative building. It is important to understand that during the years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union did not spare money and other resources for the creation and development of nuclear deterrence forces. Created in 1980-ies by engineers of the MAZ special design bureau, multi-axle wheeled tractors still impress everyone who is familiar with this project or simply looks at photographs of equipment designed and assembled in metal.
Estimated appearance of the launcher based on the MAZ-7904 (drawing by Alexander Arkhipov, kolesa.ru)
MAZ-7904 and its capabilities
The experimental car was completely ready and built in the 1983 year, as it turned out later, the car was made in one single copy. In June, the car, which received the factory index MAZ-7904, for the first time left the factory floor. The weight of the giant built in Minsk was 140 tons, the total carrying capacity was estimated at 220 tons. The gross weight of the vehicle with a load exceeded 360 tons, which is about 60 African elephants, which are the largest land mammals on our planet. When viewed from the side, the new car looked like heavy chassis for various Soviet missile systems already being produced in Minsk, but the entire mass of the new product made it necessary to immediately dismiss such comparisons from the head.
The dimensions of the new chassis were to match the full mass. The total length of the six-axle vehicle exceeded the 32 meter, the width of the 6,8 meter, the height of the cab level was the 3,45 meter. Ground clearance was also impressive and was 480 mm. At the front overhang of the MAZ-7904 frame, the designers carried out two fiberglass cabs for two people. Such cabins for many years have become a kind of classic of the Minsk enterprise. The new chassis received three biaxial carriages, which were the base for 12 wheels, the diameter of which was almost three meters. Tires for these wheels were specially purchased in Japan from the Bridgestone company, in the USSR they were imported under the guise of wheels needed to equip new mining dump trucks. At that time, Soviet enterprises could not provide production of tires capable of withstanding comparable loads, each wheel had up to 30 tons of complex weight.
To put such a colossus in motion, non-standard solutions and non-standard equipment were required. The ship's diesel engine, produced by Zvezda, became the heart of the car. Most likely, it was one of the varieties of the ship's V-shaped 12-cylinder diesel engine CHN18 / 20. Mounted on the MAZ-7904 engine developed a maximum power of the order of 1500 HP. In addition, another diesel engine was installed on the car - a Yaroslavl V-shaped 8-cylinder YMZ-223F with turbocharging, which produced the maximum power 330 hp. The second diesel engine was used as a drive for various auxiliary equipment of the vehicle to which the brake compressor or the steering hydraulic pump belonged.
The main engine of the vehicle MAZ-7904 was installed between two double cabs. The power plant powered two four-stage hydromechanical transmissions, which transmitted torque to the three front and three rear axles of an unusual car. According to the project, the four wheels of the front and rear carts were steerable, and the approximate turning radius of the car was 50 meters. The steering mechanism of the car received power. Each of the 12 wheels was mounted on a hydropneumatic suspension.
Tests and fate of MAZ-7904
The first factory tests of the Minsk designers began in the second half of 1983. Since the project was created within the framework of complete secrecy, the test complex near Minsk was organized in the dark, the car left the factory at night and returned back before dawn. The test schedule was coordinated with the military, who provided information about when there are no foreign spy satellites over the territory of Belarus. Thus, the factory tests of the new MAZ-7904 high-capacity car took place in quite specific conditions.
After the completion of the factory test cycle, it was decided to send the car to Baikonur in order to carry out tests already in the Kazakhstan steppes, to which the name of the project “Celina” was so favorable. For transportation across the country, the car was dismantled and loaded onto a special trailer. In Kazakhstan, MAZ-7904 arrived in January 1984. At the spaceport, a new car had to be re-assembled. It is believed that according to one of the cover legends, a new Minsk car was planned to be used for transporting large-sized units of the Energia rocket system in the MIK - Test and assembly building, or for transporting the spent first-stage units in a reusable rocket system, such a rocket project really existed. Perhaps the car, like many other multi-axle wheeled tractors, really planned to be used not only in the military, but also in the civilian sphere.
The second phase of testing a special wheeled tractor began in the Kazakh steppes already in February 1984, the whole car traveled about four thousand kilometers. Now the car was tested with a maximum load simulator on board. Such tests quickly enough helped to reveal the inherent flaws of the machine, the main of which was a great pressure on the ground - up to 60 tons fell on each axle. For this reason, the new tractor showed low off-road or off-road coverage. The tests also demonstrated poor handling of the MAZ-7904 and low speed.
24-wheeled MAZ-7907
The fate of the project conducted in Kazakhstan tests the worst way. The project was decided to collapse. A special wheeled tractor pushed aside the following projects of the Minsk Automobile Plant. Rejecting the project “Celina”, the military turned to the project “Celina-2”, for which a new vehicle was required. As part of the work on this topic, two more unique multi-axis monsters were assembled in Minsk - the MAZ-7906 car with 16 wheels and 8 axles and the MAZ-7907 with 24 wheels and 12 axles, but this is a completely different story. And the life path of the MAZ-7904 ends with a sad ending. Since 1991, the unique car was stored in one of the hangars at the Baikonur cosmodrome, where, judging by the documents placed in the public domain, it was disposed of in the 2010 year.
Information