The Moscow Aviation Institute BB-MAI (russian: ББ-МАИ) was a Soviet

light bomber A light bomber is a relatively small and fast type of military bomber aircraft that was primarily employed before the 1950s. Such aircraft would typically not carry more than one ton of ordnance. The earliest light bombers were intended to dro ...

attack plane An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pr ...

prototype aircraft. Designed in 1939 by Peter Grushin of the

Moscow Aviation Institute Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University) (MAI; russian: Московский авиационный институт, МАИ) is one of the major engineering institutes in Moscow, Russia. Since its inception MAI has been spearhe ...

(MAI, hence the designation), it was delayed by problems with the new Klimov M-105 engine and eventually only a single prototype was built. While the design was not accepted for serial production, it was the first Soviet aircraft to use a tricycle landing gear and one of the first to feature a

supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...

and

leading-edge slats Slats are aerodynamic surfaces on the leading edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft which, when deployed, allow the wing to operate at a higher angle of attack. A higher coefficient of lift is produced as a result of angle of attack and speed, ...

Design and development

The work on the design was started in 1938, but was delayed by the fact that the intended powerplant, the modern Klimov M-105 engine, was still under development.Volkov (ed), p.1 In early 1939 work commenced on the first prototype, but proceeded at a very slow pace. The construction team was led by A.A. Lebedinski and A.A. Manucharov. It was not until late 1940 that the prototype was completed and flight-tested by MAI's own test pilot A.N. Grinchik. By that time the

Soviet Air Forces The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

lost interest in the design and focused on the more advanced Ilyushin Il-2 instead. As neither this design nor the even more revolutionary Sh-MAI were accepted, the Design Bureau of the Moscow Aviation Institute was disbanded and its head Pyotr Grushin was sent to Kharkov as the new head of a local Aircraft Factory No. 135. The two-spar wings of BB-MAI were of mixed construction typical to other Soviet experimental designs of the era. Each wing was equipped with

and was composed of three crescent-shaped caisson sections, each formed of ''fanera'' – layers of plywood strengthened with glue and

bakelite Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed ...

. The fuselage was a typical wooden monocoque reinforced with ''fanera''. The materials used in the BB-MAI were designed at the VIAM Institute. The relatively small wings resulted in relatively high wing loading to maximise the aircraft's cruising speed. The engine was equipped with a new experimental ''TsIAM''

powered by exhaust fumes. The aircraft was equipped with a modern tricycle landing gear, with the front wheel retracting into a bay in front of the engine's radiator, while main gears retracted into wing bays close to the fuselage.

Specifications (BB-MAI)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{cite web, url=http://www.airwar.ru/enc/bww2/bbmai.html, script-title=ru:ББ-МАИ, editor=Dale Volkov, website=Ugolok neba, trans-title=BB-MAI, accessdate=September 30, 2017, language=ru, url-status=bot: unknown, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205111251/http://www.airwar.ru/enc/bww2/bbmai.html, archivedate=December 5, 2008

External links

Pictures of the prototype
World War II Soviet ground attack aircraft World War II Soviet bombers Abandoned military aircraft projects of the Soviet Union