The Keldysh bomber was a Soviet design for a

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

-powered sub-orbital

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes ten ...

, which drew heavily upon work carried out by

Eugen Sänger Eugen Sänger (22 September 1905 – 10 February 1964) was an Austrian aerospace engineer best known for his contributions to lifting body and ramjet technology. Early career Sänger was born in the former mining town of Preßnitz (Přísečnic ...

and

Irene Bredt Irene is a name derived from εἰρήνη (eirēnē), the Greek for "peace". Irene, and related names, may refer to: * Irene (given name) Places * Irene, Gauteng, South Africa * Irene, South Dakota, United States * Irene, Texas, United States ...

for the German

Silbervogel Silbervogel (German for "silver bird") was a design for a liquid-propellant rocket-powered sub-orbital bomber produced by Eugen Sänger and Irene Bredt in the late 1930s for The Third Reich/Nazi Germany. It is also known as the RaBo ( – "rock ...

project.

Development

During the closing weeks of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the German work at

Peenemünde Peenemünde (, en, "Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The communi ...

was investigated by Soviet intelligence, amongst whom was rocket motor constructor Alexey Isayev, who found a copy of Sänger and Bredt's report. A translation was soon circulating among Soviet rocket designers, and a condensed version made its way to Stalin himself. In November 1946 the NII-1 NKAP research institute was formed with mathematician

Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh (russian: Мстисла́в Все́володович Ке́лдыш; – 24 June 1978) was a Soviet mathematician who worked as an engineer in the Soviet space program. He was the academician of the Academy o ...

as its head to investigate and develop the German Sänger–Bredt design. In 1947, studies indicated that the high fuel consumption of Sänger's rocket-based design rendered the concept impracticable in the short term. Using engines considered to be available in a reasonable timespan, 95% of the vehicle's initial mass would have to be propellant. However, use of

ramjets A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an ass ...

during the acceleration phase would give the craft a more reasonable 22% dead weight and still achieve the 5 km/s velocity required for a intercontinental range. It was estimated that it would take until the mid-1950s before a draft project of a feasible design could be prepared, and by that time the design had been made obsolete by more advanced designs. However, the work carried out would lead to the EKR, MKR, Buran, and

Burya The ''Burya'' ("Storm" in Russian; russian: Буря) was a supersonic, intercontinental cruise missile, developed by the Lavochkin design bureau (chief designer Naum Semyonovich Chernyakov) under designation La-350 from 1954 until the program can ...

ramjet cruise missiles.

Proposed mission profile

* The 100-tonne craft would be accelerated to 500 m/s using a sled running along a 3 km track and powered by five or six RKDS-100 rocket engines of 600 tonnes total thrust. Separation velocity would be reached 11 seconds after ignition. * After separation from the sled, the craft would climb using its main RKDS-100 rocket engine and two wingtip-mounted ramjets, which would accelerate it to an altitude of 20 km and a speed of over Mach 3. * The rocket would continue working after the ramjets had flamed out at high altitude; it had a specific impulse of 285 seconds, a thrust of 100 tonnes, and used

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

propellants.

Specifications

General characteristics

*Function: Sub-orbital bomber *Launch mass: *Total length: 28 m *Launch platform: Rocket sled *Status: Canceled

Launch sled (stage 0)

*Engine: 5/6 × RKDS-100 rocket engines *Length: 14 m (45 ft) *Diameter: 3.6 m (11.8 ft) *Thrust: () *Oxidizer:

LOx Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...

*Combustible:

Kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

Keldysh bomber (stage 1)

*Engine: 1 × RKDS-100 rocket, 2 × ramjets *Speed : Mach 3 *Range: *Flight altitude: *Warhead: *Length: 28.0 m *Diameter: 3.6 m *Wing span: 15 m *Wing area: 126 m²

References

{{Reflist

External links

Astronautix.com
Spaceplanes Space weapons Rocket-powered aircraft Ramjet-powered aircraft 1940s Soviet bomber aircraft Germany–Soviet Union relations