The Sukhoi Su-5 or I-107 was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
mixed-power (propeller and
motorjet
A motorjet is a rudimentary type of jet engine which is sometimes referred to as ''thermojet'', a term now commonly used to describe a particular and completely unrelated pulsejet design.
Design
At the heart the motorjet is an ordinary pis ...
) prototype fighter aircraft built toward the end 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
Development
The appearance of the German
turbojet
The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, a ...
-powered
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: " Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: " Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Ge ...
near the end of World War II prompted the Soviet Union to develop faster fighter aircraft. Since the USSR lacked a production-ready turbojet engine, development efforts were directed toward mixed-power aircraft utilizing a conventional piston engine-driven propeller for the majority of propulsion with a small rocket or jet engine for bursts of speed.
The Su-5 (initially I-107) and the conceptually similar
Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250 were designed in 1944. The aircraft first flew on 6 April 1945 and underwent limited flight testing. It was subsequently fitted with a
laminar flow
In fluid dynamics, laminar flow is characterized by fluid particles following smooth paths in layers, with each layer moving smoothly past the adjacent layers with little or no mixing. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral mi ...
wing and attained 793 km/h (428 kn, 493 mph) at 4,350 m (14,270 ft) with the motorjet functioning.
On 15 June 1945, the
Klimov VK-107
The Klimov VK-107 was a V-12 liquid-cooled piston aircraft engine used by Soviet aircraft during World War II.
Development
The VK-107 was developed from the M-105 and VK-106. To achieve a greater power output, each cylinder now had four valves ...
A piston engine was damaged beyond repair in flight. Following acquisition of another VK-107A, flight testing continued until 18 October when the engine reached the end of its service life. No further VK-107As could be procured and the project was canceled.
The Su-5 was a conventional
monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...
of all-metal construction. The VRDK (russian: Воздушно-Реактивный Двигатель Компрессорный) motorjet in the rear of the fuselage was powered by a driveshaft from the VK-107 piston engine and could provide an additional 100 km/h (54 kn, 62 mph) of speed for three minutes.
Specifications (Su-5)
See also
References
{{Sukhoi aircraft
Mixed-power aircraft
Motorjet-powered aircraft
1940s Soviet fighter aircraft
Su-05
Abandoned military aircraft projects of the Soviet Union
Aircraft first flown in 1945