The ANT-8 was an experimental flying boat designed by

Tupolev Tupolev (russian: Ту́полев, ), officially Joint Stock Company Tupolev, is a Russian aerospace and defence company headquartered in Basmanny District, Moscow. Tupolev is successor to the Soviet Tupolev Design Bureau ( OKB-156, design off ...

. It was designated the "MDR-2" (MDR meaning ''Morskoi Dalnii Razvedchik'', or Naval Long-Range Reconnaissance) by the military.

Design and development

Tupolev and the

TsAGI The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (also (Zhukovsky) Central Institute of Aerodynamics, russian: Центра́льный аэрогидродинами́ческий институ́т, ЦАГИ, Tsentral'nyy Aerogidrodinamicheskiy Institut, ...

were asked to build the ANT-8 in 1925, but other projects were deemed more important. Thus, little was completed on the ANT-8. Finally, in 1930, with Ivan Pogosski leading, actual work was started on the aircraft. Its first flight was on January 30, 1931, piloted by S. Riballschuk. Shortly after the ANT-8 flew for the first time, the ANT-14 lifted off the ground.

Construction

The ANT-8 was chosen to be made entirely from metal, with a Duralumin hull and similar wings to the

Tupolev R-6 The Tupolev ANT-7, known by the VVS as the Tupolev R-6 ( R – ''razvedchik'' – reconnaissance), was a reconnaissance aircraft and escort fighter of the Soviet Union. The R-6 traces its roots back to early 1928 when the Soviet Air Force needed ...

. The

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

received much attention from the designers and it was decided to have the floats included in the load-bearing structure. Power came from two pusher BMW VI

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power g ...

mounted over the wings. The aircraft was fitted with an enclosed cockpit for the two pilots, while turrets were mounted in the bow and aft of the wing, each mounting two DA-2

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

s. Up to 500 kg (1,102 lb) of bombs could be carried under the wing roots.Gunston 1995, p.389. Although the aircraft demonstrated excellent seaworthiness, and Tupolev learned much about flying boat hulls from it, continuation of the ANT-8 project was deemed unnecessary by the Soviet Navy, as it was believed that it was obsolete and would soon be superseded by the Chetverikov MDR-3. Only one was built, although its hull was modified several times.

Operators

; *

factory.

Specifications (MDR-2)

References

Bibliography

* Duffy, Paul and Andrei Kandalov. (1996) ''Tupolev, The Man and His Aircraft''. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers. * Gunston, Bill. ''The Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft 1975–1995''. London: Osprey, 1995. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Tupolev Ant-8 ANT-08 1930s Soviet patrol aircraft Flying boats Twin-engined pusher aircraft High-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1931