Tupolev TB-6

While undertaking development of the Tupolev ANT-16 and ANT-20/PS-124, Tupolev began work in 1931 on an even larger bomber aircraft, powered by 12 engines and with a takeoff weight of {{convert|70000|kg|lb|abbr=on}}. The resulting ANT-26 design was to have 12 Mikulin M-34FRN engines, eight on the leading edge of the wing and four in two tandem pairs above the wings. The tail empennage would have had three vertical stabilizers on the tailplane, the center vertical stabilizer taller than the others. An alternative TB-6 design featured a bomber aircraft with six Mikulin M-44 engines and a single rudder.Gordon, Yefim; Rigamant, Vladimir (2005). OKB Tupolev: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft. Hinckley, England: Midland Publishing.

Given the sheer size of the TB-6, Tupolev decided to build a sub-scale aircraft to test the flight behavior of the TB-6. The subscale model flew in 1935, piloted by B.N. Koodrin. However, by the mid-1930s the trend in military aviation shifted towards smaller and faster aircraft and the TB-6 was cancelled, by which time the airframe was 75 percent complete and the entire aircraft 16 percent complete.{{cite book|author=Shavrov V.B.| year=1985| title=Istoriia konstruktskii samoletov v SSSR do 1938 g. (3 izd.)| language=Russian |publisher=Mashinostroenie |isbn=5-217-03112-3}}

File:Tupolev TB-6.jpg

In parallel with design of the ANT-26, the Tupolev Design bureau envisaged a vastly scaled-up ANT-20 with the same dimensions as the ANT-26 under the internal designation ANT-28 It was intended as an airliner and cargo plane with a maximum payload of 15,000 kg and a range of 1,500 km, and the arrangement of the engines was the same as for the TB-6. Like the TB-6, the ANT-28 never progressed past the drawing board.{{Cite web|url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/tb-6.htm|title = ANT-26 (TB-6) Heavy bomber (Project)}}

{{Aircraft specs

|ref=Istoriia konstruktskii samoletov v SSSR do 1938, The Osprey Encyclopaedia of Russian Aircraft 1875–1995.{{cite book |last=Gunston |first=Bill |title=The Osprey Encyclopaedia of Russian Aircraft 1875–1995 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=London |year=1995 |edition=1st |isbn=978-1-85532-405-3}}

|prime units?=met

|genhide=

|crew=17

|length m=39

|span m=95

|height m=10

|wing area sqm=800

|airfoil=modified TsAGI 6

|empty weight kg=50000

|gross weight kg=70000

|max takeoff weight kg=76000

|eng1 number=12

|eng1 name=Mikulin AM-34FRN

|eng1 type=V-12 liquid-cooled piston engines (10 x tractor, 2 x pusher)

|eng1 hp=1200

|max speed kmh=300

|range km=1000

|range note=with {{convert|20000|kg|lb|abbr=on}} bomb load

• :{{convert|2500|km|nmi mi|abbr=on}} with {{convert|4000|kg|lb|abbr=on}} bomb load

|wing loading note=88

|power/mass= 0.115 kW/kg (0.07 hp/lb)

|guns={{bulleted list

|1 x {{convert|37|mm|in|adj=on|sp=us|3|abbr=on}} NS-37 cannon

|4 x {{convert|20|mm|in|adj=on|sp=us|3|abbr=on}} ShVAK cannon

|1 x {{convert|7.62|mm|in|adj=on|sp=us|3|abbr=on}} DA machine gun

|4 x 2 {{convert|7.62|mm|in|adj=on|sp=us|3|abbr=on}} ShKAS machine guns

}}

|bombs={{convert|15000|kg|lb|abbr=on}} normal load, {{convert|24600|kg|lb|abbr=on}} max

|avionics=

}}

{{reflist}}

Duffy, Paul and Andrei Kankdalov. (1996) Tupolev The Man and His aircraft. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers.

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{{Tupolev aircraft}}

{{Soviet bomber-attack designations}}

TB-6

Category:Twelve-engined push-pull aircraft

Category:Abandoned military aircraft projects of the Soviet Union