by Carlhole » Thu 04 Dec 2008, 15:47:55
It was an actual design from 1928!
Take a look at the rear-view pic that Shanny linked to. There are pusher props as well. It probably had 24 engines.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n early 30's aviation design bureau, lead by K.A.Kalinin, was a well set team capable to solve absolutely new unexpected problems in aircraft design. For example, the 1929-1930 schedule KB included producing 3-engined passenger aircraft K-7, also designated as "K-Tjazholij" (K-Heavy), for the 500hp German BMW "Hornet" engines. It was designed to carry 22 passengers. Mockup prototype was tested in the TsAGI wind tunnel in September 1928, and was approved for production by the Scientific-Technical Commetee VVS in March following year.
But production was not started, and designation K-7 was used later for transcontinental aircraft project, started in 1928. 'Idea to built K-7,- K.A.Kalinin wrote later,- came to me long ago, as early as 1925. In 1929 the project was formulated and after two years of refinement it started to come to life... During creation of new huge machines new paths lead to new schemes of aircraft, to using of the wing to house payload. It means that those paths lead to the flying wing, which is exactly the perfect aircraft. To complete the transition to flying wing it is necessary to build a plane following the concept "everything is in the wing"'.