THE VVA-14
By: Abhijay Bhosale
Welcome to 2nd edition of the Unknown Off-Ground Series. This week's edition will show the VVA-14, a plane so bizarre, it's arguable to not even call it a plane. This behemoth weighed 25 tons, could carry another 15, and it was all managed by a crew of 3. It could go a little less than 400 miles per hour and had VTOL capabilities. I don't want to reveal too much before this gets started, so I'll leave the suspense at that. The plane was truly amazing, but to understand the product, we need to understand its maker.
Who Was Robert Bartini?
Robert Bartini was a Soviet designer who's often dubbed as the most mysterious aircraft designer. He made designed many aircraft, plans so ambitious that the USSR couldn't help but notice him. He created the Bartini A-57, a bomber so impressive that it's painful it's not in this series, a plane with a max speed of 260 mph while the USSR record for fastest flight was 160 mph, and of course, the VVA-14. Although Bartini was one of the greatest aviation engineers, he had a tough childhood. His father had an affair with another woman and refused to take responsibility for the child, and his mother committed suicide when he was just 3 years old to forget the scandal, meaning Bartini was put up for adoption. He became big for communism, joining the Italian communist party, but later fleeing to Moscow after facist movements started over the government. He was later granted citizenship under the USSR, where he would start making seaplanes and various experimental amphibious aircraft. But things took a turn because of his one flaw: getting out of his lane. He criticized decisions made by the government, and when Stalin's reign of terror took over, he was sent to the gulag (an intensive Soviet labor camp that helped do projects for Stalin). Still, he managed to continue designing aircraft in the gulag and keep building planes. One day, he dreamt the VVA-14. Originally, his intent was to use it as a passenger craft, one to transport people along Russia's massive coasts and shorelines. But to get funding from the government, he needed to show how the plane could be used for military purposes. But help would come from an unexpected place. The Americans. Their new nuclear-carrying submarines were a threat that needed to be answered, and Bartini's low flying fast plane was the perfect one for the job. So, it was made.
How Could The VVA-14 Fly?
The VVA-14 didn't fly on conventional aerodynamics. Instead, its flight mechanism fully derived from hydrodynamics. In the 1950s, hydrofoils were starting to dominate the game. They were a type of boat that relied on a simple engineering feature: wing-like structures in the bottom. When a hydrofoil reached fast speeds, the boat would life out of the water to reduce drag and friction caused by the water. It also broke free of surface tension, instead gliding on literal air. The wings kept them anchored to water while also directing the molecules in a way to make lift. But the close aerodynamic theories clashed with the hydrodynamic laws, in turn creating something called as cavitation. The low pressure on the bottom of a hydrofoil caused gas bubbles underneath the water, directly disturbing the water consistency that were a major part of the hydrofoil. Cavitation has a lot more science behind it, but in essence it limited the speed of a hydrofoil to just under 70 mph. Cavitation stumped engineers, but one Soviet hydrofoil designer had a new idea. This designer, was Rostislav Alexeyev. Why not shift the field from hydrodynamics to aerodynamics. He could move the wings from the bottom to side. That may sound unimpressive until you realize what it meant. The plane could act as a boat, but at high enough speeds it would just life out of the water. It also combatted the low air pressure on the bottom of the aircraft, since the wings could now generate the lift needed. Not that it would have mattered, since the plane relied on the ground effect. When an aircraft gets too close the ground, the plane seems to lift up a little. That's the feeling you get when flying on normal planes. You're dipping down, then the plan slows down just a little, then the landing gear impact happens. This is because the plane's goal is to overcome that unnecessary lift to land, but the Alexyev's concept relied on extending that effect. And he did just that. Now admittedly, he was working on another plane. One with 8 frontal engines that directed air underneath giant wings, then when in flight, they were shut off and 2 separate engines in the back would keep on giving it thrust. It was called the KM. Only 2 prototypes were planned, but only 1 was made, flown, and preserved. Although this plane would make a great blog, it was Bartini's VVA-14 that really harnessed the true power of the ground effect. The catamaran like body meant the efficiency of the ground effect was unparalleled, while the wings also allowed pilots to fly it just like a normal plane, just 8 meters off the ground when in ground effect. The plane wasn't exclusively limited to the ground effect, but was reported that it could fly 33,000 feet if needed. It also had 12 VTOL (vertical take off and landing) jets, meaning the plane could go anywhere, this time with no asterisks. The plane also had landing gear as well as slots for inflatable pontoons, making the VTOL unnecessary if desired. It would have been possible to take out the VTOL completely, limiting range but drastically increasing speed.
KM: VVA-14:
Why Did The VVA-14 Fail?
Just like the Mig 1.44 (check out my last blog if you didn't see it yet), the project was put off due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. It's visionary, you could say, also left the project. Robert Bartini died at the age of 77, and his gravestone to this day praises him. It reads along the lines of "We are greatly indebted to Bartini," continuing on to show the respect for the inventor. Sadly, he was forgotten about in his birth country of Italy, but he was surrounded by his comrades that helped throughout his life. The project was too ambitious and hard to support without a person who lived and breathed the idea. 1 prototype was completed, but now it sits, rusting, in Moscow. The USSR switched to a more conventional aircraft called the Beriev A-40, a plane that performed it's job and was also an engineering marvel, but didn't have the excitement of the VVA-14 captured in it. It was a plane with 2 wings that flew through the air using basic aerodynamics. Boring. The mechanics of the VVA-14 also caused it to fail. Of course, the ground effect was perfect, but the way the building was executed was done half-heartedly. Although VTOL was a big part of the plane's qualities, the 12 jets needed to perform it were handed to a smaller and less experienced engine manufacturer. There were also roadblocks in developing the pontoons for the all-terrain landing. The pontoons were eventually put on hold and skids were adding to continue testing. Lack of materials and engineers also proved hard as the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving the plane scrapped. But this plane could have altered the course of history. New ground-effect based aircraft could have changed the world. Bartini had ideas for a ground-effect aircraft carrier that would have deployed anywhere in the world in a matter of hours. It could have been turned into a passenger plane, its original intent, and revolutionized the way we travel. A little fun fact is that to keep secrecy, the plane was giver Aeroflot (civilian Russian plane company like American Airlines) paint designs and a civilian aircraft number. But in the end, it wasn't meant to be.
VVA-14: A-40 Albatross:
Post-Script
The VVA-14 could have been used in a project to make an aircraft carrier plane, although one that flew so close to the ground some could have thought it was a boat at first glance. But the next blog will be different, because we're focusing on that idea. This time made in the United States, when the Boeing 747 entered service, it changed the way we travel in a way as big as if the VVA-14 entered civilian service too. But the US high-brass had a different idea. Why not (just like the Soviets) make a civilian plane into an airborne aircraft carrier? Tune in next week to find out about: The Boeing 747 AAC.
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