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The Kalinin K-7 (Russian: Калинин К-7) was a heavy experimental aircraft designed and tested in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. It was of unusual configuration, with twin booms and large underwing pods housing fixed landing gear and machine gun turrets. In the passenger version, seats were arranged inside the 2.3-meter thick (7 ft 7 in) wings. The airframe was welded from KhMA chrome-molybdenum steel. The original design called for six engines in the wing leading edge, but when the projected loaded weight was exceeded, two more engines were added to the trailing edges of the wing, one right and one left of the central passenger pod. Nemecek states in his book that at first only one further pusher engine was added. The K-7 was designed by World War I aviator and Soviet aircraft designer Konstantin Kalinin at the aviation design bureau he headed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, It was one of the biggest aircraft built before the jet age. It had an unusual arrangement of six tractor engines on the wing leading edge and a single engine in pusher configuration at the rear. In civil transport configuration, it had a capacity for 120 passengers and 7,000 kg (15,000 lb) of mail. As a troop transport it had capacity for 112 fully equipped paratroopers. In bomber configuration it would be armed with 8 x 20mm autocannons, 8 x 7.62mm machine guns and up to 9,600 kg (21,200 lb) of bombs. The K-7 was built in two years in Kharkiv, starting in 1931. The K-7 first flew on 11 August 1933. The very brief first flight showed instability and serious vibration caused by the airframe resonating at the engine frequency. The solution to this was thought to be to shorten and strengthen the tail booms, little being known then about the natural frequencies of structures and their response to vibration. The aircraft completed seven test flights before a crash due to structural failure of one of the tail booms on 21 November 1933. The existence of the aircraft had only recently been announced by Pravda, which declared it was "victory of the utmost political importance," since it had been built with Soviet, rather than imported, steel. The accident killed 14 people aboard and one on the ground. Flight speculated that sabotage was suspected as the investigating committee had representation by the state security organization, the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU). However, there appeared recently some speculation in the Russian aviation press about the role of politics and the competing design office of Andrei Tupolev, suggesting possible sabotage. Although two more prototypes were ordered in 1933, the project was cancelled in 1935 before they could be completed. Images of this aircraft are scarse or of very poor quality. Some of these images have been taken from flight simulators and are been modified ( eg. extra engines on bottom image). Concept only.

The McDonnell 119/220 is a business jet developed and unsuccessfully marketed by McDonnell Aircraft in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Its configuration is unique for this type of aircraft, with four podded engines underneath a low wing. It is the only airplane built by McDonnell Aircraft to be marketed to civil buyers prior to the company's merger with Douglas Aircraft to form McDonnell Douglas. The jet could be outfitted for 10 passengers in a luxury executive configuration and could carry as many as 29. The Model 119 was designed in 1957 for the U.S. Air Force's UCX (Utility-Cargo Experimental) contract announced in August 1956, competing with the Lockheed JetStar. McDonnell entered the UCX competition with an eye on commercial sales; the company had never produced a civil aircraft. Designed for a 2,200 nmi (2,500 mi; 4,100 km) range at 550 kn (630 mph; 1,020 km/h) airspeed against a 70 kn (81 mph; 130 km/h) headwind, the 119 had a wing sweep of 35 degrees and a vertical stabilizer sweep of 45 degrees. Critical field length on takeoff was 3,930 ft (1,200 m) to 5,255 ft (1,602 m), while the advertised landing roll was 1,800 ft (550 m) to 2,050 ft (620 m). Roll control was provided by conventional ailerons, a combination of split flaps and Fowler flaps were used to enhance low-speed control, and the wings were equipped with spoilers that doubled as speed brakes. The cabin floor had tracks to allow interior fitments to be changed quickly to suit different missions; the aircraft could be used for medical evacuation, with room for 12 stretchers and two attendants, and McDonnell also promoted it as a trainer for bombardiers, flight navigators, radar operators, or electronic countermeasure technicians. Having invested over $10 million in company funds in the program, McDonnell initiated the formation of commercial sales and transport divisions to promote the 119, but company founder James Smith McDonnell was unwilling to commit to full-scale production until sizable orders were received. Completion of the prototype was delayed until 1959 due to the cancellation of the intended Fairchild J83 engine. Fitted with Westinghouse J34 turbojets for flight test purposes, the 119 was first flown on 11 February 1959, but the Air Force rejected it later that year in favor of the Lockheed JetStar (designated C-140), citing concerns about foreign object damage with the 119's low-mounted engines. Following this setback, McDonnell continued to market the type commercially, renaming it the 220 to commemorate McDonnell's second 20 years of business, and showing it in a 10-place luxury configuration and a more basic configuration with 29 passenger seats. McDonnell drew up plans to equip production models with more modern Pratt & Whitney JT12 or General Electric CF700 engines, and the 220 was awarded a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) type certificate on 17 October 1960. The company made a provisional deal with Pan American World Airways to lease 170 of the jets, but no other orders materialized, and McDonnell was ultimately unable to offer the aircraft to Pan Am at an attractive price; consequently, the airline rejected the aircraft in favor of the Dassault-Breguet Mystère 20, and no further production ensued. The McDonnell Corporation subsequently used the prototype as a VIP transport before selling it in March 1965 to the Flight Safety Foundation, which used it for crash survival tests and other research in Phoenix, Arizona. The jet was subsequently rumored to have been used for covert missions in Latin America before winding up derelict in Albuquerque. As of 2019, the single prototype was still extant, registered as N4AZ and stored at El Paso International Airport.[7] FAA records show that in January of 2022, the aircraft was sold. Registration certificate issued 28 Jan 2022, expiring 31 Jan 2025.

The Lun-class ekranoplan (also called Project 903) is a ground effect vehicle (GEV) designed by Rostislav Alexeyev in 1975 and used by the Soviet and Russian navies from 1987 until sometime in the late 1990s. It flew using lift generated by the ground effect acting on its large wings when within about four metres (13 ft) above the surface of the water. Although they might look similar to traditional aircraft, ekranoplans like the Lun are not classified as aircraft, seaplanes, hovercraft, or hydrofoils. Rather, crafts like the Lun-class ekranoplan are classified as maritime ships by the International Maritime Organization due to their use of the ground effect, in which the craft glides just above the surface of the water. The ground effect occurs when flying at an altitude of only a few meters above the ocean or ground; drag is greatly reduced by the proximity of the ground preventing the formation of wingtip vortices, thus increasing the efficiency of the wing. This effect does not occur at high altitude. The Utka, can engage enemy ships out to its radar horizon (about 35 kilometers/22 miles) but can fire the SS-N-22 out to the missile's 100-kilometer (62-mile) range with over-the-horizon targeting data. The name Lun comes from the Russian word for the harrier. Two were planned, one was built, the other cancelled. However, after its retirement in the late 90s, the heavily-armed ship - which is bigger than a jumbo jet - was left sitting at the unused Kaspiysk naval base. The Russian MD-160, aka 'Ekranoplan', aka 'Utka' - nicknamed the 'Caspian sea monster' - has been transported to Derbent, Dagestan, to become a tourist attraction.

The Bell X-5 was the first aircraft capable of changing the sweep of its wings in flight. It was inspired by the untested wartime P.1101 design of the German Messerschmitt company. In contrast with the German design, which could only have its wing sweepback angle adjusted on the ground, the Bell engineers devised a system of electric motors to adjust the sweep in flight. The incomplete Messerschmitt P.1101 fighter prototype recovered by United States troops in 1945 from the experimental facility at Oberammergau, Germany, was brought back to the United States. Although damaged in transit, the innovative fighter prototype was delivered to the Bell factory at Buffalo, New York where company engineering staff studied the design closely, and, led by Chief Designer Robert J. Woods, submitted a proposal for a similar design. Although superficially similar, the X-5 was much more complex than the P.1101, with three sweep positions: 20°, 40° and 60°, creating an inflight "variable-geometry" platform. A jackscrew assembly moved the wing's hinge along a set of short horizontal rails, using disc brakes to lock the wing into its inflight positions. Moving from full extension to full sweep took less than 30 seconds. The articulation of the hinge and pivots partly compensated for the shifts in center of gravity and center of pressure as the wings moved. Even so, the X-5 had vicious spin characteristics arising from the aircraft's flawed aerodynamic layout, particularly a poorly positioned tail and vertical stabilizer which, in some wing positions, could lead to an irrecoverable spin. This violent stall / spin instability would eventually cause the destruction of the second aircraft and the death of its Air Force test pilot in 1953. The unfavorable spin characteristics also led to the cancellation of tentative plans by the United States Air Force to modify the X-5's design into a low-cost tactical fighter for NATO and other foreign countries. Two X-5s were built (serial numbers 50-1838 and 50-1839). The first was completed 15 February 1951, and the two aircraft made their first flights on 20 June and 10 December 1951. Almost 200 flights were made at speeds up to Mach 0.9 and altitudes of 40,000 ft (12,000 m). One aircraft was lost on 14 October 1953, when it failed to recover from a spin at 60° sweepback. Air Force Captain Ray Popson died in the crash at Edwards Air Force Base. The other X-5 remained at Edwards and continued active testing until 1955, and remained in service as a chase plane until 1958. The X-5 successfully demonstrated the advantage of a swing-wing design for aircraft intended to fly at a wide range of speeds. Despite the X-5's stability problems, the concept was developed to an outboard rather than inboard hinge, and was later successfully implemented in such aircraft as the General Dynamics F-111 and Grumman F-14 Tomcat, the Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-23 and MiG-27, the Sukhoi Su-17/20/22 and Su-24, the Tupolev Tu-22M and Tu-160, the Panavia Tornado and the Rockwell B-1 Lancer.

The Westland Wapiti was a British two-seat general-purpose military single-engined biplane of the 1920s. It was designed and built by Westland Aircraft Works to replace the Airco DH.9A in Royal Air Force service. First flying in 1927, the Wapiti entered service with the RAF in 1928, and remained in production until 1932, a total of 565 being built. It equipped twenty squadrons of the RAF, both overseas (particularly in India and Iraq) and at home, remaining in RAF service until 1940, also being used by the Air Forces of Australia, Canada, South Africa and India. It also formed the basis for the Westland Wallace which partly replaced the Wapiti in RAF use. The Wapiti is named for the wapiti, also known as elk, one of the largest species of the deer family and one of the largest land mammals in North America and eastern Asia. In 1927, the British Air Ministry issued Specification 26/27 for a replacement of the elderly Airco DH.9A, designed during the First World War which still equipped the Royal Air Force's General Purpose squadrons. To save time and money, the specification called for the use of a high proportion of DH.9A components, (as the RAF still held large stores of DH.9A spares), while it encouraged the use of an all-metal structure.[2] A large number of types were tendered to meet this requirement from most of the major British aircraft manufacturers, including Westland, who submitted the design that later became known as the Wapiti. Westland had an advantage in that it had carried out the detailed design work for the DH.9A, and was already a major contractor for the DH.9A. The Wapiti was a conventional single-engined equal-span two-bay biplane with a slight wing stagger. It had tandem open cockpits and a fixed main undercarriage plus a tailskid. The forward fuselage was of metal tube structure with aluminium-and-fabric covering, while the rear fuselage was of fabric-covered wooden construction. The wings and tail were standard wooden DH.9A components, although later models replaced the wooden parts with an all-metal structure. The Wapiti was powered by a single Bristol Jupiter radial engine, and its crew of two were armed with a forward-firing Vickers machine gun and a Lewis gun for the observer, while it could carry up to 580 lb (264 kg) of bombs under the wings and fuselage. It was also fitted with radio and photographic cameras, and like the DH.9A before it, could carry a spare wheel for operations in adverse terrain. The prototype first flew on 7 March 1927. Initial tests showed poor control, and the prototype was modified with a much larger tail and horn-balanced ailerons, solving these problems. (It was later discovered that a 2-foot (0.61 m) fuselage section had been omitted from the prototype – as handling was now acceptable, it was not reinstated.) The Wapiti performed well during RAF trials, while using significant amounts of DH.9A components, and was declared the winner of the competition, an initial contract for 25 aircraft being placed in October 1927. After initial production, the wooden fuselage, tail and wings were replaced by metal structures in the Wapiti II and IIA, and the original long fuselage was eventually reinstated in the Wapiti V and later versions. In 1930, Westland produced an updated version of the Wapiti, the Wapiti VII, which differed so much that it was renamed the Westland Wallace. Royal Australian Air Force – 44 Wapitis were in service from 1929 to 1944. No. 1 Squadron RAAF No. 3 Squadron RAAF No. 1 Flying Training School RAAF Central Flying School RAAF For operational history and 11 variants, click here.

The Tupolev Tu-16 (NATO reporting name: Badger) is a twin-engined jet strategic heavy bomber used by the Soviet Union. It has been flown for almost 70 years, and the Chinese license-built Xian H-6 remains in service with the People's Liberation Army Air Force. In the late 1940s, the Soviet Union was strongly committed to matching the United States in strategic bombing capability. The Soviets' only long-range bomber at the time was Tupolev's Tu-4 'Bull', a reverse-engineered copy of the American B-29 Superfortress. The development of the notably powerful Mikulin AM-3 turbojet led to the possibility of a large, jet-powered bomber. The Tupolev design bureau began work on the Tu-88 ("Aircraft N") prototypes in 1950. The Tu-88 first flew on 27 April 1952. After winning a competition against the Ilyushin Il-46, it was approved for production in December 1952. The first production bombers entered service with Frontal Aviation in 1954, receiving the service designation Tu-16. It received the NATO reporting name Badger-A. It had a new, large swept wing and two large Mikulin AM-3 turbojets, one in each wing root. It could carry a single massive FAB-9000 9,000 kg (20,000 lb) conventional bomb (the Russian equivalent in terms of size of the British Grand Slam, but lacking the ground penetrating capability) or various nuclear weapons for a range of around 4,800 km (3,000 mi). Production took place in three aviation plants, Kazan Aircraft Production Association, Kuybyshev, and Voronezh Aircraft Production Association. Although the Tu-16 began as a high-altitude, free-fall bomber, in the mid-1950s, it was equipped to carry early Soviet cruise missiles. The Tu-16KS-1 (Badger-B) version could carry AS-1 missiles over a combat radius of 1,800 km (1,100 mi). These very large weapons were aerodynamically similar to the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter, fitted with either a nuclear or conventional warhead, having a range of about 140 km (85 mi). They were intended for use primarily against US Navy aircraft carriers and other large surface ships. Subsequent Tu-16s were converted to carry later, more advanced missiles, while their designations changed several times. A versatile design, the Tu-16 was built in numerous specialized variants for aerial reconnaissance, maritime surveillance, electronic intelligence gathering (ELINT), and electronic warfare (ECM). In total, 1,507 aircraft were constructed in three plants in the Soviet Union, in 1954–1962. A civilian adaptation, the Tupolev Tu-104, saw passenger service with Aeroflot. The Tu-16 was also exported to Indonesia, Egypt, and Iraq. It continued to be used by the Air Forces and naval aviation of the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia, until 1993. Delivery of the Tu-16 to China began in 1958, and the Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation license-produced the aircraft under the Chinese designation Xian H-6. At least 120 of these aircraft remain in service. On 14 May 1965, one of the PLAAF Tu-16 bombers carried out the first airborne nuclear weapon test inside China. For details of the 30 variants, click here.

The Sukhoi Su-30 (Russian: Сухой Су-30; NATO reporting name: Flanker-C/G/H) is a twin-engine, two-seat supermaneuverable fighter aircraft developed in the Soviet Union by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air interdiction missions. The Su-30 started as an internal development project in the Sukhoi Su-27 family by Sukhoi. The design plan was revamped and the name was made official by the Russian Defense Ministry in 1996. Of the Flanker family, the Su-27, Su-30, Su-33, Su-34 and Su-35 have been ordered into limited or serial production by the Russian Defense Ministry. The Su-30 has two distinct version branches, manufactured by competing organisations: KnAAPO and the Irkut Corporation, both of which come under the Sukhoi aerospace group's umbrella. KnAAPO manufactures the Su-30MKK and the Su-30MK2, which were designed for and sold to China, and later Indonesia, Uganda, Venezuela, and Vietnam. Due to KnAAPO's involvement from the early stages of developing the Su-35, these are basically a two-seat version of the mid-1990s Su-35. The Chinese chose an older but lighter radar so the canards could be omitted in return for increased payload. It is a fighter with both air supremacy and attack capabilities, generally similar to the U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle. Irkut traditionally served the Soviet Air Defense and, in the early years of Flanker development, was given the responsibility of manufacturing the Su-27UB, the two-seat trainer version. When India showed interests in the Su-30, Irkut offered the multirole Su-30MKI, which originated as the Su-27UB modified with avionics appropriate for fighters. Along with its ground-attack capabilities, the series adds features for the air-superiority role, such as canards, thrust-vectoring, and a long-range phased-array radar. Its derivatives include the Su-30MKM, MKA, and SM for Malaysia, Algeria, and Russia respectively. The Russian Air Force operates several Su-30s and has ordered the Su-30SM variant as well. While the original Su-27 had good range, it still did not have enough range for the Soviet Air Defense Forces (PVO, as opposed to VVS – the Soviet Air Force). The Air Defense Forces needed to cover the vast expanse of the Soviet Union. Hence, development began in 1986 on the Su-27PU, an improved-capability variant of the Su-27 capable of serving as a long-range interceptor or airborne command post. The two-seat Su-27UB combat trainer was selected as the basis for the Su-27PU, because it had the performance of a single-seat Su-27 with seating for two crew members. A "proof-of-concept" demonstrator flew 6 June 1987, and this success led to the kick-off of development work on two Su-27PU prototypes. The first Su-27PU flew at Irkutsk on 31 December 1989, and the first of three pre-production models flew on 14 April 1992. The Su-30 is a multirole fighter. It has a two-seat cockpit with an airbrake behind the canopy. It can serve as an air superiority fighter and as a strike fighter. For more information on design, operational histories with a number of countries, and a long list of variants, click here.

The Macchi MB.308, later Aermacchi MB-308, was a light aircraft produced in Italy in the late 1940s, one of the most prolific Italian-built types of the following decade. It was a conventional high-wing cantilever monoplane with fixed tricycle undercarriage. Construction throughout was of wood. The pilot and a single passenger or instructor sat side by side, and later examples had a third seat behind them. The MB.308 was ordered in quantity by the Aeronautica Militare, which leased them out to Italy's aeroclubs. A modified version with a higher-powered engine was put into production in Argentina, under licence to sailplane manufacturer German Bianco. Variants MB.308 - main production version with Continental C85 engine MB.308 Idro - seaplane version MB.308G - three-seat version with Continental C90 engine MB.308G-100 - MB.308G built in Argentina with Continental O-200 engine and fuel tanks relocated from fuselage to wings