# Russian Flying Fortress: Kalinin K-7



## BikerBabe (Jan 25, 2011)

English Russia Russian Flying Fortresses

In 1930s Russian army was … by the idea of creating huge planes. At that times they were proposed to have as much propellers as possible to help carrying those huge flying fortresses into the air, jet propulsion has not been implemented at those times yet.

Not much photos were saved since that times, because of the high secrecy levels of such projects and because a lot of time passed already. Still on the photo below you can see one of such planes – a heavy bomber K-7.

Now modern history lovers in Russia try to reconstruct according the plans left in once to be top-secret Russian army archives their look in full color. This is one example based on ideas of Russian aviation engineers of that times.

















Please see more photos in the page that are linked to.

Cheers,

Maria.


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## herman1rg (Jan 25, 2011)

K-7, Airplane-Giant


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## Thorlifter (Jan 25, 2011)

How about this version of it?  That would be some kind of ground attack plane!


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## herman1rg (Jan 26, 2011)

LOL 
Firstly imagine trying to juggle all the throttles of those engines and then trimming for the recoil when one of those heavy guns fired!


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## mikewint (Jan 26, 2011)

Good Grief! did that thing actually fly? Looks more like it was designed to roll along the ground and/or float.

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## The Basket (Jan 26, 2011)

The aircraft existed although without the naval guns!

Konstantin Kalinin was executed for espionage so the design didn't get further than a crashed prototype.

Stalin mustn't like fugly airplanes.


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## pbfoot (Jan 26, 2011)

If you compare the photo to the artists representation you'll note artwork is substantially larger aircraft either that or they used giant people for the photos

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## ivanotter (Jan 31, 2011)

Those impressive photo's are not from the real aircraft. Those are later "fantasies".

However, the Kalinin K-7 was reality, but crashed and killed 14 people.

The inventor, Mr. Kalinin, was executed as "enemy of the state". I think it was because his machine didn't work, not espionage.

Now, how'z't for incentive to get the F-35 to work (giggle).


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## pbfoot (Feb 14, 2011)

ivanotter said:


> Those impressive photo's are not from the real aircraft. Those are later "fantasies".
> 
> However, the Kalinin K-7 was reality, but crashed and killed 14 people.
> 
> ...


id its the same one I'm thinking about it was lost in a collision with a escort which was doing aerobatics around it


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## tyrodtom (Feb 19, 2011)

I think that's the Ant-20 Maxim Gorky, that's how it met it's end. One of it's escorts looped around it and collided. Thirty + died.
The Maxim Gorky was even bigger than the K-7, over 200 ft wingspan.
8 engines I think.


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## ivanotter (Feb 20, 2011)

Nearly,

The Maxim Gorky was a tupolev Antono design. Amazing, it was apparantly a flying concept, whereas the K-7 wasn't:

Wki:

K-7 first flew on 11 August 1933. The aircraft completed seven test flights before a crash due to structural failure of one of the tail booms on November 21, 1933.[3] The accident killed 14 people aboard and one on the ground.[4] Although two more prototypes were ordered in 1933, the project was cancelled in 1935 before they could be completed.[1]

In 1938 Kalinin was executed as an enemy of the state. [5]


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## DBII (Oct 5, 2011)

It would be a nice model build.

DBII


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## BombTaxi (Oct 15, 2011)

Makes you wonder if a formation of these would actually be able to fend off a fighter attack. I suspect, like unescorted B-17s, they would have been fairly easy prey for a cannon-armed fighter. The defensive fire arcs would have been pretty limited with big, thick wings, the massive undercarriage assemblies, and a boxy fuselage in the way. While they would have been tough to bring down due to sheer size, a good burst into that big crew area would probably seal it's fate. And being none too quick, it wouldn't have been a hard target to line up on, from any angle.


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## John Frazer (Apr 21, 2018)

It flew with 6 engines on the leading edge, then a 7th on the trailing edge center, then 8th with two on the trailing edge.
It used "well-known methods", that were already obsolete at the time, so weight and vibration was a huge problem and probably led to the crash.
Kalinin designed several other, more-normal planes and some of them worked well.

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## Wurger (Apr 21, 2018)




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## Torch (Apr 21, 2018)

Man, talking about making a brick fly..Cool RC..


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## Zipper730 (Jul 10, 2018)

I'm sure that could somehow inspire some kind of art-concept...

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## Capt. Vick (Jul 10, 2018)

Noice!


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## swampyankee (Jul 11, 2018)

It looks like something from a bad steampunk graphic novel. 

I’ve seen the pictures before this, and I _still_ wonder if it was the worst attempt at misinformation in aeronautical history or whether Kalinin was actively trying to bamboozle Stalin, like Lysenko.


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## stug3 (Nov 26, 2019)

1933

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## John Frazer (Dec 1, 2019)

It makes some sense from aeronautical sense, if you can power it and if materials can do it. Both points turned out to be very much in question.

But those naval destroyer-sized wheel pants.... it's amazing they left any capacity for any payload.
Those are the bricks that are involved. The rest of it except the tractor-truck crew section and engines as streamlined as a Russian farm tractor, is all-wing. "Minimal" booms to carry the necessary tail.

It's sometimes called a "flying wing".


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## Acheron (Jul 19, 2020)

John Frazer said:


> It makes some sense from aeronautical sense, if you can power it and if materials can do it. Both points turned out to be very much in question.
> 
> But those naval destroyer-sized wheel pants.... it's amazing they left any capacity for any payload.
> Those are the bricks that are involved. The rest of it except the tractor-truck crew section and engines as streamlined as a Russian farm tractor, is all-wing. "Minimal" booms to carry the necessary tail.
> ...


It looks like you should out "flying" in double quotation marks.


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## Андрей (Jul 21, 2020)

Airplane model to scale MikroMir Калинин К-7 1/72
Калинин К-7 — Каропка.ру — стендовые модели, военная миниатюра

detail overview
Литники MikroMir 1/72 K-7 Kalinin : : Новости

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## Андрей (Jul 21, 2020)

I will add on the topic of "Калинин" MikroMir 1/72 К-12 "
review of details Калинин К-12 — Каропка.ру — стендовые модели, военная миниатюра 

ВС-2 или К-12 — Каропка.ру — стендовые модели, военная миниатюра

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## Андрей (Jul 21, 2020)

I will add the passenger airplane of К- 5 
К-5 — Каропка.ру — стендовые модели, военная миниатюра 

К-5 М-15 — Каропка.ру — стендовые модели, военная миниатюра


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## Андрей (Jul 21, 2020)

I will add reference to another model, very large 1/72 
ANT-26 
АНТ-26 (ANT-26) ТБ-6 (самоделка) — Каропка.ру — стендовые модели, военная миниатюра (handwork)

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## nuuumannn (Jul 26, 2020)

Андрей said:


> I will add reference to another model, very large 1/72
> ANT-26



Lovely model and certainly gives a feel to what this aircraft might have been. The 12 engined ANT-26 (TB-6) was of course not built, but the prototype was begun and the airframe was partially finished when the programme was cancelled in July 1934. An airliner variant, the ANT-28 was also designed and similarly not completed.


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## nuuumannn (Jul 26, 2020)

In case anyone is confused about the Kalinin K-7's size, it was truly large for the 30s, but not as big as those internet creations betray. From Russian Aircraft 1875 - 1995 Bill Gunston (Osprey 1995):

Span 53m (173ft 10 1/2in) length 28m (91ft 10 1/2in) wing area 454m2 (4,887ft2). Range was 1600km (994 miles), cruise speed 180km/h (112mph) ceiling 4 km (13,123ft). From the outset the machine suffered vibration through the tail booms. During engine run trials in June 1933 before its first flight it was discovered that it suffered severe vibration at certain engine speeds - a portent of what was to be its demise.


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## maxmwill (Aug 20, 2020)

ivanotter said:


> Those impressive photo's are not from the real aircraft. Those are later "fantasies".
> 
> However, the Kalinin K-7 was reality, but crashed and killed 14 people.
> 
> ...


Konstantin Kalinin - Wikipedia


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## maxmwill (Aug 20, 2020)

nuuumannn said:


> In case anyone is confused about the Kalinin K-7's size, it was truly large for the 30s, but not as big as those internet creations betray. From Russian Aircraft 1875 - 1995 Bill Gunston (Osprey 1995):
> 
> Span 53m (173ft 10 1/2in) length 28m (91ft 10 1/2in) wing area 454m2 (4,887ft2). Range was 1600km (994 miles), cruise speed 180km/h (112mph) ceiling 4 km (13,123ft). From the outset the machine suffered vibration through the tail booms. During engine run trials in June 1933 before its first flight it was discovered that it suffered severe vibration at certain engine speeds - a portent of what was to be its demise.


Kalinin K-7 - Wikipedia


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## nuuumannn (Aug 21, 2020)

maxmwill said:


> Kalinin K-7 - Wikipedia



Which of course quotes from the source I provided for my figures...


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## Capt. Vick (Aug 21, 2020)

Wow, just realized this thread was started by Biker Babe, wonder what happened to her?

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## maxmwill (Aug 22, 2020)

nuuumannn said:


> Which of course quotes from the source I provided for my figures... [/QUOTE
> 
> Yes you did.


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