Engineering:Ilyushin Il-54

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Short description: Soviet transonic bomber
Il-54
Il-54-sila-1.jpg
Three-quarter view of the second Il-54 prototype
Role Bomber
National origin Soviet Union
Manufacturer Ilyushin
First flight 3 April 1955
Number built 2

The Il-54 was a transonic bomber developed in the USSR in the 1950s. Only two examples were built before the project was abandoned.

Design and development

The Council of Ministers issued a directive to OKB-115, for a transonic bomber prototype to be submitted for State Acceptance Trials in July 1954. The design of this bomber went through several stages before settling on the final configuration.[1]

The Il-54, as built, had a very thin 45 degree swept wing with anhedral, which was shoulder-mounted on the fuselage. The Lyulka AL-7 engines were housed in slim, pylon mounted, pods at approximately 1/3 span. Because the wings and engine nacelles were too small to house a conventional undercarriage, the Il-54 used a bicycle undercarriage arrangement, with nose and main gear units on the centreline of the aircraft, at each end of the bomb bay. This arrangement meant a conventional rotating takeoff would be impossible. To enable the Il-54 to take off, in a reasonable runway length, the main gear knelt and the nose gear extended to give the ideal angle of incidence for takeoff (10 degrees).[1]

Flight trials of the Il-54 commenced in April 1955 with test pilot Vladimir Kokkinaki at the controls. Difficult handling during the landing run was rectified by modifying the undercarriage.[1]

Production of the Il-54 was not proceeded with, due to competition from Yak-25 derivatives, and the belief that crewed aircraft would soon be replaced by missiles.[1]

Booked to fly in the flypast at Tushino Airfield in 1956, the Il-54 was dropped from the flying programme. The aircraft was then shown to a US military delegation at Kubinka. The delegation was told that the Il-54 was the Il-149, as part of a deception programme. As a result, the Il-54 was assigned far more importance than it actually warranted, and was assigned the NATO reporting name ("Blowlamp") after it had ceased flying.[1]

Variants

Datafrom:OKB Ilyushin[1]

  • Il-54T - Torpedo Bomber (project)
  • Il-54U - Trainer (project)
  • Il-54R - Photo-Reconnaissance (project)

Specifications (Il-54)

Data from OKB Ilyushin[1]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 3
  • Length: 28.963 m (95 ft 0 in)
  • Wingspan: 17.65 m (57 ft 11 in)
  • Wing area: 84.6 m2 (911 sq ft)
  • Gross weight: 40,400 kg (89,067 lb) (1st prototype)
40,660 kg (89,640 lb) (2nd prototype)
  • Max takeoff weight: 41,600 kg (91,712 lb)
  • Powerplant: 2 × Lyulka AL-7 turbojet engines, 75.537 kN (16,981 lbf) thrust each with water injection (1st prototype)
2x Lyulka AL-7F 98.1 kN (22,100 lbf) with afterburning (2nd prototype)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 1,150 km/h (710 mph, 620 kn) at 5,000 m (16,000 ft) (1st prototype)
1,250 km/h (780 mph; 670 kn) at 5,000 m (16,000 ft) (2nd prototype)
  • Landing speed: 243 km/h (151 mph; 131 kn)
  • Take-off run: 1,150 m (3,770 ft)
  • Landing run: 1,150 m (3,770 ft)
  • Range: 2,057 km (1,278 mi, 1,111 nmi)
  • Ferry range: 2,312 km (1,437 mi, 1,248 nmi) with drop tanks
  • Service ceiling: 13,630 m (44,720 ft) (1st prototype)
14,000 m (46,000 ft) (2nd prototype)
  • Rate of climb: 25.25 m/s (4,970 ft/min)
  • Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,000 ft) in 3.3 minutes

Armament

  • Guns: * 1x 23 mm (0.906 in) Nudelman-Rikhter AM-23 cannon in the port forward fuselage.
  • 2x 23 mm (0.906 in) Nudelman-Rikhter AM-23 cannon in the remotely controlled tail barbette
  • Bombs: 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) of bombs (normal), 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) of bombs (overload)

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Gordon, Yefim; Komissarov, Dmitriy and Sergey (2004). OKB Ilyushin: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft. London: Ian Allan. pp. 150–154. ISBN 1-85780-187-3. 

External links