Khrunichev - Cold War Aircraft and Rockets

The history of the current Space Center Khrunichev can be divided into three periods: automobile (1916-1923), aviation (1923-1960) and rocket-space (from the end of 1959 to the present).

The history of the enterprise began in 1916 with the organization in Russia, the production of "Russo-Balt." Five years later, in 1922, the plant produced the first five cars "Russo-Balt." In the mid-1920s, the factory began the production of domestic aircraft. In April 1916 the Board of the Russian-Baltic Joint Stock Company acquired a large plot of land on the outskirts of Moscow, where the construction of a large plant began, which in 1917 received the name "Second Automobile Plant" Russo-Balt ". In 1922, the plant, which in 1921 was transferred to the RKK Armored Division for the repair of armored vehicles and renamed the "1st armored tank-car factory", manufactured the first five domestic passenger cars "Russo-Balt". In October 1922 the car was shown on Red Square to the leadership of the country. At the wheel of the first Soviet car was the director of the plant ISOleinichuk.

In 1923 in the history of the plant began a new aircraft construction phase. In early 1923, it was decided to re-profile the plant - the plant was transferred to a concession to the German aircraft manufacturer Junkers for organizing the production of all-metal aircraft and engines to them. Until 1925 , the factory produced the first 50 J-20 and 100 J-21 aircraft. In 1925 , the government of the country decided to organize works in the aircraft industry and the creation of domestic aviation equipment. In 1927, in Fili in 1927, plant No. 7 was established (subsequently No. 22 named after the 10th Anniversary of October), where since 1927 the serial production of the first general-purpose all-metal aircraft for the development of the design bureau of the aircraft designer AN Tupolev was launched.

TB-3 (ANT-6) is the world's first heavy all-metal four-engine bomber designed for strategic tasks. On this plane in 1935 the flight Moscow - Paris - Moscow was accomplished. The first flight was on December 22, 1930. In various modifications it was serially produced at the plant from 1932 to 1935. A total of 819 were produced.

After the war, in 1947-1949, in parallel with the launch of the Tu-2 bomber, the plant began to produce an experimental Tu-12 jet bomber . Flight characteristics of the car were slightly better than those of the Tu-2, but they did not satisfy modern requirements. Therefore, in 1948, the Tu-14 jet bomber was tested, which differed from the Tu-12 by the presence of a third engine in the tail section of the fuselage, but was not launched into batch production.

In the middle of 1949, the plant started serial production of a heavy four-engine bomber Tu-4 . The development of its production allowed to rapidly reach the world level of development of automation and on-board electronic systems, as well as to start production of aircraft with a significantly larger take-off mass. The Tu-4 had powerful weapons with remote fire control, was equipped with modern radar equipment and therefore for a long time remained the main long-range aircraft.

In 1951, a design bureau was established under the leadership of V.M.Myasishchev. In the period from 1951 to 1960, it created several heavy strategic bombers - M-4 and 3M, better known in the world as the "Bison". Many constructive solutions were much ahead of the world level. The strategic jet bomber M-4 in its characteristics was much superior to the aircraft that were then in service: in height and range of flight in 1,5-2 times, in take-off mass 3-4 times.

In the mid-1950s the development of the supersonic strategic long-range bomber M-50 began. A distinctive feature of the M-50 was the possibility of maintaining the cruising mode at supersonic speed, while foreign aircraft provided the possibility of flying on supersonic regimes only for a short time. The front stand of the chassis automatically took the plane to the takeoff angle when it reached a certain speed. This method of takeoff was first applied in the world practice. The M-50 was a M-52-missile with an external suspension under the fuselage of a long range aircraft. Airplanes M-50 (M-52) in serial production were not launched due to the reorientation of Russia's defense strategy on missile armament.

At the end of 1959, the enterprise was reoriented to missile issues. The company produces a universal UR-200 military missile, a family of intercontinental ballistic missiles of the UR-100 type, a powerful combat ballistic missile UR-500, later reoriented to carry out missions for the removal of spacecrafts and called "Proton."

Aftter the plant was reoriented to the missile theme, and work on new large-scale aviation and aerospace projects was discontinued. Among the discontinued developments is a Buran airplane with supersonic flight speed. "Buran" was equipped with a straight-flow engine, and it was started with the help of four launch accelerators.

The first practical task in the field of missile technology was the development of the control system for the UR-200 universal military missile, developed on the basis of the R-14 missile designed by M.K. Yangel. The design of the UR-200 rocket began in 1960. During the works a number of new design solutions were found: missile control by means of deflection of the main engine engines, choice of long-term fuel components, waffle type of the tank design, etc. Several stand products for ground testing of UR-200 and for flight tests were manufactured. The UR-200 did not provide for a long time in the refueled condition, which significantly increased the time of its preparation for the launch. Therefore, despite successful ground and flight tests, the production of the UR-200 was discontinued.

March 30, 1963 issued a government decree on the development in 1963-1964 gg. family of intercontinental ballistic missiles of the second generation, type UR-100and the deployment of its serial production at the plant. MV Khrunichev (now RKZ). Efforts of the teams headed by the general designer OKB-52 (TsKBM) VN Chelomey, the chief designer of the specially created branch in Fili branch No. 1 (the so-called OKB-23 after its inclusion in the OKB-52), VN Bugai, developers and the creator of systems and units for the UR-100, led by V.P. Barmin, N. A.Pilyugin, and others, a combat missile system with UR-100 ICBMs (intended for deployment in silo launchers) was created. "Sotka" became the ancestor of an entire generation of ICBMs, one of the best serial ICBMs of its generation. In 1967 the complex was adopted for service.