Beriev's Amphibious Transport and Anti-Submarine Warfare Aircraft (1962)
In 1962, the Beriev OKB began work on a project for a high-speed amphibious transport and anti-submarine warfare aircraft powered by four Kuznetsov NK-8 turbofans.
As a transport aircraft, it was intended for supply missions to surface ships and submarines in their mid-ocean areas of operation, as well as to air defense garrisons in inhospitable and remote locations in the far east and north of the USSR.
The aerodynamic configuration of this aircraft was similar to that of a flying wing, its delta wing had a thick root hull that blended cleanly with the fuselage although it had a T-tail.
It was not equipped with stabilizing floats since part of the wing was of the floating type and ensured lateral stability.
The forward fuselage accommodated 5 crew on its flight deck and 10 cargo attendants in the cockpit. The spacious, pressurized cargo hold could accommodate 40 tons of cargo.
The aircraft was 51.7 meters long and had a wingspan of 40 meters. Its maximum takeoff weight was 160 tons taking off from a dirt runway.
It was expected to reach a maximum speed of 850 km/h and the service ceiling would be 14,000 meters. With full fuel load the calculated range was 8,600 kilometers and 3,600 kilometers with full payload.
A slightly different variant had 10 lift engines in the wing roots and stabilizing floats very close to the wing tips. This short-takeoff aircraft was a pure seaplane, or flying boat as it was called in Beriev's documents, as it could only take off from water due to the lift engines being installed in the landing gear space.
A third version had a swept trapezoidal wing with wing tip floats.
There is no data on the armament and electronic equipment planned for the anti-submarine warfare variant.
Source:
“Unflown Wings” Soviet and Russian Unrealised Aircraft Projects 1925-2010, by Yefim Gordon and Sergei Komissarov.