Unknown Soviet-era aerospace nose section - aircraft, drone or missile?

[Artvist]

Hello,

I’m trying to identify this aircraft part and would appreciate any help.

It appears to be a section of a nose or forward fuselage. The surviving piece is approximately 1.5 metres long. The pointed nose is metal, and the structure behind it consists of riveted metal skin with internal longitudinal stiffeners.

Important: the wider rear end is not original - the part has been cut off, so the aircraft structure originally continued beyond the point visible in the photos.

The inside is hollow. There are internal structural members and a circular bulkhead/former visible inside.

The part was found at a scrap metal yard in Ukraine in the 1990s.

Does anyone recognize the construction, nose profile, or type of aircraft it could have come from?

Please also let me know what additional details, measurements or photographs would be useful for identification — joints, rivets, internal structure, markings, the nose tip, etc. I can take more detailed photos and measurements. Thanks for any help.

 

[Artvist]

No thoughts on this one? Does anyone have any ideas at all about what this part might be from?

 

[CiTrus90]

No thoughts on this one? Does anyone have any ideas at all about what this part might be from?

Possibly a Yak-28 "wingtip carrot" (not sure of the proper technical name, anti-shock body maybe?):

Colors appear to be a match as well.

I haven't found closer pictures of these parts on any online walk-arounds so far, unfortunately, but I think that is what you are looking for.
Hope this helps.

 

[Scott Kenny]

1.5m long but only what, 20cm diameter at the base where it's cut?

I was going to say it might be a fuel tank, but not likely if it's that small.

 

[Dew]

Possibly a Yak-28 "wingtip carrot" (not sure of the proper technical name, anti-shock body maybe?):

Likely. Another possible is the very similar structure of the 28R nose.

With the red tip though the wing version probably more likely.

 

[Archibald]

Kuchemann carrots were a stapple of 1950s aircraft aerodynamics.

 

[Artvist]

Likely. Another possible is the very similar structure of the 28R nose.
With the red tip though the wing version probably more likely.

Thank you very much to everyone who took the time to look at the photos, share ideas, and help with the identification.

Special thanks to CiTrus90, who was the first to suggest that the part might be from a Yakovlev aircraft, and especially to Dew, who solved the mystery by identifying it as being from the Yak-28R.

I checked and compared the details carefully, and he was right - it is indeed from a Yak-28R.

Mystery solved after all these years. Thank you all again for your help!

 

[flateric]

Still I would check shape match once more (Igor Kolokolov photos)

 

[CiTrus90]

Had a bit more of a look at it and I'm unconvinced it's the nose tip :/

So far, the closest thing I've found (both shape and camo-wise) is the wingtip anti-shock body of this Yak-28U, so I wouldn't be so sure that the part in your possession came from a Yak-28R.

Incidentally, I noticed that there are a lot of variations in these parts, even between aircraft that would apparently be of the same series.