Leningrad Old Hydrofoil

[hesham]

Hi,

http://www.avia-it.com/act/biblioteca/periodici/PDF%20Riviste/Ala%20d'Italia/L'ALA%20D'ITALIA%201928%2004.pdf

 

[Avimimus]

Dear Hesham, that isn't a hydofoil. It has skis and is intended to travel on top of the ice.

 

[hesham]

Thank you my dear Avimimus.

 

[riggerrob]

That looks like a fancy version of the propeller-driven snowmobiles that snuck supplies into Leningrad/Petrograd/Saint Petersburg during the WW 2 siege.

 

[Apophenia]

Exactly. But at an earlier stage in development. The image hesham posted is from the 15 April 1928 edition of l'Ala d'Italia (page 362). The article - on the state of Soviet aerosani development - is titled Slitte russe con elica propulsiva (Russian sleds with propeller drive). The article is very general (and rather repetitive) but there are a few details ...

Mention is made of research on powered sleds done at the University of Novorossiysk by a Prof. Zagut (the name is Sephardic but I found no online references to this professor). A trial was performed with ten aerosani (presumably of different designs) on the route Moscow-Tver-Leningrad-Smolensk-Moscow ... with 9-of-10 aerosani completing the route.

The 3-view drawing may represent one of those ten experimental aerosan designs but, more likely, it is a generic concept for a future powered sled with a roughly aerofoil-shaped fuselage.

In an overview of Soviet aerosani, by 1928 directable air propellers had prevailed over earlier efforts with turning paddles and cylinders or screw-like helical drives. With propeller-driven aerosani, average engine powers between 100 and 150 hp were producing top speeds from 90 to 160 km/h. Soviet aerosan propellers were created from wood, hollow steel, or aluminum.

 

[DWG]

The side profile isn't too different to the operational NKL-16 aerosan, but that was otherwise a slab-sided box (probably as the optimum combination of production simplicity, aerodynamic efficiency and usable interior space).

 

[Fluff]

a range of pics here