Soviet Heavy bombs of WW2

Does anyone has infos (drawings, photographs) of these heavy bombs ?

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Hi All,

The Russians have developped large conventional bombs during WW2 (FAB 2000, FAB 5000...). These are lesser known than their British counterparts and infos relating these device are scarce (secret weapons ?). Does anyone has infos (photographs, drawings) of these particular devices ?

Was the FAB 5000 the largest of all ?

I hope to hear from you soon !

Regards,

J.C.D
 
While only FAB-5000. (That turned out to be at hand)
Next time you'll get some more info on this topic, If this will currently be up to date.
from: "Airplane" magazine #12 1995
 

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Hi Borovik,

Many Thanks for the info !

If you have other infos on large soviet bombs, it will be useful for me and other modellers as the new Zvezda Petlyakov Pe-8 bomber kit in 1/72 scale includes one FAB 2000 and one FAB 5000 bomb in the box.

Regards,

JCD
 
...more.
source:"M Hobby" ,"Aviation World Magazine"
 

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Given the relative rarity of Soviet heavy bombers during the second world war, I assume this ordnance was to be dropped by the Pe8?
 
I don't know. In Il-2 Sturmovik (by Oleg Maddox) the Tu-2 is seen carrying a 2000kg bomb and the Pe-8 carries a FAB-5000. Other medium bombers (and the early war TB-3) carry FAB-1000...
 
Hi
(sorry for my English)

I think also Jer-2 (or Yer? I'm not sure what is proper English transcription) in "overload" configuration could carry one FAB-5000.

FAB-5000 has a little unusual construction as for bomb this size. It was made from reinforced concrete. The designer was professor Nikolai Galperin (or, in some sources: Gelperin). For his name, sometimes the bomb designation is FAB-5000NG. Galperin's team designed in the early 1941 a series of reinforced-concrete bombs: FAB-100NG, FAB-250NG, FAB-500NG and FAB-1000NG. A biggest of them was 6200 kg (or 6500?) warhead for "flying bomb" - remotely controlled TB-3.
 
The FAB-5000 was designed especially for the Pe-8, although its diameter was too big and bomb bay doors could not close completely, what resulted in 10-15 km/h loss of speed.
FAB-5000 has a little unusual construction as for bomb this size. It was made from reinforced concrete.
Sadly, it is not the case. Or it is not so obvious at least. The FAB-5000 was designed by Gelperin's KB-35 indeed, but the bomb was of conventional steel construction, comprising of cast ogive and forged cylindrical and tail sections welded together. This bomb was tested in the spring of 1943 and put into service with some changes (e.g. eight instead of six fuzes) in May as the "FAB-5000 of the drawing 3-01234".
The problem is, in mid 1970s some rumours appeared about FAB-5000NG bombs dropped on coastal fortifications of Koenigsberg on April 28, 1943 - i.e. when the steel FAB-5000 was only being tested. The FAB-5000NG is said to weight 5400 kg with 3200 kg HE charge (the FAB-5000 5080 kg and 3361 kg respectively). As far as I know, the case of the FAB-5000NG (and its existence) is still not clear.

Regards

Grzesio
 
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/early-cluster-bomb-molotovs-bread-basket/

From/via the comments:
Kizor says: March 1, 20099:56 am


Random historical note: “Molotov’s bread basket” is a Finnish nickname invented after the man went and claimed that Soviet bombing runs were actually drops of food aid.

Finns went on to name their mass-produced incendiaries “Molotov cocktails” as a drink to go with the food.

A little arson, a little history says: December 30, 20091:28 am


The Molotov cocktail, by the way, is not Russian, but Finnish. It was not invented by the Finns — humans have been stuffing flammables into breakables for thousands of years — but it was named by them.

As the story goes, when the Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939, the Soviet diplomat Vyacheslav Molotov claimed that Soviet planes were not dropping bombs, but food for starving Finns. The bombs, RRAB-3s, were then derisively nicknamed “Molotov bread baskets” by the Finns. The cocktail, used against Soviet tanks, was a drink to accompany the meal.

Second image below is from here.
 

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The last bomb's called RRAB - Rotativno-Rasseivajuschaja Aviatsionnaja Bomba - Rotation-dispersing Aerial Bomb (because the submuniton was ejected by centrifugal forces caused by bomb's rotation).
But RRABs weren't particulary heavy. Biggest of them, RRAB-1 weight about 1000-1200 kg (depending on submunition type). The smaller was RRAB-2 (500-650 kg) and RRAB-3 (250-450 kg).
 
I copied some data from local aviation museum library few weeks ago.

Data here was stamped 2.1.1943:

RRAB-1RRAB-2RRAB-3
diameter m/m729600520
Weight filled kg1000500250
Length m/m387032652285
Filling pcs.
AO-8 kg84-13050-7834
AO-10 kg1006625
AO-25 kg401913
ZAB-2.5 kg580260116
Dispersion radius m
AO-8 from 2km270-550235-525225-360
from 5km305-700265-580250-500
AO-10 from 2km425660335
from 5km600775375
AO-25 from 2km465280190
from 5km545410340
ZAB-2,5 from 2km790930665
from 5km10251240870


In order to return to the original topic. The papers which I copied didn't have any information on the larger bombs (FAB-1000 and BRAB-1800 were the largest bombs mentioned.)
 

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