Soviet project of armed Martin M-156 "Russian Clipper"

[Stargazer]

Christened by Martin as the Ocean Transport, the Model 156 was an improved derivative of the Model 130 Clipper, but it didn't lead to any contracts and was never put into production. The sole prototype was sold to the Soviet Union and was operated by Aeroflot, owing it the nickname "Russian Clipper" in the West.

It recently came to my attention that the Soviets were planning on a militarized, armed version with a locally redesigned single tail fin, but it remained a project.

Here is a series of interesting documents:

• a three-view arrangement of the projected armed model
• two photos of a desktop model of that variant
• profiles of the Model 156 in US and Aeroflot guises, as well the planned armed variant.

Source: AviaMaster 2002-7

 

[cluttonfred]

A nice find, Stephane, very evocative of the period, though I can't for the life of me understand why they would have wanted to revert to a single vertical tail in an armed version. You'd think that the twin tail version would have made for better fields of fire at the all-important six o'clock position. Cheers, Matthew

 

[fightingirish]

Yeah, while redesigning the tail they could have also installed an aft turret. But in that case the center of gravity would have been probably relocated.

 

[cluttonfred]

Yeah, while redesigning the tail they could have also installed an aft turret. But in that case the center of gravity would have been probably relocated.

True enough on the CG issue, though I'd think they could have found a way to make it work to cover that critical six o'clock position. Another option might have been to put the turret in the wing upper surface projecting down into the upper fuselage, which would have given a nice angle of fire down over the old twin-fin tail. With the single fin, perhaps two turrets would have been worth the trouble and drag to put the big guns to good use.

 

[borovik]

Martin M-156 under the symbol "OB" - ocean bomber in color from the same source. We can also see a model in the museum of Open Society "Tupolev» http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,5808.0/all.html
the first two photos and Reply #9

 

[Stargazer]

Martin M-156 under the symbol "OB" - ocean bomber in color from the same source. We can also see a model in the museum of Open Society "Tupolev» http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,5808.0/all.html
the first two photos and Reply #9

Wow, thanks! I hadn't seen that topic before.

 

[GTX]

Interesting indeed.

 

[Apteryx]

A nice find, Stephane, very evocative of the period, though I can't for the life of me understand why they would have wanted to revert to a single vertical tail in an armed version. You'd think that the twin tail version would have made for better fields of fire at the all-important six o'clock position. Cheers, Matthew

One reason the Soviet designers might have changed the tail is because of the excessive amount of external bracing on Martin's original.