AM-34RN (4 X 970hp) – MTOW 22,600kg (49,8201b) – Normal Range 1,350km (840mi) – 12 SEATS. 180km/h (112mph). A special feature in the design was a tunnel that permitted air mechanics to crawl along the whole length of the wing, to inspect fuel tanks and cargo holds; and on one notable occasion, this was used to perform some unusual maintenance on one of the engines.
A Great Airplane
Bill Gunston, renowned technical aviation authority and
compiler of encyclopedic volumes about aircraft, including a masterpiece on
Soviet types, says this about the Tupolev-designed ANT-6, also known as the
TB-3 or the G-2: “This heavy bomber was the first Soviet aircraft to be
ahead of the rest of the world, and one of the greatest achievements in
aviation history” and that, “the design was sensibly planned to meet
operational requirement and was highly competitive aerodynamically,
structurally, and in detail engineering.” This was in 1930.
A Big Airplane – and
Plenty of Them
Give or take a ton or two, depending on the version, the
ANT-6 weighed, fully equipped for take-off, about 22 tons. Most G-2s weighed
22,050-kg (48,500-lb). By comparison, the contemporary German Junkers-G 38
weighed 24 tons, but only two were built, compared with no less than 818
ANT-6s. Of these, the vast majority were for the Soviet Air Force, painted dark
green, with sky blue undersides; about ten or twelve ANT-6s were allocated to
Mark Shevelev’s Polar Aviation (Aviaarktika), and painted in the orange-red and
blue colors. The four special versions prepared for the Papanin expedition,
according to Tupolev historians, were in bare metal, probably to save precious
weight. The British and French industries had nothing in the same league, and
the U. S. A. had not yet thought of the B-17.
A Versatile Airplane
Too Designed primarily as a bomber, the type was adapted for
other purposes. Design started way back in May 1926, wind tunnel testing was
completed in March 1929, and Mikhail Gromov made the first test flight on 22
December 1930. Throughout its lifespan (production ceased early in 1937) it
underwent many improvements, culminating in the ANT- 6A, specially modified for
Dr Otto Schmidt’s Aviaarktika’s assault on the North Pole; and it was also used
during the 1930s by Aeroflot, reportedly carrying as many as 20 passengers.
BREAKDOWN OF ANT-6 WEIGHT
Item Kilograms
Empty Weight on Skis 13,084
Radio and Navigation Equipment 297
Spare Parts and
Special Expedition Equipment 262
Crew of 8 (120kg each) 960
Provisions for crew (20kg each) 160
Gasoline 7,200
Oil 640
Total 22,603
(excluding cargo carried for ice station)
Weight Watchers
To equip the Papanin Expedition, every ingenious precaution
was taken to avoid superfluous weight. Tents were of light-weight silk and
aluminum. Utensils were of plastics or aluminum. The aircraft ladders were
convertible into sleds. Special equipment such as the sounding line and the
bathymeter were re-designed to save weight. Both the aircraft crews and the
members of the expedition were eternally grateful for the innumerable
contributions made by the ‘backroom boys’ in Leningrad, Moscow, and other
sources of equipment supply.
How Much Extra
To carry even this finely tuned total weight of nine tons,
divided between the four ANT-6 load-carrying aircraft, extra fuel also had to
be taken, in addition to the provisions listed in the tables on this page.
Almost two tons extra had to be carried by each aircraft. But the dome-shaped
airfield on the plateau at Rudolf Island offered shallow slopes, down which the
departing aircraft could gain speed and lift; and every item of nonessential
equipment was stripped from the interior, and every non-essential item of
personal effects was left behind.
Test Bombing
Landing a 24-ton aircraft on an ice-floe, no matter how big,
was a speculative proposition. It was determined that the minimum ice thickness
required was 70-cm (2-ft); engineers then devised a 9.5-kg (21-lb) ‘bomb’. It
was shaped like a pear and fastened at its rear or trailing end was a 6-8-m (20-ft)
line with flags attached. If the ice was less than 70-cm, the ‘bomb’ went
straight through. If more, it stuck, and the flags, draped on the ice,
indicated that landing was possible. This method was first utilized on the
Papanin expedition.
The North Pole
The Preparations Aviaarktika had already reached ever
northwards during the late 1920s and had spread its wings far and wide across
the expanses of the Soviet Union, in those areas where Aeroflot had no reason
to go, for lack of people to carry in a vast mainly frigid region that was
almost completely unpopulated, except for isolated villages and outposts.
Rather like expeditions on the ground, such as those to the South Pole, Otto
Schmidt, assisted by his deputy, Mark Shevelev, pushed further beyond the
limits, very methodically.
The northernmost landfall in the Soviet Union is the tiny
Rudolf Island, an icy speck on the fringes of the island group known as Franz
Josef Land (named after an Austrian explorer). At a latitude of 820 North,
Rudolf is only about 1,300km (800mi) from the Pole and a good location for a
base camp and launching site. Access to Franz Josef Land, while hazardous
because of the severe climate and terrain, is feasible as the twin-island
territory of Novaya Zemlya accounts for about 800km (500mi) of the distance
from the Nenets region.
On 29 March 1936, Mikhail Vodopyanov set off with Akkuratov
in a two-plane reconnaissance of the possible air route to Rudolf Island.
Flying blind for much of the time, and having to contend with inconveniences
such as boiling six pails of water before starting the engines with compressed
air, they reached their destination, and reported that the conditions, while
not ideal, were not impossible. On his return to Moscow on 21 May, Schmidt was
sufficiently satisfied to make plans. He arranged for the ice-breaking ship
Rusanoll to carry supplies to Rudolf, appointed Ivan Papanin to lead the
assault on the Pole, and selected a combination of four ANT-6 (G-2)
four-engined bomber transports, and one ANT-7 (G-l) twin-engined aircraft for
the task. Vodopyanov was to be the chief pilot.
The Assault
The working party sent to Rudolf did their work well. In
addition to setting up a base camp and a small airstrip on the shoreline, they
rolled out a longer runway, with a slight slope to assist take-off, on a
dome-shaped plateau about 300-m (I,000-ft) above the base camp. The squadron of
aircraft flew up from Moscow, leaving on 18 March 1937. Reaching Rudolf, they
began final preparations. The ANT-6s were estimated to need 7,300-liters (1,600-USg)
of fuel for the 18-hour round-trip to the Pole, and 35 drums were needed for
each aircraft. Ten tons of supplies of all kinds were to be taken, and
elaborate steps were taken to design light-weight and multipurpose equipment.
There were frustrating delays, as they waited anxiously for
Boris Dzerzeyevsky, the resident weather-man, to report favorable conditions,
and for Pavel Golovin, pilot of the ANT-7 reconnaissance aircraft, to confirm
Dzerzeyevsky’s forecasts, and to test the accuracy of the radio beacons. On one
flight, Golovin was stranded for three days when he had to make a forced
landing on the ice. But eventually, the expedition received the all-clear.
Flying an ANT-6 (registered SSSR-NI70), Mikhail Vodopyanov,
with co-pilot M. Babushkin, navigator I. Spirin and three mechanics landed at a
point a few kilometers beyond the North Pole (just to make sure) on 21 May
1937, at 11.35 a. m. Moscow time. Ivan Papanin, with scientists Yvgeny Federov
and Piotr Shirsov, together with radio operator Ernst Krenkel, immediately
established the first scientific Polar Station (PS-l) on the polar ice, on
which they eventually drifted on their private ice-floe in a southwesterly
direction until they were picked up off the coast of Greenland by a rescue ship
on 19 February 1938.
Their Tiny Hands Were
Frozen
During the final flight from Rudolf Island to the North Pole, Mikhail
Vodopyanov realized that one of the ANT-6’s engines was leaking water from its
radiator, with its precious anti-freeze liqUid disappearing into thin air.
Vodopyanov’s trusted chief air mechanic, Flegont Bassein, together with
co-mechanics Morozov and Petenin, crawled along the tunnel in the wing (see
opposite and diagram below) and tried to stop the flow. They came up with an
ingenious solution, by placing cloths over the leak, soaking up the outflow,
squeezing them out into a container, and pouring the liquid back into the
radiator. The engine kept going.
The mechanics did too, but barely. To reach the leak, they had had to
force an opening in the leading edge of the wing, radiators obviously being
exposed to the airflow. It was an act of fortitude that nearly cost them their
hands.
Well-Earned Fame
After the various great flights made by Soviet aircraft, the
pilots and crew were lavishly decorated, receiving many medals and testimonials
in the Soviet tradition. Moscow witnessed receptions that were as impressive,
if not quite so lavish, as those bestowed in New York on Lindbergh, Earhart, or
Hughes. And they were well earned. Mikhail Vodopyanov, for example, had built
up hundreds of hours of flying in remote parts of Russia, including the opening
of the Dobrolet route to Sakhalin. He had pioneered the route to Rudolf Island,
and had campaigned for aircraft landings on the North Polar ice, in opposition
to other views that the Papanin party should be dropped by parachute. His crew
members Mikhail Babushkin and Ivan Spirin had both flown big airplanes as early
as 1921, in the Il’ya Murometsy, no less. Vasily Molokov had been one of the
heroes of the Chelyuskin rescue, and his radio operator had been with him on
the long Siberian circuit. Anatoly Alexeyev had flown on a relief party to the
Severnaya Zemlya islands in 1934; while lIya Mazuruk and Pavel Golovin already
had outstanding records. When the Soviet Union decided to Go For The Pole, it
had the best cadre of trained and experienced pilots in the world to face the
daunting challenge.
