K-7 / Star Wars

Thomas

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2004
Messages
747
Location
Dade City, Florida
Aircraft
Bell 47.204.205.206.212, Hiller 12a, Hughes 300.500, Sikorsky S76, Cessna 150.210.310
Total Flight Time
1830
Built in Russia during the 1930s, it flew 11 times before crashing and killing 15 people. The designer, Konstantin Kalinin, wanted to build two more planes but the project was scrapped. Later, Stalin had Kalinin executed. Evidently, it was not good to fail on an expensive project under Stalin .

It's got propellers on the back of the wings, too. You can count 12 engines facing front. The size would be equivalent to the Empire State Building on its side, with cannons. Think the 747 was big... not only a bunch of engines but check out the cannons the thing was carrying.

In the 1930s the Russian army was obsessed by the idea of creating huge planes. At that time they were proposed to have as many propellers as possible to help carry those huge flying fortresses into the air, jet propulsion had not been implemented yet. Not many photos were saved from those times because of the high secrecy levels of such projects.
 

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This has been floating around the internet for some time. What is really scary is that many people believe these digitally enhanced, digitally created, or digtially altered pictures as the real thing. The technology is hear to easily create a photo of something nonexsistant and get the masses to easily believe.

I have said this many times and will continue to do so. What scares me is that the general public does not understand this technology, nor care and still follow the belief that "seeing is believing" and photo evidence is 100% truthful. Just think. A news media report showing you doing something you were never were involved with, but was created with digital technology to slander you and your reputation. A jury of twelve your peers convict you of a crime you never commited because the evidence was created with this digital technology. A country goes to war against another because the "video evidence" shown to the world was digitally created. The technology makes it easier to pull the wool over the masses eyes.

Wayne
 
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It looks like something out of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". Not to mention the plastic people in the scene give it away!
 
What many don't realize is just not only what the Comrads had on the drawing boards but what they actually produced - and flew during WWI - as well as after.

Much like the victory over Nazi Germany and those other nuts, the ones who were running Japan at the same time, the cold war victory over Communist Russia was in the full sense of the word, a "close -run" thing - a very close-run thing - way too close.

tyc
 
Fact or Fiction?

Fact or Fiction?

I am not familiar with Russian history so I will make no comment; the pictures were in an eMail I received. Here are some sites that believe the K-7 was real. I lose no sleep over any of it.

http://www.englishrussia.com/?p=2231
http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/kalinin_k-7.php

"........According to the Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Company (KSAMC) in the Ukraine, the K-7 actually first took to the skies on August 19, 1933 and her final flight was on November 23rd of that year.

Kalinin designed and built several aircraft as director of the first Ukrainian air company called "Ukrvozdoukhput" which means "Ukrainian Air Way." Click for KSAMC web site

Winchester's book noted that the prototype was plagued by vibrations and instability problems caused by the massive propeller engines.

Kalinin and his team of engineers tried to overcome flaws by reducing the size of the tail boom. The eleventh test flight proved to be fatal when he plane's elevator jammed causing it plough into the ground below. The entire crew of 15 perished.

The Soviet government under the command of Joseph Stalin terminated the project and in 1938 arrested and executed Kalinin for espionage and sabotage.

Few photos exist of this plane and the ones included in the email appear to be computer created or enhanced................."
 

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Which is exactly what I said in post #2, and even gave the same link to the real thing...
 
Do-X

Do-X

It's got propellers on the back of the wings, too. You can count 12 engines facing front. . . . At that time they were proposed to have as many propellers as possible to help carry those huge flying fortresses into the air, jet propulsion had not been implemented yet.

There was a real plane back in those days flying with 12 engines (not a photoshop job -- it did a round-the-world flight), but it was German, not Russian. Six pods each carried a tractor and a pusher in tandem, each engine being a 12 cylinder Curtiss. It's the Dornier Do-X. It had a very low ceiling, but being designed as a transoceanic flying boat, there wouldn't be a need to cross high terrain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GRj9Os5NIY
 
Redundancy

Redundancy

Which is exactly what I said in post #2, and even gave the same link to the real thing...
Yes Brett, good job. Thank you; I was confused.
 
K-7 vs H-4

K-7 vs H-4

The K-7 was built; perhaps not developed to it intended U.S.S.R. potential.
Here is another aircraft that was lost to circumstances; this one was U.S. built during the same era. It flew only once successfully; The Hercules.
How is this, Brett? :D
 

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