Kalinin K-7 Soviet Heavy Bomber

The Soviet Heavy Bomber K-7 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 aircraft, but the project was scrapped. Later Stalin had Kalinin executed. Evidently it was not good to fail on an expensive project under Stalin. It has 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 cannon. And you think the 747 was big... not only a bunch of engines but check out the cannons. In the 1930s the Russian army was obsessed with the idea of creating huge bombers. At that time they were designed to have as many propellers as possible to help carry the huge flying fortresses into the air. Jet propulsion had not been invented. Not many photos were saved from those times, because of the high secrecy levels of such projects and because a lot of time has passed. Still the attached photos show one of these monsters - the heavy bomber K-7.

General characteristics Crew: minimum 11 Capacity: 120 passengers in civilian configuration Length: 28 m (91 ft 10 in) Wingspan: 53 m (173 ft 11 in) Height: () Wing area: 454 m² (4,886.8 ft²) Empty weight: 24,400 kg (53,793 lb) Loaded weight: 38,000 kg (83,776 lb) Powerplant: 7× Mikulin AM-34F V-12 piston engines, 560 kW (750 hp) each

Performance Maximum speed: 225 km/h (121 knots, 140 mph) Service ceiling: 4,000 m (13,123 ft) Wing loading: 84 kg/m² (17 lb/ft²) Power/mass: 103 W/kg (0.06 hp/lb)

Now modern history lovers in Russia try to reconstruct according the plans left in once to be top-secret Russian army archives their look in full color. This is one example based on ideas of Russian aviation engineers of that times.