Profile image

Antonov A-40 Krylya Tanka

37.6k LukaIsDevinFather  2.4 years ago
Auto Credit Based on LukaIsDevinFather's Simple T-60 light tank

@X99striker 's request. I'm tired of making thumbnails for a while.

And spawn at air, tow her away or fly from final approaches wither with updrafts or plain 0 kp/h winds.

Overview

(obviously where did I copied from)

Instead of loading light tanks onto gliders, as other nations had done, Soviet airborne forces had strapped T-27 tankettes underneath heavy bombers and landed them on airfields. In the 1930s, there were experimental efforts to parachute tanks or simply drop them into water. During the 1940 occupation of Bessarabia, light tanks may have been dropped from a few meters up by TB-3 bombers, which, as long as the gearbox was in neutral, would allow them to roll to a stop.

The biggest problem with air-dropping vehicles is if their crews are dropped separately, they may be delayed or prevented from bringing them into action. Gliders allow crews to arrive at the drop/landing zone along with their vehicles. They also minimize exposure of the valuable towing aircraft, which need not appear over the battlefield. So the Soviet Air Force ordered Oleg Antonov to design a glider for landing tanks.

Antonov was more ambitious. Instead of building a glider, he added a detachable cradle to a T-60 light tank bearing large wood and fabric biplane wings and a twin tail. Such a tank could glide into the battlefield, drop its wings, and be ready to fight within minutes.

One T-60 was converted into a glider in 1942, intended to be towed by a Petlyakov Pe-8 or a Tupolev TB-3. The tank was lightened for air use by removing its armament, ammunition and headlights, and leaving a very limited amount of fuel. Even with these modifications, the TB-3 bomber had to ditch the glider during its only flight, on September 2, 1942, to avoid crashing, due to the T-60's extreme drag (although the tank reportedly glided smoothly). The A-40 was piloted by the famous Soviet experimental glider pilot Sergei Anokhin. The T-60 landed in a field near the airport, and after dropping the glider wings and tail, the driver returned it to its base. Due to the lack of a sufficiently powerful aircraft to tow it at the required 160 km/h (99 mph), the project was abandoned.

Controls

AG7: Detach tank and deploy parachute (or I'll be sent to gulag if it was destroyed)
AG8: Activate horizontal turret. Useful to deactivate when gliding to prevent collisions with glider.
Glider: Normal flight controls
Tank: Pitch or Throttle to move forward, brake to brake, pitch down to move backwards, then roll to turn.

Specifications

Same as the glider-less T-60 light tank I've built before.

Armament: 20 mm cannon, 1 MG


Shikanoin Heizou

Spotlights

General Characteristics

  • Predecessor Simple T-60 light tank
  • Created On Android
  • Wingspan 59.0ft (18.0m)
  • Length 44.0ft (13.4m)
  • Height 13.3ft (4.1m)
  • Empty Weight 6,585lbs (2,987kg)
  • Loaded Weight 7,159lbs (3,247kg)

Performance

  • Wing Loading 6.0lbs/ft2 (29.4kg/m2)
  • Wing Area 1,190.3ft2 (110.6m2)
  • Drag Points 7430

Parts

  • Number of Parts 239
  • Control Surfaces 0
  • Performance Cost 1,060