From: Martin Wilson (mc.wilson@auckland.ac.nz)

...First stop would have too be the "Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft 1875-1995" by Bill Gunston. According to it, the Tsybin LL gliders were flown with one PRD-1500 rocket motor. The PRD-1500 was a solid fueled rocket engine by I.I.Kartukov in time period 1945-49. Rated at 1.5 Tonnes at sealevel for 10 secs. The LL-1 had straight wings, reached 1050 KPH, the LL-2 had swept wings but was not completed, the LL-3 had 40 degree forward swept wings, reached a max speed of 1200 kph Mach 0.97.

The RD-1 was a liquid-fuelled rocket developed from the ORM-65 by L.S.Dushkin and V.P.Glushko. Normal rating on RFNA/petrol was 300kg at sea level and more at height. In RD-1/KhZ (chemical ignition) form, extensively tested on fighters from 1943, eg the Su-7 (original version), Yak-3RD etc.

Other early jets and rockets covered by the book...
The MiG-13 (I-250) and Su-5 piston engined with an accelerator in a tail essentially an engine driven afterburner. Flew 1945.
MiG I-270 rocket interceptor flew 1947.
Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 flew Feb 1943.
Biesnovat aircraft "5" flew 1949.
Polikarpov "Malyutka" building 1944.
Korolyev RP-318 and RP-218.
Florov No 4302 flew 1946.
OKB-1 Type 140, modification of Junker Ju 287V1.
OKB-2 "346" flew 1948.
Tikhonravov I-302 flew (unpowered) 1943.
and, in the addendum, the Kalinin K-15 riocket aircraft, a delta wing project of 1936.

My personal fav was Moskalyev's SAM-4 project, a 1933 project to exceed Mach 1 with a delta wing rocket powered plane.

Another book which would be useful is "The Soviet Encyclopedia of Space Fight", editor Prof. G.V.Petrovich. Published by Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1969 in an English translation. P26 has photo of the RD-1, RD-1X3 (chemical ignition), RD-2 (600kg thrust) and the RD-3 with 900 kg thrust from 3 chambers. P290 has photos and details of the ORM series of engines. The ORM-1 to -52 developed 1930-33. The ORM-53 to -102 developed 1934-38. P332, details on the RD-1 to RD-3. Presumably it has details on the designers.

The Smithsonian Annals of Flight No.10 "First Steps Toward Space" ed. F.C.Durant III and G.S.James, published by Smithsonian Institution Press. It is the proceedings of the 1st and 2nd history symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics held 26/9/67 and 16/10/68.

Chp 10 entitled "Developments in Rocket Engineering Achieved by the Gas Dynamics Laboratory in Leningrad", has a lot of detail on ORM series of engines. Details on winged missile 212 of 1936 and the RP-318-1 rocket propelled aircraft designed by S.P.Korolyev with an ORM-65 engine (150kg thrust), tested in 1940.

Chp 16 "Early Experiments With Ramjet Engines In Flight".

Chp 17 "First Rocket and Aircraft Flight Tests of Ramjets". Includes the DM-2 ramjet on an Polikarpov I-15bis in Dec 1939, and the DM-4 on a Yak-7b.

Chp 22 "Development of Winged Rockets in the USSR 1930-39". Photos and details of RP-1 (Raketoplan), tailless rocket powered plane. It was a modified BICh-11 glider in 1932-33 timescale. Details of RP-218 2 seater experimental rocket aircraft and RP-318 (first flight 28/2/40). Details of BI-1 fighter. Details of 216 and 212 winded rockets (1933-36).

Last books, Soviet Air Force Fighters Vol.1 & 2, by William Green and G.Swanborough. Part of the WW2 Aircraft Fact File series. Articles on the MiG-13 and Su-5, and, as I recall, the BI-1.

From: Alexander Velovich (alexvel@ravis.msk.su)

From "Samoliotostroyenie v SSSR (1917-1945)" [Aircraft Development in the USSR], Vol 2, published by TsAGI in 1994, regretably with the printout of only 1,200 copies:

p426: "In 1938-1939 under the leadership of V.V.Uvarov prototype gas trubine powerplants GTU-3 with the turboshaft layout rated at 1,150hp and intended for the TB-3 aircraft were built. In 1938 A.M.Lyulka who was working in Kharkov aviation institute in a team developing steam turbine for A.N.Tupolev's heavy bomber, worked out a design of a turbojet RTD-1 with 500kg thrust with one- or two-stage centrifuge compressor driven by a gas turbine. The characteristic feature of that engine was relatively low turbine inlet temperature (650-700 deg C). The implemented design decisions and thermodynamical parametres of the RTD-1 ensured that it could be developed in relatively short time using construction materials fully mastered by that time by the industry. Estimations made by A.M.Lyulka showed that a single-seat fighter powered by the RTD-1 engine could reach the speed of 900km/h....The order adopted by the Defence Committee of the USSR's Council of People's Commissars [then the name of the Soviet Government] on 12 July 1940 the necessity to continue the work on the turbojet engine of A.M.Lyulka's design was stressed with the aim to test the engine on a test rig already in December 1940".

Naturally, not all went as the Soviet government ordered. The prototype of the engine did not appear before Germany invaded the Soviet Union and captured Kharkov. Like many other design teams and production plants, Lyulka and his engineers joined the exodus to the east. Hating "what if" approach to historical issues, I nevertheless can postulate that if not the war, the Soviets could have developed an airworthy indigenous turbojet design much earlier than it actually happened in 1947, (but still not in early 1950s as somebody in this thread suggested!). I think that captured German turbojets may be considered as some kind of a compensation.

Back to quoting the mentioned source, p435: "In the war years the work on development of A.M.Lyulka's RTD-1 engine continued.... In 1943 under the leadership of M.I.Gudkov (one of the designers of the known LaGG-3 piston- engined fighter), a variant of the LaGG-3 powered by the RTD-1 engine was being designed. The engine was to be installed in the "step" layout at the bottom of the fuselage with jet exhaust under the tail [Yak-15 look-alike]. The maximum speed of the modified LaGG-3 was estimated at 900km/h".

And more, p435: "The ultimate result of the work of A.M.Lyulka's team in the war years ... became ground tests of the first Soviet turbojet S-18 with the thrust of 1,030kg which were conducted in March 1945". To add to that, the first Lyulka's flying turbojet was the TR-1, a completely indigenous design starting a highly successful series of Lyulka engines. Two TR-1s rated at 1,300kg of thrust powered Sukhoi Su-11 fighter (the first aircraft with this designation and the one resembling, but not copied !! from Me-262) and four - Ilyushin Il-22 bomber, both flew in 1947.

There is no doubt that German Jumos and BMWs and then British Nenes and Derwents helped a lot to launch mass production of Soviet first and second-generation combat jets. But Mike Dembinski's beliefs that Russians (or rather Ukrainians?), well, Soviet engineers were clueless newbies until they got ready turbojet engines as war tropheys or bought them in UK are far away from the truth. BTW, Lyulka patented a turbojet design back in 1936!

...But that does not change the fact that design work on turbojets in the USSR in 1940 probably was ahead of the USA. If I am wrong, please correct me, but I think that Americans were tought how to design a turbojet by a Brit named Sir Whittle, weren't they? And many German engineers worked in the USA such as Verner fon Braun, fon Ohein (I am not sure about the spelling) who designed a turbojet at Heinkel in early 1940s and many others. So I suggest to conclude this discussion on a note that British and German turbojet expertise helped both the Soviet Union and the USA. Though I suspect that this is not the end of the thread...

[RAP comment: See also a translation of Vladimir Perov's article by R-Avis.]