Russian Aviation Records

Anyone with information
about any record which is or
was held by a Russian aircraft
is encouraged to submit them
to me by email for inclusion
in this list. The information
here will almost exclusively
come from submissions, so
if you have anything please
email me.

This particular page is dedicated to all of those in the Russian Aviation industry involved in the design, construction and testing of Russian aircraft and their components. It is a list of the world records which have been held by a Russian designed or made aircraft at some time (not nessicarily current).

Following the records below is an extract of an article about modelling the P-42 Record Breaker written by Ken Duffy. It was published in the January 1996 edition of the UK Model mag 'Scale Models International'. SMI is published by Nexus.

Date record was set	Information
7 Aug 1961	The official flying boat speed record is held by a Beriev M-10 and is 912 kmh. It was set up by Niklaai Andrievsky and his crew of two. The aircraft set the record over a 15/25km course and was powered by two AL-7 turbojets. The M-10 holds all 12 records listed for jet powered flying boats.
9 Sep 1961	The flying boat altitude record was set by Georgiy Buryanov over the Sea of Azov to an altitude of 49,088 ft, again in an M-10.
6 Aug 1969	The worlds larget helicopter is the Mil Mi-12 Homer (V-12). Also has a lifting record for lifting 39.5 tons to 2 255m height. It is powered by four 6,500hp turboshaft engines and has a span of 67m over it's rotor tips with a fuselarge length of 37m and weighs a total of 103.3 tons.
27 July 1973	The world altitude record by an aircraft which took off from the ground under it's own power is held by a modified Mig25 Foxbat the E-266. Flown by Aleksandr Fedotov the twin turbojet powered aircraft reached a height of 36.23 km.
Jan 1986	The An125 Ruslan becomes the world's largest aircraft beating the C5 Galaxy. The An124 has a loaded take-off weight of 405 000kg, wing span of 73.30m, lenght of 69.10m and a height of 20.78m.
21 Dec 1988	The first flight of the current world's largest aircraft the An225 Myra. The An225 has a loaded take-off weight of 600 000kg, wing span of 88.40m, length of 84.00m and a height of 18.10m.

P-42 Record Attempts

With such a hot ship on their hands, the Soviets gave some thought to an attempt at a number of world records - particularly those set by the specially stripped-down McDonnell F-15 'STREAK EAGLE'. These, if successful, would serve to show the world that Soviet aviation expertise was the second to none and any chance of wresting records from the Americans was not to be missed.

Accordingly, one of the T-10S prototypes was stripped of all armament, radar and operational equipment, the fin tips were removed, as was the tailboom and the wingtip launch rails. Even the radome was replaced by a lighter metal fairing. Stripped of paint, the aircraft was polished and all drag-producing gaps and joints were sealed. The engines were modified to give an increase in thrust of 2,204lbs - giving the P-42, as the modified aircraft was designated, a phenomenal thrust-to-weight ratio of almost 2:1.

The mainwheel brakes could not hold the aircraft at full thrust so the P-42 was anchored to a tracked armoured vehicle by a steel hawser with an electronic lock. With the engines wound up to full power, the hawser was released and the P-42 leaped into the air and climbed at an optimum angle to altitude.

Between 1986 and 1988 the P-42, piloted variously by Victor Pugachev, Nikolai Sadovnikov, Oleg Tsoi and Yevgeni Frolov, took no less than 27 records from the Streak Eagle, including time-to-height records for 3000, 6000, 9000, 12000 and 15000 metres, a height record of 19335m (63435 ft) and time-to-height records with various payloads. The aircraft even set records for STOL aircraft with a take-off run of less than 1540ft ! Most of these records still stand to this day. The P-42 is currently in storage at Zhukovsky and there is talk of refurbishing it for some more record attempts, although given the parlous state of the Russian economy, this is thought most unlikely.

Russian Aviation Gallery

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