1/72 Myasichev Projet M

Gallery Article by 63CPE on Jan 4 2017

Silly Week 2017

 

      

The technological progress made by the Soviets back in the 50-ies picked up when Chroesjev came to power after the dark and suppressing regime of Stalin. With this new and more liberated regime, all kinds of technological progress was made. This was the age when the Soviet spaceplan was conceived, the ekranoplans were developed and also many aeronautical development were put to the test. Spirited by the same technological race in the west some spies had copied concepts of several developments made by that time in the west. Including the first plans off Martin XB-51 and the General Electric J79 reheating.....

The designburo’s of Tupovlev, Bartini and Myasichev were developing a fast, jet powered tactical bomber in the early fifties and the stolen plans were supplied to designburo’s.  Especially the Martin XB-51 plans interested the Myasichev OKB and saw the potential of the design. As much of the technologies were not tested in the USSR Myasichev developed a testbed based on leftover german WW2 parts like He-177 fuselages. Helped by the knowledge of earlier enprisoned german aeronautical engineers and their data, the Myasichev Projet M was developed.

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Pictured is the testbed with it’s fake operational bort number. This was done for the May 1st parade in 1955. Unfortunately, the testbed was unserviceable for the parade and it’s existence was not known by western observers until the 90-ies. Instead Myasichev showed the strategic bomber 3M (later designated “Bison” by NATO observers) during this parade which, in July 1955 were seen by American observers (they saw 28 Bisons in two groups during a Soviet air show). The United States government believed that the bomber was in mass production, and the Central Intelligence Agency estimated that 800 would be available by 1960. The display was a hoax (maskirovka); the first group of ten repeated the flyby with eight more. The classified estimates led, however, to American politicians warning of a "bomber gap".[4]

I started this project with two Revell He-177 fuselages in 1/72. Both were cut and put together. Cockpit is the He-177 unit with Pavla MiG-15 bangseats. Bombbay's of the He-117 were used. Part of the front bombbay was transferred to a wheel bay. In style with the Soviet origins and era, it will be tandem geared with outriggers. Wings and stabilo's are 1:48 F-100. The tailunit required some scratchbuilding to accommodate the intake for the rear engine and the rear turret. Engines are B-58 with Pavla jetpipe and nozzle.

You can find the complete album here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jetsonsspecial/albums/72157656963867425

63CPE aka David

Photos and text © by 63CPE