The Incredible M-4: The Birth of the Bison
After spending almost a decade ‘outside’ the bomber design business, Vladimir Myasishchev officially returned with a bang in the mid 1940’s. By early 1950, one of the most prolific Soviet aircraft designers of all time, in collaboration with GN Nazarov from Experimenta Design Bureau (OKB) # 22 and the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), commenced a full, state-funded study into the feasibility of developing a strategic long range bomber or SDB (Strategichesky Dahl’ny Bombardirovschchik). The concept, originally devised by Myasishchev in the summer of 1948, embraced the parameters he and his engineering team had set up as part of TsAGI’s overall specifications.
In February 1951, Myasishchev made his first serious proposal for an advanced SBD. The preliminary study showed an aircraft powered by six VK5 engines that would give the concept speeds in the vicinity of 470 miles per hours. Total payload was estimated at 6,614 pounds with an operational range of 7,460 nautical miles. TsAGI specifications called for total carrying load of 44,092lbs and an absurd range of just short of the 7,500nm mark. To be able to achieve these mindboggling characteristics, Myasishchev needed to radicalize the design. A high tense, swept flying surface will hold a shoulder mounted wing structure. Four massive Mikulin AMRD-3 engines will be housed on the center wing sections. At the time of its conception, Project M, as the program would be referred to by Soviet authorities, was the largest ever undertaken by an aircraft Bureau. The Soviet Union Ministry officially authorized the project on March 24th 1951.
Armed with a new ‘referral’, Myasishchev was able to re-establish his beloved OKB at the famous Factory 23, on the outskirts of Moscow, and recruit the best and the brightness from the Moscow Aviation Institute. By the summer, work on the project, now known as VM-25, was at full swing. Hundreds of engineers and managers were hard at work in developing what they and the government believes was the most advanced program of its kind. Heading the program was Leonid Selyakov who was pushed to complete the first blue print in a three month period so the Soviet Union could chip away the United State lead in the real bomber race.
Selyakov’s first design featured an aircraft with straight wings; wing root power plants and sweep back V-tail structure. In his next concept, the wings were swept. In his third design, the VM-25 was fitted with a conventional swept fin and tail. The engines still were housed on wing roots. It was not until the fourth blue print that the enormous engines were placed on under wings pods, one per side with two units in each nacelle. The fifth design was similar to the last. Eight powerful Kuznetsov TV-2F turboprops driving an eight-bladed, counter rotating propeller mechanism which was placed back-to-back in the nacelles. The forward engine on each structure acted out as a tractor while the aft served as pusher.
The aircraft Selyakov envisioned were to be a 165′8″ behemoth. It would have a total wing area of 3,269 feet. Maximum takeoff weight would have been 385,800 pounds. But the fifth wasn’t the final version. Not by a long shoot. Two more attempts were realized before Selyakov and the rest of Myasishchev settle on a final layout. The new and now final design was a compromise between version two, four and fifth. A swept wing tail unit model powered by four AM-3 engines would give the USSR, accordingly to the OKB engineering team, the best and most advanced bomber in the world. The decision to go with the highly productive but poor takeoff action performance engines was made because the AL-5 power plant did not meet the OKB’s standards.
By August 1st 1952, the prototype blue print was finalized and on May 15th the aircraft itself entered the final assembly phase. By mid November, the first VM-25 was cleared for manufacture flight testing. Then, in December, the much anticipated rollout was made. Hundreds of OKB personnel and SovMin officials crowded Factory 23 to see the homeland’s newest technical marvel. On the clear morning of January 20th 1953, VM-25 took to the air for its maiden flight. The initial test phase went smoothly. It also confirmed the aircraft’s operational profile which was set at a 6,650 nautical mile range with a top payload of 11,023lbs.
Several small modifications were made to the concept in order to expand both parameters. Although the planes performance met the entire specifications request, it still falls short of the new Andrei Tupolev’s design, the incomparable Tu-95. The M-4, as the Myasishchev heavy bomber was named, could fly faster than its turboprop driven competitor. The problem was that the Tu95 had a longer operational range, nearly 3,000 mile more, than the M-4. To close this gap, Selyakov thought the idea of installing four NK-12 turboprops contra-rotating engines to power the massive bomber. But this concept was contrary to Myasishchev’s insistence for elegance in the model. As it was, the concept never made it out of the pre-design stages.
Nevertheless, the shortfall in profile needed to be addressed. Two ideas came to the forefront. The first was to change several aspects of the M-4’s aerodynamic structure to fit new power plants with a lower consumption rate. The other was to introduce an In Flight Refueling System (IFR). The first Soviet foray into the complex field of IFR took place on December 18th 1953 when the SovMin approved the development of the experimental Tu-16 tanker. Even without an adequate answer to the range question, the SovMin gave the M-4 full Operational Service Status with a short decree signed in on April 17th 1954.
In May 1954, the M-4 participated in the important USSR’s Mayday Parade. It was there that the West got their first look at the new strategic bomber. Call signed ‘Bison’ the new, streamline concept sent chills through the West defense apparatus which immediately considered the Bison the first true threat to Continental United States. In all, only 35 M-4s were built, including two units designated to be test bed aircrafts. From the summer of 1958, production M-4s were converted into refueling tankers. A role they performed admirable for more than a decade.
Soviet X-planes, Yefim Gordon and Bill Gunston, Midland Publishing 2000
Early Soviet Jet Bombers, Yefim Gordon, Midland Publishing 2004
Myasishchev M-4 and 3M-The First Soviet Strategic Jet Bomber, Yefim Gordon, Midland Publishing 2003
An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com
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