BI-1

This is coolbert:

Continuing still more extracts with commentary from the Internet web site "Great Power War". Topics in all cases aviation . . . oddities and curiosities for want of a better term and description.

"The Coolest Experimental Planes of World War II"

"Soviet Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1"

ROCKET MAN!

Before there was the German Me-163 Komet there was the BI-1? Soviet WW2 era rocket-plane!

"Several major combatants in the war experimented with rocket-assisted or rocket-powered aircraft including the Soviet Union. The result was the Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1."

. . . .

"Stalin ordered engineers Alexander Bereznyak and Aleksei Isayev to get the plane ready as soon as possible. As such, it only took 35 days to build a functional prototype. Development continued into 1942 with rocket motor tests, but engineers discovered that the BI-1 could only stay aloft for 15 minutes after the pilot ignited the rocket on the ground, which was a major limitation."

Thanks to You Tube and amazingly so some Soviet film footage exists of a BI-1 take-off and landing. NO undercarriage but snow skids. Useful in the sense that any frozen river or lake could be used as an "air field". Also an expedient allowing for rapid development of a fly-able prototype. NO swept back wings! This plane had a solid or liquid fueled engine? Of this I am not sure.

"After a third prototype blew up during midair during a level flight, developers came to realize the rocket plane had another flaw: The frame, which was made of plywood and metal, could not handle what was near-supersonic flight speeds."

BI-1 NEVER A DONE DEAL! FLIMSY PROTOTYPES IN DANGER OF BREAKING APART [AND DID BREAK APART] IN MID-FLIGHT SO POWERFUL WAS THE PROPULSION SYSTEM. BUT THE CONCEPT OF THE ROCKET-PLANE TO A DEGREE SOUND?

coolbert.