Page 115 - The Chief Culprit

76 y e Chief Culprit

P. Gorokhovsky created a rubber inflatable glider. After being deployed in the enemy’s rear,
several of these gliders could be loaded into one transport plane and returned to their own
territory for repeated use.
Soviet generals dreamed not only of dropping a multitude of paratroops into Western
Europe, but also hundreds, possibly thousands, of tanks. Designers eagerly searched for the
most simple and inexpensive ways to realize these dreams. Oleg Antonov, the man who later
created the largest cargo warplane in the world, suggested adding wings and empennage (a
tail assembly) to a regular tank, using the body of the tank as the fuselage of the hybrid.
is system received the name KT—Krylatyi Tank (“winged tank”). e gears from the
steering were connected to the cannon of the tank. e tank’s crew could guide the flight
from the tank cabin, by turning the turret and barrel. e KT was amazingly simple. Of
course, the flight risk in the tank was, to put it mildly, higher than normal, but human life
in the Soviet Union cost less than adding wings to a tank. Before landing, the tank’s engine
was turned on and the caterpillar tracks launched to maximum speed. e KT landed on its
tracks and slowed down. On the ground, the wings and empennage were dropped, and the
hybrid once again became a regular tank. Oleg Antonov’s winged tank was not ready at the
beginning of the war, and since the war did not start the way Stalin had planned, the winged
tanks became just as useless as the million silk parachutes folded neatly for an attack against
Germany and Romania.
15
e Soviet Union entered World War II with the highest number of glider pilots in
the world. In 1939 alone 30,000 people were simultaneously training to become pilot glid-
ers. e pilots’ skills frequently reached the highest levels. For example, in 1940 there was a
demonstration of eleven flying gliders towed by just one plane. In the late 1930s, more than
ten design bureaus in the Soviet Union were competing fiercely to create the best military
cargo glider. O. Antonov, aside from the winged tank, created the large military glider A-7. V.
Gribovsky designed the magnificent military glider G-11. D. Kolesnikov created a glider for
carrying twenty soldiers—KTs-20, while G. Korbula worked on creating a giant glider.
In January 1940, by a decision of the Central Committee (meaning by Stalin’s orders)
a directorate for the production of military cargo gliders was created within the structure of
the Ministry of Aviation, the People’s Commissariat (Russian abbreviation—Narkomat) of
Aviation Industry. e year 1940 was spent on intensive preparations, and from spring 1941
factories run by this directorate began the mass production of cargo gliders. On April 23,
1941, a decision of the Party Central Committee and the Council of Ministers ordered the
Commissariat of Aviation Industry to accelerate the production of an 11-seat glider, with a
deadline of May 15, 1941, and of a 20-seat glider by July 1, 1941. Stalin and Molotov per-
sonally signed the order.
On June 16, 1941, General Zhukov sent out a “Memorandum from the Chief of Staff
of the Red Army to the People’s Commissariat of Soviet Aviation Industry,” # 567240, which
ordered 7,500 gliders to be manufactured in 1941–42. 16
e gliders that were produced in the spring of 1941 had to be used in the summer of
1941, or, at the latest, in the early fall. Unlike ordinary warplanes, gliders had light and fragile
bodies and wings. ey could not be parked outdoors, and all available hangars were already
full with previously produced gliders. Keeping a huge cargo glider outdoors, during fall winds
and rains, and winter cold and snow, would harm it beyond repair. e mass production of
cargo gliders in 1941 meant they were intended for use in 1941. If Stalin had intended to