Sikorsky Alexander Nevsky

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The Sikorsky Alexander Nevsky ("Александр Невский" in Russian) was the only Russian four-engine bomber-biplane of its kind, designed and built by Igor Sikorsky in the late 1916. It was named after a Russian prince Alexander Nevsky.

80% of the Alexander Nevsky’s fuselage was made of armored steel and duralumin. Its engines had a coarse pitch of the propeller for high speed flight, which, according to calculations, would allow the airplane to reach the speed of 250 km/h. Due to this feature, Sikorsky designed the lower pair of wings at a 12% angle of attack in order to avoid the increase of a take-off run (see Propeller for details). The Alexander Nevsky had no corrugated surfaces and was equipped with machine guns, semi-automatic guns, recoilless guns, rockets and bombs.

However, the Alexander Nevsky’s fate was to take off only once for a test flight with a 1,5-ton load onboard. Sikorsky wanted to make sure its speed corresponded to his initial calculations. On January 4, 1917, Sikorsky presented the Alexander Nevsky’s design to Tsar Nicholas II, reportedly saying: "Your Highness, we’re going to win the war with this plane". The tsar approved the design.

However, the Alexander Nevsky bomber was never put in serial production due to the events preceding and following the October Revolution and Sikorsky’s emigration to the United States of America in 1919.

[edit] Specifications (Alexander Nevsky)

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General characteristics

Crew:
Length: ()
Wingspan: ()
Height: ()
Empty weight: 9,000 kg (19,840 kg)
Powerplant: × , () each

Performance

Maximum speed: 250 km/h (155 mph)

Armament

Various numbers and combinations of guns at different points during the war, including 12.7 mm, 15.3 mm, 25 mm, 37 mm, and 76.2 mm guns, Maxim guns, Lewis guns, and Leonid Kurchevsky's experimental recoilless guns among them.
Bomb loads including 18x 100 kg (? lb) bombs, or 32x 50 kg (? lb) bombs, or 4x 500 kg (? lb), or 3x 656 kg (? lb) bombs or
10x 127-mm rockets