War Machines Drawn: Moskalev SAM-13

Thursday 1 February 2018

Moskalev SAM-13

The Moskalev SAM-13 was a Soviet two-engined pusher-puller low-wing fighter. It was made by OKB-31 and designed by Aleksandr S. Moskalev. It was developed in the USSR in the very late 1930s and remained only in prototype stage.
Its characteristic two engine configuration, being each of them a Renault-Bengasi MV-6 yielding each of them 220hp of power. Each of them was placed aft and forward of the engine and were set in a puller-pusher configuration. It had a double vertical stabilizer and a single horizontal stabilizer connecting both vertical ones. It was flown only twice at the commands of Nikolay Filson at the end of 1940 where many flaws were encountered and its development was halted due to the beginning of the war in the east.
Aleksandr S. Moskalev started this project back in 1938 after having seen the mock-up of the Dutch Fokker D.XXIII which was presented to the public in the International Aeronautical Salon of Paris-Le Bourget in 1938.
The Moskalev was built entirely out of wood and its design was initially interesting considering how it could get the best from such low powered engines. It was one of the first Russian aircraft to have a retractable tricycle landing gear. Thanks to the position of the cockpit, the pilot enjoyed a nice field of view thanks also to its plexiglas canopy.
Thanks to the good aerodynamics and its lightweight of just 1183kg, the aircraft had an excellent ratio of weight/power of 5.9lb/hp (2.7kg/hp) which proved to yield a nice speed when tested at sea level of 292mph (470km/h) and 422mph (680km/h) at an altittude of 19000ft (5800m) in the year 1940.
However, the problems found at the tests, were because the vertical/horizontal stabilizers were too close to the back engine which caused serious drag problems. Furthermore, the cooling of the back engine wasn't optimal and during take-off and landing the debris caused by the landing gear could seriously damage the cooling system of the back engine. The pilot was also unprotected in the case of a harsh landing as the impact could launch the back engine towards the cockpit.
In spite of the better performance achieved when compared to the other single-engined fighters of the time, the project was abandoned due to the German invasion in June 1941 mainly because it was hard to find an adequate armament fitting configuration which was expect to be of two forward firing 7.62mm ShKAS machine guns.
As we like sometimes to imagine new colours for the airplanes, we decided to draw two what-if versions. One serving with the Soviet Air Force and another serving with the hypothetical Russian Air Force because what-ifs are always interesting. We decided to arm them with two 7,62mm ShKAS machine-gun pods placed under the wings.