The Bartini A-57 was an experimental

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

and

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

from the mid-1950s that was designed by Robert Ludvigovich Bartini. The aircraft was never put into production. The A-57 was equipped with a

lift jet A lift jet is a lightweight jet engine installed only for upward thrust.{{cite book , url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeaerospa0000guns/page/346/mode/2up , isbn=978-0-521-84140-5 , title=The Cambridge aerospace dictionary , date=2004 , ...

(similar to

VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can takeoff and landing, take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust- ...

aircraft today) facing downward to assist its take-off from the surface of the ocean. It was intended to refuel from

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

s out at sea. The bomber had a long, slender delta wing called the Bartini Wing. A 1500 mph (supersonic) speed was planned. It was tested in wind tunnels, but the project was scrapped in 1957 before actual production could begin. Possibly because the Soviet Government after the launch of Sputnik 1 believed that the new R-7

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...

made bombers less required and decided the Tu-95 would do and that the A-57 project was too expensive along with the perspective that such an aircraft was not needed.

External links

Robert Ludvigovich Bartini information in Russian
Retrieved 14-Feb-2005.

* ttp://www.ctrl-c.liu.se/misc/ram/a-57.html A-57 strategic bomber page on ctrl-c.liu.se
Top Secret Soviet Bomber Project
* http://www.nocarnofun.com/meet-the-experimental-soviet-bomber-project-bartini-a-57-able-to-take-off-and-land-on-water/ 1950s Soviet bomber aircraft A-57 Tailless delta-wing aircraft Twin-tail aircraft Flying boats Lift jet Abandoned military aircraft projects of the Soviet Union {{USSR-stub