The Moskalyev SAM-5 was a 1930s

Soviet transport Transport in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was an important part of the nation's economy. The economic centralisation of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure at a massive scale and rapid pace. Befor ...

air ambulance Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

as an air ambulance.

Development and design

The SAM-5 was a cantilever high-wing monoplane with fixed

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Ter ...

and an enclosed cabin for a pilot and four passengers. The first prototype was built using stressed-skin light alloy construction but it had problems with the quality of workmanship in what was an unfamiliar material. The second-prototype SAM-5bis was built using plywood and fabric and had wing bracing and a more slender fuselage. After testing 37 production aircraft were built and they were delivered from 1937 as air ambulances with room for three patients and an attendant. Moskalyev then worked on an improved variant, the SAM-5-2bis, tested with a 200 hp (149 kW) engine; the aircraft established distance and height records. An order was placed for 200 of the improved variant, again for use as an air ambulance but they were never built. This last SAM-5 variant led to four, differently numbered, developments.

SAM-5-2bis developments

; SAM-10: Low wing, inline, 5/6 seater. ; SAM-11: High wing, inline, 4 seat amphibian. ; SAM-14: High wing, inline, 6 seat version. ; SAM-25: High wing, radial, military assault/ transport.

Specifications (SAM-5bis)

References

Notes

Bibliography