Piggyback Airplanes
Ten of aviation's most famous hitch-hikers.
- By Lynn Keillor
- Air & Space magazine, July 2012
San Diego Aerospace Museum
Hitchhikers: Tupolev I-4, Polikarpov I-16
Motherships: Tupolev TB-1, TB-3
Soviet Union, 1930s
By the 1930s, the Soviets were coming around to the idea of using parasites for combat. Zveno (“Link”) was an experimental program that combined bombers with air-launched fighters to increase range and payloads.
The I-4 fighter was the first little airplane to emerge from A.N. Tupolev’s aeronautical design company, known for its fleet of plus-size types. The I-4 didn’t get attention for its size, though; the aircraft was the Soviet Union’s first all-metal fighter.
Two slightly modified I-4s, outfitted with three connector clips and a release mechanism, were rolled up wooden ramps to the wings of a Tupolev TB-1 bomber. On Zveno-1’s maiden flight, the two I-4s launched, but not, as planned, simultaneously. The error proved the TB-1 would remain stable in the air, even with a weight imbalance. The project was considered a success, and though the I-4 remained in service until 1933, it did not fly as a parasite in combat.
That duty was given to the most successful experiment, the Zveno-SPB (Russian acronym for “composite dive bomber”). After it saw combat, the small, beefy Polikarpov I-16 earned Soviet aircraft designers a reputation for ingenuity, though its nickname was less than dignified: “donkey”—a play on the Russian pronunciation of “I-16.”
The barrel-chested donkey was the Soviets’ first cantilever-wing monoplane fighter, and the first to have retractable landing gear. Its design showed creativity in a time when much of Soviet technology involved copycat production.
The I-16 could carry two bombs while attached underwing to a Tupolev TB-3, a more powerful bomber than its TB-1 predecessor. The TB-3’s four engines and each I-16 single engine worked together, and the I-16s drew fuel from the TB-3 while connected.
The Zveno-SPB was used in combat between 1936 and 1941 and flew several successful missions against German forces in Romania’s Black Sea ports. In 29 missions, only three I-16s were lost.
| Tweet | Digg |
Comments (8)
In 1957 I was the co-pilot on a SA-16A (Grumman Albatross)
Air Rescue Service amphib for a trans-Atlantic crossing, with a stop half-way across in the Azores. We were ferrying the aircraft from Wheelus AFB, Tripoli,back to the Grumman factory where the A/C would be overhauled and upgraded to a B model. If my memory is correct, the leg from the Azores to Argentia, NewFoundland took about 14 hours. That airplane could carry a lot of gas! That was the longest flight I can recall, with the possible exception of a LHR-LAX or a JFK-TelAviv nonstop when I was a TWA 747 Captain.
Posted by William Polk on May 23,2012 | 04:21 PM
I've read in some sources about an alleged fifth operational D-21 flight? Is there any truth to this? If so, what happened to it?
Posted by Gray Stanback on May 23,2012 | 06:41 PM
In the late 1950's I was in SAC 92nd bomb wing. On our base we had a reconnaissance squadron flying B-36R's. The B-36 was towed over a pit in the pit was an F-84R. The F-84 was attached to the bomber and raised up partially into the special bomb-bay. The F-84 was launched and retrieved in flight on the trapeze. The F-84 could be refueled and the film canisters changed in flight. There was even a film processing lab in the rear of the B-36.
We later had U-2's and the need for the tandem B-36 and F-84 was no longer needed.
Posted by JIm Fling on May 24,2012 | 05:14 PM
A specialized aircraft was designed and built to be uniquely carried by the B-36 internally, supposedly for defensive purposes. My recollection was it was built by McDonnell and designated XF-85.
Posted by Kendall Russell Maj Gen USAF (ret) on May 25,2012 | 04:44 PM
In the summer of 1953 following my Midshipman Cruise to Rio, I worked as Assistant PR Director of the first Dayton Air Show. When the Show began, I squired around Howard Sochurek and Marshal Lumsden of Life Magazine. I was able to get the three of us on board a modified B-36 that had its own fighter escort (F-84) join up at 10,000 feet, hook it to its boom and pull the fighter into the bomb bay. Howard and I took many pictures of the event from both the bomb bay and the blisters in the aft fuselage. The Air Force insisted on processing the film and the pictures never appeared in Life as the Air Force claimed that they showed too much secret equipment.
Posted by John B. Neff on May 26,2012 | 11:50 PM
There was also the German Mistel piggyback project that saw limited operatons late in WWII.
In a sense, the X-1, X-2, X-15 and some other experimental aircraft followed the piggyback concept. Only the X-1 was capable of taking off from the ground (and it did it only once) so they needed to be carried to altitude by a bomber.
Posted by Larry J on May 31,2012 | 01:20 PM
I was born in Dundee, and remember my Dad telling me how he had seen Mercury and Maia on the Tay. He could only have been 11 at the time, but was still excited at the memory. I was delighted to find a compilation of Newsreels on You Tube showing the aircraft, including them taking off from Dundee for the flight to South Africa - wonder where Dad was watching them from, and if he's in the background somewhere.
Link to the newsreels:
http://youtu.be/bYtazEBQ1K8
Posted by Mike Brand on June 17,2012 | 07:49 PM
Well, I'm not sure if this could be a piggyback "airplane", but the shuttle Enterprise was piggybacked to a 747 and a least one time separated in flight to test the feasibility of the landing procedure of the space shuttle.
Posted by Fernando on January 23,2013 | 04:35 AM