Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
The Mikoyan -Gurevich MiG -105 Spiral ( Russian Микоян - Гуревич МиГ -105 Спираль, Nickname: Lapot ( лапоть ) for bast shoe - because of their nose shape ) was established in 1965 as part of the spiral 50-50 program by the Soviet Union with the aim of building a spacecraft with reusable components are developed.
She served as an experimental study for spaceplane (OS) in supporting hull construction. Other components were the auxiliary rocket ( RB) and the supersonic carrier aircraft (GSR ). The development of spiral was finally discontinued in 1978 in favor of the development of the space shuttle Buran.
Function
The supersonic carrier aircraft ( development contract: Tupolev ) should take the auxiliary rocket with the space shuttle attached to it on your back and bring up to a height 20000-24000 meters. At a speed of Mach 4, the two-stage auxiliary rocket should ignite and bring the space shuttle into a low orbit at 130 km altitude. From there, the space shuttle, which was equipped with a main and an auxiliary power unit should be able to fly more than 200 km altitude on its own into orbit. The space plane should occur after his orbital mission with approximately Mach 8 back into the Earth's atmosphere and can land in gliding after shutting brakes. The runners on the space shuttle should be suitable for landing on runways made of tamped earth.
Chronology
Versions
Test pilots
In July 1965, a group of Soviet cosmonauts was compiled under the direction of Vostok -2 veteran German Titov, who should be trained for spiral. Except Titov were: Georgi Dobrovolsky, Anatoly Filipchenko, Anatoly Kuklin and Alexander Matintschenko. Another group was formed in December 1967. It consisted of Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Koselski, Vladimir Liakhov, Yuri Malyshev and Alexander Petrushenko. In December 1973, the Spiral group belonged to the cosmonaut Yevgeny Khrunov, Valery Illarionov, Kizim, Koselski, Liakhov and Malyshev. In parallel, there was also a group of test pilots of the Luftwaffe, who presided from 1976 Aviard Fastowets.
Whereabouts
The prototype with the number 11 for the subsonic flights atmosphere is now in the Central Museum of the Air Forces of the Russian Federation in Monino near Moscow.
The prototypes 105-12 and 105-13 have been to different sources, also built. Of these, when the program was 105-12 apparently even ready for use. About any flights from 105-12 or 105-13 There is no reliable information. The whereabouts of the prototypes 105-12 and 105-13 is unknown.
Other projects
The Spiral project should lead to the development of a space shuttle in the versions of the Enlightenment and two versions of interceptor missiles with armament. These developments were in turn Uragan content of the project, which was staged but after the completion of the Spiral project only in the form of a propaganda ploy to unsettle the United States.
The development of the space shuttle Buran could also benefit from the findings of the Spiral program. Thus, several generations were built by unmanned test bodies of the BOR - series to test the heat shields of the Buran, which all had the geometry and flight characteristics of the Spiral space plane in the initial phase. The development teams, test methods and supplier network of spiral were taken to a large extent into the Buran program.