A&A Models – 7223 – Ye-50 experimental interceptor with rocket engine

Description:

Ye-50 experimental interceptor with rocket engine

In 1953 the Soviet authorities issued a requirement for a Mach 2 clear-weather interceptor with limited ground-attack capability. At this time the USSR’s Central Aerodynamics and Hydrodynamics Institute had arrived at two basic configurations for aircraft of the required performance level. Both were based on a cylindrical fuselage with a swept all-moving tailplane and a wing in the low mid-set position, but the difference came in the wing itself. One was a conventional type with a leading-edge sweep of between 58 deg and 62 deg, and other a delta with 57 deg or 58 deg leading-edge sweep. The MiG bureau produced prototypes in both configurations. The Ye-50 and Ye-4. Designed around a Tumansky AM-9Ye (RD-9Ye) turbojet with an afterburning thrust of 3800kg and a Dushkin S-155 bi-fuel rocket motor of 1300kg, the first of three prototypes, the Ye-50/1, flew on 9 January 1956. It began trials with the rocket motor on 8 June 1956.

The original Ye-50 can be regarded as a pre-prototype, for in the absence of the planned Tumanskii R-11 turbojet it was fitted with an interim composite power plant comprising an RD-9Ye afterburning turbojet and an S-155 rocket engine; the aeroplane had swept conventional wings based on those of the MiG-19.