New post on Fellowship of the Minds |  | In the 1930s the Soviet Union was obsessed with the idea of huge planes. So they built a mammoth flying fortress that looked like something out of a Jules Verne novel. 
Designed by Konstantin Kalinin, this plane was the size of the Empire State Building lying on its side, but equipped with cannons. It had 12 engines facing front and propellers even on the back of the wings. The propellers were needed to help lift the gigantic fortress because jet propulsion had not yet been invented. Kalinin wanted to build two more planes but the project was scrapped because the first and only one built flew 11 times before crashing and killing 15 people. So Stalin had Kalinin executed. It was not good to fail on an expensive project under Stalin. 
Not many photos were saved from those times because of the high secrecy levels of such projects Can you imagine what it would be like sitting in this thing when those cannons go off? Quite an airplane! Makes the B-36 look like a toy. Can you imagine dog-fighting with one of these? | | | |
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