Biesnovat 5 Aircraft - 13,000 bytes. 353 x 128 pixels.

Biesnovat was assigned the project to develop an all-Soviet equivalent to the 346 supersonic rocketplane being developed by the German Roessing team in OKB-2. Like the 346, the 5 was a swept-wing aircraft, but about 2/3 the size. First glide flight by A K Pakhomov, dropped from a Pe-8, came on 14 July 1948. The first 5-1 aircraft was destroyed on its third flight 5 September 1948. The 5-2 second aircraft, with rocket engine installed, made its first flight on 26 January 1949. After five unpowered flights, the program was cancelled in June 1949. By that time better-funded turbojet-powered fighter prototypes were already achieving the 1200 km/hr top speed of the 5. Biesnovat and Isayev would elaborate the design in unmanned form into the supersonic R-1 air-to-surface missile.

Craft.Crew Size: 1. Total Length: 9.9 m. Total Mass: 3,400 kg. Total Propellants: 1,500 kg. Primary Engine Thrust: 2,000 kgf. Main Engine Propellants: Nitric Acid/Kerosene.

The first 5-1 aircraft, controlled on its first glide flight by A K Pakhomov, was dropped from a Pe-8 bomber.

The first 5-1 aircraft was destroyed on its third glide flight.

The 5-2 second aircraft, with rocket engine installed, made its first glide flight.

After five unpowered flights, the program was cancelled. By that time better-funded turbojet-powered fighter prototypes were already achieving the 1200 km/hr top speed of the 5. Biesnovat and Isayev would elaborate the design in unmanned form into the supersonic R-1 air-to-surface missile.

• 301 - Butowski, Piotr, Air Forces Monthly Special, X-Planes, "Black Reds", February 1998, p. 35.
• 306 - Anisimov, V S; Lacefield, T C; Andrews, J, AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference, "Evolution of the NK-33 and NK-43 reusable LOX/kerosene engines", .