By mid-1930s aircraft standards, the Moskalev SAM-7 "Sigma" was a wholly unique, two-seat, single-engine "tailless" fighter proposal of the World War 2-era (1939-1945) to emerge from the Soviet Union Appearing in 1936, the aircraft never saw service as a production aircraft. Such experiments proved common for all major participants of the Second World War with many such designs never seeing the light of day, let along functional prototypes. Design of this aircraft is attributed to Alexsandr A. Moskalev.
The aircraft incorporated a mid-set monoplane arrangement with full-length slotted flaps were to act as elevators and ailerons to handle pitch, roll, and elevation controls. The wing mainplanes were fitted to the sides of the fuselage in typical fashion and given a tapered shape from fuselage to the wingtips. Furthermore, the wingtips were capped by oversized, rounded fins. The pilot sat in his usual place near midships with the engine mounted direct forward, this used to drive a four-bladed wooden propeller unit. Construction was of all-metal including metal skinning of aluminum alloy. The undercarriage was of a "tail dragger" arrangement incorporating two main (wheeled) legs under the wings and a simple tail skid aft. The main legs retracted (by means of a manual mechanism) into the wings towards the fuselage centerline while the tail skid was fixed.
Power was from a single Mikulin M-34 series V12 liquid-cooled piston engine of 750 horsepower which drove the propeller unit at the nose. This same mass-production engine (over 10,500 individual units produced from 1934 to 1943) powered such types as the Tupolev TB-3 and TB-4, the Petlyakov Pe-8, and the Kalinin K-7.
The aircraft's wingspan reached 9.6 meters with an overall fuselage length of 7 meters. Empty weight was 1,000kg against an MTOW of 1,500kg.
Proposed armament was 2 x 7.62mm ShKAS machine guns synchronized to fire through the spinning propeller blades while the rear cockpit was managed by the dedicated rear gunner who had access to 2 x 7.62mm ShKAS machine guns. In this way, the aircraft could attack both aerial and land-based targets while being actively defensed from the rear.
The SAM-7 saw only limited testing and quickly found to be an inherently unstable design - no surprise considering the departure from the aircraft design norms of the time. Instead, the Soviet aeronautic focus remained on more conventional, traditional fighter designs for the foreseeable future.
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(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)
✓Air-to-Air Combat, Fighter
General ability to actively engage other aircraft of similar form and function, typically through guns, missiles, and/or aerial rockets.
✓X-Plane (Developmental, Prototype, Technology Demonstrator)
Aircraft developed for the role of prototyping, technology demonstration, or research / data collection.
Length
23.0 ft (7.00 m)
Width/Span
31.5 ft (9.60 m)
Empty Wgt
2,205 lb (1,000 kg)
MTOW
3,307 lb (1,500 kg)
Wgt Diff
+1,102 lb (+500 kg)
(Showcased structural values pertain to the Moskalev SAM-7 production variant)
Installed:
1 x Mikulin M-34 V-12 liquid-cooled inline piston engine developing 750 horsepower and driving a four-bladed propeller unit at the nose.
(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the Moskalev SAM-7 production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)
PROPOSED:
2 x 7.76mm ShKAS machine guns in fixed, forward-firing mounts over the nose synchronized to fire through the spinning propeller blades.
2 x 7.62mm ShKAS machine guns paired in a trainable, rear-facing gun position at the aft-section of the fuselage.
Supported Types
(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)
Hardpoint Mountings: 0
SAM-7 - Base Project Designation; single prototype completed and lightly tested.
Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective aerial campaigns / operations / aviation periods.
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Soviet Union (cancelled)
