The Horrible History of Russian Fighter Jets: Beginnings

Well Guys... All these months later its finally time to continue our journey down the rabbit hole in the wonderful world that is Russo-Soviet aviation history. After our brief introduction to their fighter programs throughout the first half of the 20th century, the rise of "Amicable Adolf and the Spicy Pinwheel Gang" led to humanity storming into the jet age in explosive fashion. Yet in Moscow progress was lagging behind, but through violence, espionage and a little bit of crime, the come back was on.

In this video we take a look at the very first efforts of the Russo-Soviet Aviation industry in jet propulsion and the cavalcade of calamity which reads more like a Monty Python Movie than real history. So strap in for a wild ride, because as one war ends...

The Cold War Begins...

Music Provided by Karl Casey @WhiteBatAudio as always!

OR

Source List:

Early Soviet Jet Fighters: The 1940's and 50's - Yefrim Gordon
OKB MiG: A History of the Design Bureau and Its Aircraft - Piotr Butowski
OKB Sukhoi: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft - Yefrim Gordon and Vladimir Antonov
World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines - Bill Gunston
Russian Piston Aero Engines - Vladimir Koltenikov
OKB Yakovlev: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft - Gordon and Kommissarov
Soviet Mixed Power Experimental Fighter Aircraft - Hugh Harkins

Various Miscellaneous Sources across inumerable books and websites.

[AnimarchyHistory]

Well Guys... All these months later its finally time to continue our journey down the rabbit hole in the wonderful world that is Russo-Soviet aviation history. After our brief introduction to their fighter programs throughout the first half of the 20th century, the rise of "Amicable Adolf and the Spicy Pinwheel Gang" led to humanity storming into the jet age in explosive fashion. Yet in Moscow progress was lagging behind, but through violence, espionage and a little bit of crime, the come back was on.

In this video we take a look at the very first efforts of the Russo-Soviet Aviation industry in jet propulsion and the cavalcade of calamity which reads more like a Monty Python Movie than real history. So strap in for a wild ride, because as one war ends...

The Cold War Begins...


OR


Source List:

Early Soviet Jet Fighters: The 1940's and 50's - Yefrim Gordon
OKB MiG: A History of the Design Bureau and Its Aircraft - Piotr Butowski
OKB Sukhoi: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft - Yefrim Gordon and Vladimir Antonov
World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines - Bill Gunston
Russian Piston Aero Engines - Vladimir Koltenikov
OKB Yakovlev: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft - Gordon and Kommissarov
Soviet Mixed Power Experimental Fighter Aircraft - Hugh Harkins



Various Miscellaneous Sources across inumerable books and websites.

[josephhelgersonjoseph]

“If it wasn’t for all the death, this country would be the funniest thing to ever exist” - History Of Everything

[business]

"Amicable Adolf and the spicy pinwheel gang" that one got me lol

[amanofnoreputation]

"Animarchy, why does the Su-57 Felon make that weird howling sound the propagandists insist reduces the vehicles radar visibility?"
"Well, you see approximately 13.8 billion years ago the universe expanded out of a singularity . . ."

[arbysandtehchief]

Next time on Soviet Gear:

Comrade Clarkson files a warranty claim for a luxury car,

Comrade Hammond flies a cargo plane,

And Comrade May learns how to tig weld.

[tylerlawrence]

The old post war practice of "Lets bolt jet engines to whatever we have lying around and see what happens."

[maxmachac]

If the British Wallace and Gromit their way trough history, the Russians Wile E Coyote

[joshthomasmoorenew]

(Looks at title) "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

[fightertales]

It's like a train crash that lasts over 100 years

[barrybend]

I see a Russian prop plane with two pulse jets. I'm scared.

[MikeGaruccio]

I love that this all started with trying to make an su-57 video and a year and 2.5+ hours of video later we’ve reached 1948.

[gagenater]

As an actual engineer, your comment at1:35:22 that "realizing they would have to do some actual engineering in place of some how can I fix this problem' is more accurate than you might think. Knowing what parts/systems of your design need 'actual engineering' and which parts are just sort of 'there doing there job without need for special analysis' is a really critical problem for any project. Fail to identify the places and systems you need to analyze, and something bad happens, or maybe you leave a critical performance capability you could have achieved on the drawing table. Analyze everything, and the project blows any cost and time budgets out of the water, and winds up being built out of all custom components that cannot be repaired by normal technicians, cannot be made in contract manufacturing facilities, requires custom fabricated parts, software and materials for everything, where maybe something from the parts bin would have worked just fine.

[jasonmay]

TL;DW of this entire series - Russia has had a lot of talented engineers whose talents were squandered by delusional, paranoid leadership that was constantly demanding they come up with a method by which one can draw blood from a stone.

[winnerloser]

Wait... "Beginnings"?

...there's going to need to be a part 3, isn't there?

[nebufabu]

58:33 If anyone wonders "Wait, where did I hear that name and even that exact joke before about something completely different?" this is the same Anokhin who also flew Antonov's "no, it's not Photoshop, the thing really existed" literal flying tank. I'm now wondering what other weird contraptions he tested.

[octaviovaladaoferreirinhad]

I am an aviation documentary addict. I watch hundreds of them each year. I even financially support several of them. And I honestly say that this is a masterpice.

[jakublulek]

I frankly find amazing that Soviets THEMSELVES were not ashamed to admit they bought, copied and "enhanced" Rolls-Royce Nene and Derwent engines for their jet fighters Mig-15 and Mig-17. I have couple Soviet and Polish books about Eastern Bloc aviation from the 1960s and 1970s and they NEVER lied about it, when they tried to conceal the usage of the German engines...

[anmwolvorinenotapanther]

Classic Animarchy, just wants to explain to us why the Su-57 is so bad and finally after 1 year of waiting and 5 hours of videos we are now just making it to the 1950s. At this current pace we're going we just might make it to the Su-57 just before 2030.

[jloiben]

Remember the two Russian truisms.

(1) “And then it got worse.”
(2) The Lazerpig loop is real

[wombatgirl]

I was not expecting an SR-71 cameo in my Soviet aviation video. I had to pause for a bit and fan myself to cool down after that one.