Iron Dragon with Wooden Wings

Throughout human history, people have invented many types of weapons. Some of them turned out to be so good that they are still used today and practically require no improvement — a famous example is the Kalashnikov assault rifle. But sometimes engineers came up with such “wunderwaffes” that had no practical application and were quickly forgotten. For example, in the mid-20th century Soviet designers tried to create a flying tank, which, in theory, should have solved one of the main problems of any armored vehicle – the difficulty of transporting it to the battlefield.

Thus, in 1941, at Antonov's design bureau, the A-40 “Tank Wings” project was born. According to its developers, wooden biplane wings and a long tail stabilizer were attached to the light T-60 tank. It was assumed that such a tank-glider would be towed by a heavy bomber to the drop zone, where it would detach from the aircraft, glide to the ground and, after shedding its wings, immediately enter combat.

Work on the project began at the end of 1941, and by April 1942 a factory in Tyumen had produced the first and only example of a flying tank. During the work it became clear that even the “light” T-60 by tank standards was too heavy to serve as a glider. Therefore, to reduce flight weight, it was stripped of its armament, ammunition, headlights, wings, and almost all fuel.

The first, and also the last, flight of the miracle tank took place on September 2, 1942, at the Moscow-region airfield in Ramenskoye. The tow aircraft was a TB-3 equipped with four engines, each delivering 970 hp.

From the very start of the tests, serious problems became apparent. Despite the engine upgrades, the tow aircraft struggled to lift the heavy glider into the air. The maximum towing speed was only 130 km/h, and the climb altitude did not exceed 40 meters. Moreover, the aircraft engines quickly overheated, forcing the TB-3 pilot to jettison the tank in an emergency. It became clear that the project was doomed. The large mass and poor aerodynamics made the flying tank unsuitable for combat conditions.

By the way, the USSR was not the only country trying to create a
flying tank. Similar projects were developed in the United Kingdom and Japan, but all of them encountered the same problems and quickly abandoned the idea.