Beriev hydros

[rreis]

Does anyone knows if there are some of these in museums of flying?

Like the Be-4, for instance...

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/be-4.php

[rreis]

Found one Be-6 through the excellent http://xplanes.tumblr.com blog... my heart bleeds, it seems a stranded whale...



more here: http://www.artificialowl.net/2008/11/de ... ument.html

[jet1]

...but I don't like vodka anymore

[gary1954]

Wow, that is an incredible poistion for a plane to be photographed as complete as it is....what was this thing equipped with for powerplants, and what props are those? Could the props be overhauled and use again?
gary1954<----- -----knows zero about prop maintenance

[John Dupre]

They look suspiscously like early B-29 props....

[tom d. friedman]

with the russkies selling off their country, artifacts, & crown jewels etc, i bet that spaghetti strainer flying boat goes for cheap cheapski!!

[Second Air Force]

They look suspiscously like early B-29 props....

Good eye, John. They are the Soviet copies of the Hamilton Standard, and the engine is the Shvetsov ASh-73, the copy of the 3350 that also powered the Tu-4.

I'd sure like to see that airplane in a proper museum setting.

Scott

[gregv]

What a cool plane. Actually, the cowlings also look like B-29 units, just upside down. Cool.

greg v.

[JDK]

with the russkies selling off their country, artifacts, & crown jewels etc, i bet that spaghetti strainer flying boat goes for cheap cheapski!!

Sadly I don't think there's any buyers out there, Tom, much as just one of these would be a lot more interesting than ~oh, I dunno~ yet another P-51D?

Interesting once you start looking...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriev_Be-6

The engines are Shvetsov_ASh-73 type, and interestingly this is one that wasn't re-engined to turboprop power.

The Shvetsov ASh-73 ultimately began in 1938 from a specification for a 18-cylinder, twin-row, development of the Shvetsov M-25, a license-built 9-cylinder, air-cooled, radial Wright R-1820-F3 Cyclone engine. Development continued through a series of less than successful engines, before culminating in the ASh-73. Contrary to popular belief the ASh-73 wasn't a reverse engineered copy of the Wright R-3350: "There was no need to copy the Wright R-3350-23A; the engine that was put into production was the indigenous ASh-73TK - a further development of the M-71 and M-72, which differed in being fitted with twin TK-19 turbosuperchargers (TK = toorbokompressor)." [1] rather the ASh-73 was the product of a similar specification. Since the earlier M-25 engines were a licensed copy of the Wright R-1820, there were similarities and some parts were interchangeable between the R-3350 and the ASh-73. The two engines evolved from a common ancestor and to a similar requirement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shvetsov_ASh-73

It was used on the Tu-4, the Russian copy of the B-29, but was not a copy of the R-3350, which is interesting. I don't know if we have any prop experts here, but it's intriguing that as well as the cowls the props are B-29 'style', implying they are Tu-4 developed (copy) units. However, would an independent design come up with that kind of prop for this job?

Another byway...