Why Did The Soviets Build A Plane That Landed On Ice?

In the late 1950s, Robert Bartini — an aircraft designer who claimed to be a baron's son and had spent eight years as a prisoner of Stalin's secret police — drew the A-57: a 250-ton blended flying wing meant to fly at about 2,500 km/h, more than twice the speed of sound. It had no wheels. It would take off from the sea, the Arctic ice or snow, and refuel from submarines. Its models went through wind tunnels and a commission praised it. It was never built. Was it genius ahead of its time, or a fantasy no engineer could have made fly? We put the A-57 on trial. 0:00 No wheels, no runway 1:09 The man from Fiume 1:53 Red planes, faster 2:37 The prisoner 3:25 The legend 4:17 The idea 5:08 The machine 5:56 The mission 6:35 The American mirror 7:25 Shelved 8:35 The case against 10:16 The case for 11:33 The verdict 12:18 Next time Would you have built the A-57? Tell us in the comments. Full stories every week on What Never Was — subscribe so you don't miss the next trial. Sources: Wikipedia — "Бартини, Роберт Людвигович" (Russian), "Robert Bartini", "Bartini A-57", "Bartini Stal-6", "Bartini Stal-7", "Bartini Beriev VVA-14", "Convair F2Y Sea Dart" Russian Aviation Museum text — "Бартини А-57" (citing Butowski, Air Enthusiast 1998; Sultanov 1996; Pogorelov 2005) — aviadejavu.ru/Site/Crafts/Craft21203.htm GlobalSecurity.org — "Bartini – Post War" — www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/bartini-2.htm GlobalSecurity.org — "A-55" — www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/a-55.htm GlobalSecurity.org — "Strategic Naval Bomber-Scout" — www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/sd-mbr.htm Jacopo Prisco — "Robert Bartini: the world's most mysterious aircraft designer", CNN (2022) — edition.cnn.com/travel/article/robert-bartini-mysterious-airplane-designer Lenta.ru — «Наша задача — строить лучше врагов» (2024) — lenta.ru/articles/2024/12/06/bartini/ Igor Chutko — «Предтеча золотого века…», Vokrug Sveta (2003/2024) — www.vokrugsveta.ru/articles/predtecha-zolotogo-veka-kak-aviakonstruktor-robert-bartini-vopreki-vsemu-sozdaval-neveroyatnye-samolety-id575627/ Douglas G. Adler — "The Weirdest-Looking Plane…" (VVA-14), HistoryNet (2022) — historynet.com/weirdest-looking-plane-vva-14/ Norman Polmar — "The Last Flying Boat", Naval History (1999) — www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1999/august/last-flying-boat Mark Wolverton — "Cancelled: The Navy's SeaMaster", Air & Space (2012) — www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/cancelled-the-navys-seamaster-21166697/ Specifications are design figures from sources that disagree; shown as approximate. Legends about Bartini are labelled as legends. Images are artist's reconstructions made with AI tools under human editorial control; narration is AI-generated. Diagrams are schematic. Music: "Frame-Dragging", "Singularity" and "Pulsar" — The Grey Room / Density & Time (YouTube Audio Library) #bartini #coldwar #aviationhistory