Mikoyan-Gurevich I-270

The Mikoyan-Gurevich I-270 (Design Ж ("Zh") under Mikoyan-Gurevich's in-house designation sequence, USAF designation "Type 12") was a response to a Soviet Air Force requirement in 1945 for a rocket-powered interceptor aircraft for the point-defence role. In concept and basic configuration, it was strongly reminiscent of the German Messerschmitt Me 263, and is generally regarded as a further development of that design. Only two prototypes were built, both of which were destroyed in crashes, leading to the cancellation of the project.

In the closing stages of World War II, a complete prototype Me 263 (at that time designated Junkers Ju 248), plus technical staff and design documentation had fallen into Soviet hands when the Junkers factory was captured. The I-270 shared the Me 263's simple, tapered fuselage, bubble canopy, undercarriage design, and dual-chambered bipropellant rocket motor. On the other hand, it was considerably larger than the Me 263 and featured straight wings and a T-tail in place of the Me 263's advanced swept wings that did away with the need for a horizontal stabiliser. While there seems little doubt that the Me 263 influenced the design of the I-270, the latter appears far from a direct copy of the former. Some sources suggest that the I-270 may also have been influenced by the Junkers EF 126 Lilli rocket fighter project, materials for which were captured by the Soviets at the same time as the Me 263.

While performance specs were probably influenced by the ME 263, the Soviets had a tradition of rocket plane development that predated the Germans. The RD-2M engine, designed by Leonid Dushkin was dual-combustion-chamber version of the engine used for the 1941 BI-1 rocket plane. That in turn had followed from a tradition dating back to Sergey Korolev's work on project "06" in the early 1930s and the RP-318 rocket plane designed in 1936.

The first gliding trials commenced in December 1946, with the first prototype towed into the air behind a Tupolev Tu-2, ballast loaded in place of an engine. The second prototype began powered tests early in 1947, but was damaged beyond repair making a hard landing. Shortly afterwards, the first prototype was also destroyed in a landing accident. By this stage, turbojet technology was at a far more advanced stage than it had been at the outset of the project, and surface-to-air missiles had replaced the need for point-defence interceptors. Under these circumstances, the Air Force decided to cancel the project.

Operators

• Soviet Air Force

Specifications (I-270)

{{aircraft specifications/switch |plane or copter?= plane |jet or prop?= jet |ref={name of first source} |crew=one, pilot |capacity= |length main= 29 ft 2 in |length alt= 8.91 m |span main= 25 ft 5 in |span alt= 7.75 m |height main= 10 ft 1 in |height alt= 3.08 m |area main= 129 ft² |area alt=12 m² |airfoil= |empty weight main= 3,408 lb |empty weight alt= 1,546 kg |loaded weight main=9,150 lb |loaded weight alt= 4,150 kg |useful load main= |useful load alt= |max takeoff weight main= |max takeoff weight alt= |more general= |engine (jet)= Dushkin-Glushko RD-2M-3V |type of jet=rocket |number of jets=1 |thrust main= 3,190 lbf |thrust alt= 14.2 kN |thrust original= |afterburning thrust main= |afterburning thrust alt= |max speed main= 540 kt |max speed alt= 620 mph, 1,000 km/h |cruise speed main= |cruise speed alt= |never exceed speed main= |never exceed speed alt= |stall speed main= |stall speed alt= |range main= |range alt= |ceiling main=55,750 ft |ceiling alt=17,000 m |climb rate main=13,800 ft/min |climb rate alt= 4,220 m/min |loading main= |loading alt= |thrust/weight= |power/mass main= |power/mass alt= |more performance=

• Endurance: 9 minutes

|armament=

• 2 × 23 mm (0.90 in) Nudelman NS-23 machine guns

|avionics= }}

References