Flight, August 1934

THE "MAXIM GORKY”
Some Details of the All-metal Monoplane Built in Soviet Russia for Propaganda Purposes With a Seven Ton Payload the "Maxim Gorky" Cruises at 137 m.p.h.

   ALL the experience of the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute of the U.S.S.R. has been incorporated in the giant aeroplane, Maxim Gorky, which has been primarily designed by Mr. A. N. Tupolov.
   Built principally for agitation purposes, the machine will officially become the flagship of the Maxim Gorki Propaganda Squadron on August 18 - Soviet Aviation Day. Until that date it will continue to undergo further tests at the Moscow Central Aerodrome.
   The Maxim Gorky is an all-metal monoplane with a span of 210 feet and with eight Soviet engines - two in a nacelle above the fuselage - developing a total of 7,000 h.p., and has maximum and cruising speeds of 149 and 137 m.p.h. respectively. The maximum fuel capacity is sufficient for a cruising range of 1,240 miles, and the machine can make 600-mile nonstop flights in the normal course of events. It will carry a crew of 23, and there is accommodation for 40 passengers - the maximum payload, incidentally, is given as 7 tons.
   The under surface of the wing is on the same level with the floor of the fuselage, so that there is comfortable access from the wing cabins to the fuselage. Entrance is made by a door on the left side of the fuselage and by a trapdoor on the underside. The passenger cabins are well above six feet in height, and contain four bunks each. A highly satisfactory ventilating and steam heating system has been worked out; controlled ventilation is effected by admitting air through a vent in the nose of the fuselage and transmitting it by ducts to the cockpit, cabins and other compartments in the wing and fuselage. A thermostat ensures that the temperature in the cabins will be maintained at 70 degrees Fahr., even with outside temperature as low as 20 degrees below zero.
   The arrangement of the compartments in the fuselage, starting from the forward end, is as follows: the saloon, pilot's cockpit, a passenger cabin, the radio transmitting room, editorial offices, passenger compartment and cafe, buffet, another passenger compartment, cinema room, microphone room and radio receiving room, followed by other passenger cabins, luggage compartments and lavatory. Two petrol engines drive generators for direct and alternating current, and air compressors for compressed air. An alternating current of 120 volts has been applied, it is believed, for the first time in this machine. A searchlight of 2.8 million candlepower, attached to the underside of the nose, will light up a wide area from an altitude of 3,000 feet.
   A special room has been set aside for the ''editorial offices,'' and a rotary press, as well as a photographic laboratory, has been installed, the latter being in the wing. Three operators take care of the radio apparatus, both receiving and transmitting, and one will always be on duty in the transmitting cabin. A powerful loud speaker is attached to the under side of the fuselage, and lectures, music and news bulletins will be voiced from 3.000 feet.
   In the roomy cockpit there is a robot pilot, and direction finding apparatus, as well as the usual blind flying instruments.
   The idea for this propaganda machine was first advanced by Michael Koltsov, a well-known Soviet journalist, and workers, peasants, students, Red Army men, and newspaper men, subscribed some six million roubles to build it.