Fake Soviet fighter.
In February 1953, Air Force magazine published the article "Vertical Take-off: Russia's Answer to the Global Bomber?”
According to author Charles W. Cain, the Soviet chief of staff thought that the MiG-15 climb rate was not enough to intercept the B-36 bombers.
But with the use of a VTOL rocket fighter, of the German Bachem Natter class, the interception time could be reduced to just two minutes.
The magazine also published two illustrations of the CZ-2B VTOL jet fighter, designed in 1947 at the Polish Technical Institute by the engineers Zarankiewicz and Wojciechowski, under the leadership of the Russian Dr. J.V. Stepanchev.
The CZ-2B was a tail-sitter with delta wing, dorsal/ventral air-intakes and three tailfins with shock-absorbers bumpers.
In 1947 the only Soviet turbojet powerful enough to power a VTOL fighter was the Lyulka TR-2 with 2,500 kg thrust and the CZ-2B had to be designed with a maximum take-off weight of just 4,415 lb. (2,000 kg), 42 ft. (12.8 m) wingspan, 54.2 ft. (16.5 m) length, 21.7 ft. (6.6 m) height and 450 sq. ft. (40.5 sq. m.) wings surface.
They are not believable figures, by comparison the Western designs that had been built using more advanced technologies weighed much more: The SNECMA C.450 Coléoptere 6,614 lb. (3,000 kg), the Convair XFY Pogo 16,250 lb. (7,371 kg), the Lockheed XFV Salmon 16,221 lb. (7,358 kg) and the Ryan X-13 Vertijet 7,200 lb. (3,272 kg).
The CZ-2B was expected to use two ribbon parachutes housed in the nose to perform vertical landings. It seems like an idea taken from the 1950 movie "Destination Moon" something that detracts from the credibility of the Air Force article.
The version published in 1955 in the color cover of CIELO magazine had several retro-rockets on the back of the fuselage, possibly to facilitate the landing.
In June 1955 LIFE published three new illustrations in which the plane lacked air intakes, probably the cartoonist McCoy thought it was a rocket spaceship.
According to the magazine the new fighter was already in mass production and it had been sighted in Korea by F-86 pilots.
In September 1957 Air Pictorial published: “A vertical take-off and landing turbojet-powered aircraft similar to the Ryan X-13 has been tested, and reports state that it has excellent low speed handling characteristics and a very high rate of climb.”
