Western Artists' Concepts of Soviet aircraft during the Cold War

Here are color views of MiG-23S & Su-19 "Fencer" from the French magazine "Connaissance de l'Histoire" N°16 of 1979.
The MiG-23S is presented as a super modern fighter and the Su-19, its "rival", as an equivalent of the F-14 !!!!!
!o_Oo_Oo_O
 

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That book also claimed, that the long-interception Mig would have had also a CFT between the two engine nacelles.
If I remember correct, that would not work with out major redesign of fuselage, because the drop tank blocked the cannon casing ejection port.

Picture source:
"Russia's Top Guns: Soviet Air Power", Gallery Books Aerospace Publishing 1990
In the French edition of this book, there is a drawing of MiG-23MF armed with 2 R-3S & 8 R-60 !
And a MiG-17F armed with 2 R-3S like F-86. (at the beginning and not at the end of the wings as on the Cuban and North Korean MiG-17)
MiG-17 fitted with Atoll.JPG MiG-23MF fitted with 8 R-60 & two R-3S.JPG
 
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From Aeroplane magazine 1957.
Ilyushin Il-54/Il-149 "Blowlamp"
The caption seems to say that this is a photo of an IL-54 that was intercepted by US Navy jets. However, it seems that when the NATO code name was assigned to it, the IL-54 had stopped flying. ;)
Moreover, it looks more like a drawing than a photo.
 
Founded on ebay. :)

 
Rivista_marittima 1952.
 

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Air Progress: Soviet Air Force Latter Day Types​

March 1955 Air Trails Hobbies for Young Men​

Wahoo, wonderfull ! Nice find. The twin-engine MiG-15bis "all-weather" is really unusual, and the "Yak-21" really cute !
The MiG-15bis reminds me of the comic book Buck Danny "Ciel de Corée", where appeared MiG-15bis also equipped with a radar. For the time (1954 I think) it was very realistic. The ambiance and the legends of pilots were very well represented.
 
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An image by Jack Leynnwood. It looks a bit like the Miassichtchev M-4 "Bison", but different in many ways.
View attachment 695614
Here is very informative YouTube video about Jack Leynnwood model box' covers:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NntiN0I829o


Personnely, I'm very impressed with a dramatic contrast between green/blue/black colors of bomber and red/orange/yellow colors of background. The forced perspective adds a lot of dynamic to the picture. And Red Square' buildings on the horizon: small, but cool detail.
Those 1950-60s box cover' artists were quite talented!
 
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From the same source.

Fighter-interceptor vertical take-off.​

A fighter-interceptor vertical take-off appeared for the first time in Life magazine, which described how a promising development of captive German engineers, to protect industrial facilities. According to the magazine, the plane was already in mass production, and, according to reports from Korea, American Saber pilots had already met the plane in combat. It is interesting to land an airplane not with engines, but with parachutes. Later, this aircraft was widely used in Italian aviation magazines, where it appeared throughout the 1950s.

The principle of the VTOL family of tail-sitter is to take off and land a device with the fuselage placed vertically on the ground, hence the designation "tail-sitter". In the late 1940s, the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) began to seriously examine the feasibility of developing a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) tailsitter aircraft to protect convoys, task forces, and other vessels. These specialized interceptors would be placed on the decks of ships to provide a rapid defensive air support to protect convoys, task forces, and other vessels. The diminutive Ryan X-13 Vertijet was designed to explore the feasibility of a pure-jet vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fighter aircraft. Using a Rolls Royce Avon turbojet engine, the aircraft easily made the transition between vertical and horizontal flight and enjoyed a highly successful career.

In the USSR, Boris Yuryev presented in 1946, the KIT-1 and -2 projects, tail-sitter (with a piston engine VK-108) similar to the Convair XFV-1 but which did not go beyond the stage of the board drawing. In the Soviet Union, the Yakolev Yak-36 made its first untethered flight in 1963. Although it was never put into production, it led directly to the operational Yak-38 Forger.
VTOL 1.png VTOL 2.png VTOL 3.png VTOL 4.png
 

La-26​

In Flying Magazine December 1952, Ian Morton reported that a "revamped version had swept wing and tail surfaces, and was in limited production as an all-weather fighter at the start of 1951. ... Lavochkin's "F-89" is a sleeker looking job than its American counterpart. performancee figures are, at present, unknown, but with the installation of two modified M-012 turbojets, a maximum speed in excess of 700 mph should be attained... Although once attributed to a bomber design similar to the B-26 in aerodynamic configuration, the designation La-26 is tentatively linked with the new all-weather jet." "Avión, in its April 1956 Issue, reported (page 150) on the La-26 that nothing more had been heard about this all-weather twin jet.
La-26.png
 
From wiki :
The single-seat configuration was considered undesirable by NATO. The first two Ka-50 prototypes had false windows painted on them, which successfully misled the first western reports of the aircraft in the mid-1980s, to the point of some analysts even concluding that its primary mission was as an air superiority aircraft for hunting and killing NATO attack helicopters, an alarming but expected Soviet move by NATO planners following the recent J-CATCH program evaluation.
 
Hi Hood,

I have this book and it's a very nice source for this kind of fake Soviet aircraft. I'll dig again on my archives in search of a An-400 profile you'll love.

By the moment two new additions from Revista de Aeronáutica Number 208 March 1958

1. Romboidal wing fighter

2. Professor Blagonrawow (can you confirm its existence Flateric?. I haven't heard that name ???). shown this drawing in a conference about Soviet existing projects on nuclear powered aircraft. The tilt-wing design is particulary amazing!

Enjoy folks :)
hi Antonio , i have a few question about the second drawing , first , do you know who drew it ? and is the bomber in the background with the tilted wings linked to a real project or was it a concept added by the artist itself ? , because after some research i found nothing that looks similar to it.
 
hi Antonio , i have a few question about the second drawing , first , do you know who drew it ? and is the bomber in the background with the tilted wings linked to a real project or was it a concept added by the artist itself ? , because after some research i found nothing that looks similar to it.
Sorry for the delayed answer. I'm recently experiencing some health issues.

Both drawings seem to depict the same subject. It's an VTOL nuclear powered inter continental bomber showing its tilting wings both in flight and VTOL positions. Obviously pure art. Nothing close or related to a real project. My guess about the author it's an artist from Soviet origin. I had that feeling from the artistic style.
 
From August 1955 Technics for Youth
Note that magazine artist Novickiy piece apparently drawn on motives of unattributed art, later being much more worked out and professional.
 

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of a note - @youROKer post on the subject
 
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