Antonov Salamandra

The Antonov Design Bureau was opened in response 10 an NKAP order made on 6th March 1946 and was to become well known for a long series of transport and civilian aero- planes. However, in its earliest days the new OKB also had a go at fighter design, despite at stage having its staff numbers reduced by a third. During the war Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov had been Deputy Designer to the Yakovlev OKB, working on the Bureau's series Of piston fighters. He was impressed by the German Heinkel He 162 Salamander light• Weight 'last-ditch' jet fighter, which designed and produced in an incredibly short time during the closing stages of the Euro- pean war

Design

This aircraft had its engine mounted on the top oi the fuselage and also twin tail fins 10 keep the rudders out 01 the jet efflux, so it is no surprise that the resulting Antonov project shared a pretty similar layout and it was also called Salamandra- Design work began in the spring of 1947 just after the OKB's team had completed the SKh (An-2) utility transport. Salamandra had a single RD-10 on the back of its fuselage and this position removed the risk of ingestion and foreign object damage which came with the rough-field operations for which the fighter was intended; it also made maintenance relatively easy. A model Was tested in the wind but on 6th April 1946 instructions were received from NKAP that the ORB should begin designing another fighter powered by two RD-I0s. The Salamandra was dumped and Antonov, who had realised that the performance offered by jet powerplants made the potential success of using unconventional airframe configurations a much stronger possibility, switched to the 'M' or Masha

source - soviet secret project fighters since 1945 by tony buttler and yefim gordon