The speed of movement, in the literal sense, drove forward the creative ideas of the inventors. A carriage equipped with an aircraft engine and an aircraft propeller, capable of accelerating to an unimaginable one hundred twenty - one hundred and fifty km / h! This is what the Russian self-taught inventor Valerian Ivanovich Abakovsky dreamed of. The German Otto Steinitz also dreamed about this, but today we are not talking about him.
Valerian Ivanovich Abakovsky.
It is not known for certain whether Abakovsky knew about Steinitz's work, but one cannot rule out this (as well as confirm, however, ignorance). In 1919, Valerian Ivanovich served as a driver in the Tambov Cheka. And his craving for technology was noted by many. Therefore, in 1921, his idea of building a new type of means of transportation by rail was taken seriously. And they provided the necessary support.
There are no exact data on the place of construction of the Abakovsky air car. Some sources talk about Tambov, others about Moscow. Construction is underway from spring to summer. And already at the beginning of summer, test trials begin. The main and main advantage of the air car over the rest of the railway transport was speed, which was very important with the vast expanses of the new country. By the way, the term aerocar was first used specifically for the design of Abakovsky.
The assembled air car was as simple as possible: the undercarriage had two pairs of wheels and used parts of conventional railway equipment. A wedge-shaped cab with a sloped front was installed on the frame to improve aerodynamics. The power unit was equipped with an aircraft engine (unfortunately, of an unknown manufacturer and of unknown power). The propeller was made of wood and had two blades.
All this was installed in the front of the carriage. The middle and rear had seats for carrying up to twenty-five people. The oddities of the cab include the fact that there were windows only on the sides of the car, and the driver saw practically nothing ahead.
Promotional video:
Perhaps it was this "feature" that played a fatal role in the fate of Abakovsky. On July 24, 1921, the inventor himself and twenty-two people left Moscow to participate in the congresses in Tula on an air carriage. Having successfully reached and participated in the events, the congress participants went back to Moscow. And not far from Serpukhov, due to the uneven section of the railway track, the air car, rushing at a speed of about 80 km / h, jumped on the rails and flew down a slope.
Seven people, including V. I. Abakovsky, were killed, six more were injured. The air car was destroyed and could not be restored. This project was not further developed. The reasons were, of course, the death of the creator and ideological mastermind, as well as the conclusions of the commission about the general deplorable state of railways - after all, the massive use of such cars on such roads could entail a huge number of victims.