The Topol-M mobile missile system on the MAZ-79221 chassis was born in 1992
The Topol-M mobile missile system on the MAZ-79221 chassis was born in 1992. The Topol-M mobile missile system on the MAZ-79221 chassis was born in 1992.
INSTEAD OF Caterpillars
Off-road there is nothing better than a tracked chassis. Therefore, such a technique remains the basis of the fleet of combat vehicles of all modern armies. But they also have drawbacks.
For example, cars are limited in length: the longer the track, the higher the resistance to rotation caused by cutting, compaction and burial of the soil. That is, a machine that is too long is simply not able to turn. Designers came close to the limit of the capabilities of tracked vehicles in the mid-1950s, when the question arose of creating self-propelled missile systems. The Filin rocket, mounted on a caterpillar launcher, almost half the hull protruded behind the front of the car! But it was not the most powerful rocket.
Of course, the problem can be solved by making a two-link tracked chassis. So in the 1970s appeared “Hero”. But a ballistic missile is an indivisible load, it is very difficult to place it on a “breaking” frame. That is why in the mid-1950s at the country's leading factories, ZIL and MAZ, they created special design bureaus (SKB), designed to design multi-axle wheeled chassis for the installation of missile and other weapons.
The theory of multi-axle vehicles developed in parallel with practice. How to behave on the roads, and most importantly - on an off-road car with five or more axles? How many axles do you need, how to distribute them along the base, which ones to make manageable, and which to drive, what type of suspension is preferable? The fruit of the work of NAMI and the military NIIII-21 was the I-103 six-axle all-wheel drive chassis created in the second half of the 1960s with a carrying capacity of 22 tons.
Searched for alternatives. Since it was believed that the “tractor plus trailer” scheme was simpler and cheaper than a multi-axle chassis with a complex four-wheel drive transmission, attempts were repeatedly made to provide road trains with off-road qualities, making semitrailers active (with drive wheels). But they are heavier than multi-axle chassis close in carrying capacity, worse they overcome terrain. Therefore, the multi-axle vehicles won.
Created back in 1984, the experimental KrAZ-6010 road train with an active semi-trailer did not become serial
Created back in 1984, the experimental KrAZ-6010 road train with an active semi-trailer did not become serial. Created back in 1984, the experimental KrAZ-6010 road train with an active semi-trailer did not become serial.
GIANTS OF THE ATOMIC CENTURY
After mastering serial production at the Minsk and Bryansk factories, the range of four-axle missile carriers came the turn of the chassis, designed for heavier missile systems. In those years, the production of SUVs with more than four axles did not start production at the BAZ. Only in the second half of the 1980s did they build a prototype with a 10 × 8 wheel arrangement - the BAZ-69481M. In Minsk, one by one, they developed and mastered the production of several all-wheel drive chassis with six or more axles.
First, back in 1968, an experimental MAZ-547 with a 10 × 8 wheel arrangement appeared, designed for the Temp-2S strategic missile system. But the increased mass of the rocket during the development urgently required the creation of a more load-lifting (already six-axle) all-wheel drive MAZ-547A, the tests of which began already in 1970. A fifteen-meter chassis with a V-58 diesel engine (650 hp) with a curb weight of 28 tons allowed a payload of 58 tons! A little later, for the Pioneer missile system, the MAZ-547V modification was developed, in 1976 they began testing the MAZ-547D with a 795-horsepower gas turbine engine, and in 1980 saw the light of the MAZ-547E with electric transmission.
By this time, the program of the Minsk Automobile Plant already included MAZ-7912 with a 14 × 12 wheel formula, intended for the famous Topol missile system. But for the “Topol-M” a chassis of even greater carrying capacity was needed. In 1992, they created the MAZ-79221 with a 16 × 16 wheel arrangement, an 800-horsepower Yaroslavl diesel engine and a payload of 81 tons! However, this is far from the most powerful Minsk polyaxial. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world was surprised to learn that in Minsk SKB-1 they developed even more impressive wheeled monsters!
MAZ-7904 12 × 12 appeared in 1983 as part of the Tselina strategic missile complex program. Its carrying capacity is 220 tons! Dimensions are no less fantastic: length over 30 m, width over 7 m, height almost 3.5 m, wheels above human height! In the engine compartment - a marine diesel engine with a capacity of 1, 500 hp, and a 330-horsepower YaMZ-238 as an auxiliary engine. In Baikonur, where it was decided to test the MAZ-7904, the car was delivered unassembled. Nevertheless, for its transportation by rail, it was necessary to manufacture a unique 12-axle platform with a total carrying capacity of 120 tons at Uralvagonzavod!
The giant MAZ-7907 with a 40-meter boat on the "back"
The giant MAZ-7907 with a 40-meter boat on the "back". The giant MAZ-7907 with a 40-meter boat on the "back".
In accordance with customer requirements, Minsk residents in 1984 created a “compact” eight-axle all-wheel drive MAZ-7906 with a length of almost 27 m (but with wheels of a smaller diameter), a width of “only” 4.8 m and a carrying capacity of “some” of 150 tons. In 1985, tests began on another 12-axle missile carrier - the MAZ-7907, designed to transport 150 tons. The car received a gas turbine engine with a capacity of 1250 hp, electric transmission and hydropneumatic suspension. To serve in the missile units this masterpiece of technical thought never happened. MAZ-7907 was used only once: in 1997, he transported a 100-ton 40-meter boat from Borisov to Lake Naroch. In recent history, polyaxists had to adapt to civic tasks.
STRENGTHS ON CITIZEN
At the Bryansk Automobile Plant, the heyday of polyaxial vehicles with five and six axles occurred just in the post-Soviet period. The main customers were oil and gas workers. On the basis of three-and four-axle four-wheel drive four-wheel drive vehicles “Voshchina” for the installation of hydraulic fracturing, repair and drilling units, mobile drilling derricks and cementing complexes created a five-axle BAZ-69096 and six-axle BAZ-69099. More recently, due to the use of new wheel gearboxes and suspension enhancement, the first load capacity was increased from 28 to 32 tons, and the second - from 33 to 40 tons.
But the most interesting Bryansk five-axis - KSh-8973 with a carrying capacity of 34 tons, with a drive on the first four axles and a hydropneumatic suspension, on the basis of which they created a 100-ton Ivanovets truck crane.
Interestingly, the design of the KSh-8973 provides for the connection of the fourth and fifth pairs of wheels to the steering - in this case, the radius of rotation of the machine decreases sharply. If necessary, she can move "crab". In the engine compartment - Yaroslavl V-shaped 8-cylinder diesel engine with 470 hp. and automatic transmission ZF. A two-stage razdatka with an asymmetric locked differential, as well as all bridges are supplied by Kessler, the cabin was borrowed from Tatra.
Polyaxial
Minskers also continue to work on models for peaceful tasks. The most interesting and new - the five-axle crane chassis MZKT-790200 and MZKT-700650-013 with a wheel formula of 10 × 4 - were created at the declassified factory of wheeled tractors.
The first, under the Galichanin crane with a maximum lifting capacity of 80 tons, has four steered axles. On the second, with a curb weight of 12.85 tons, a powerful concrete pump was piled up. The chassis of the MZKT-700650-013 is equipped with a 456-horsepower Mercedes-Benz OM 501 LA diesel engine and a fiberglass cabin of the Belkarplastik company, which they plan to use on all civilian MZKT equipment instead of the serial Mazovian.
Wheel giants, of course, are more conservative than the usual cars, but progress does not pass by them.
Multi-axle cars: Anatomy of the Giants
In our country, where vast territories are practically devoid of roads, off-road multi-axle vehicles simply could not fail to spread. Konstantin Zakurdaev followed their evolution.
INSTEAD OF Caterpillars
Off-road there is nothing better than a tracked chassis. Therefore, such a technique remains the basis of the fleet of combat vehicles of all modern armies. But they also have drawbacks.
For example, cars are limited in length: the longer the track, the higher the resistance to rotation caused by cutting, compaction and burial of the soil. That is, a machine that is too long is simply not able to turn. Designers came close to the limit of the capabilities of tracked vehicles in the mid-1950s, when the question arose of creating self-propelled missile systems. The Filin rocket, mounted on a caterpillar launcher, almost half the hull protruded behind the front of the car! But it was not the most powerful rocket.
Of course, the problem can be solved by making a two-link tracked chassis. So in the 1970s appeared “Hero”. But a ballistic missile is an indivisible load, it is very difficult to place it on a “breaking” frame. That is why in the mid-1950s at the country's leading factories, ZIL and MAZ, they created special design bureaus (SKB), designed to design multi-axle wheeled chassis for the installation of missile and other weapons.
The theory of multi-axle vehicles developed in parallel with practice. How to behave on the roads, and most importantly - on an off-road car with five or more axles? How many axles do you need, how to distribute them along the base, which ones to make manageable, and which to drive, what type of suspension is preferable? The fruit of the work of NAMI and the military NIIII-21 was the I-103 six-axle all-wheel drive chassis created in the second half of the 1960s with a carrying capacity of 22 tons.
Searched for alternatives. Since it was believed that the “tractor plus trailer” scheme was simpler and cheaper than a multi-axle chassis with a complex four-wheel drive transmission, attempts were repeatedly made to give the road train á off-road qualities, making semitrailers active (with drive wheels). But they are heavier than multi-axle chassis close in carrying capacity, worse they overcome terrain. Therefore, the multi-axle vehicles won.
GIANTS OF THE ATOMIC CENTURY
After mastering serial production at the Minsk and Bryansk factories, the range of four-axle missile carriers came the turn of the chassis, designed for heavier missile systems. In those years, the production of SUVs with more than four axles did not start production at the BAZ. Only in the second half of the 1980s did they build a prototype with a 10 × 8 wheel arrangement - the BAZ-69481M. In Minsk, one by one, they developed and mastered the production of several all-wheel drive chassis with six or more axles.
First, back in 1968, an experimental MAZ-547 with a 10 × 8 wheel arrangement appeared, designed for the Temp-2S strategic missile system. But the increased mass of the rocket during the development urgently required the creation of a more load-lifting (already six-axle) all-wheel drive MAZ-547A, the tests of which began already in 1970. A fifteen-meter chassis with a V-58 diesel engine (650 hp) with a curb weight of 28 tons allowed a payload of 58 tons! A little later, for the Pioneer missile system, the MAZ-547V modification was developed, in 1976 they began testing the MAZ-547D with a 795-horsepower gas turbine engine, and in 1980 saw the light of the MAZ-547E with electric transmission.
By this time, the program of the Minsk Automobile Plant already included MAZ-7912 with a 14 × 12 wheel formula, intended for the famous Topol missile system. But for the “Topol-M” a chassis of even greater carrying capacity was needed. In 1992, they created the MAZ-79221 with a 16 × 16 wheel arrangement, an 800-horsepower Yaroslavl diesel engine and a payload of 81 tons! However, this is far from the most powerful Minsk polyaxial. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world was surprised to learn that in Minsk SKB-1 they developed even more impressive wheeled monsters!
MAZ-7904 12 × 12 appeared in 1983 as part of the Tselina strategic missile complex program. Its carrying capacity is 220 tons! Dimensions are no less fantastic: length over 30 m, width over 7 m, height almost 3.5 m, wheels above human height! In the engine compartment - a marine diesel engine with a capacity of 1, 500 hp, and a 330-horsepower YaMZ-238 as an auxiliary engine. In Baikonur, where it was decided to test the MAZ-7904, the car was delivered unassembled. Nevertheless, for its transportation by rail, it was necessary to manufacture a unique 12-axle platform with a total carrying capacity of 120 tons at Uralvagonzavod!
In accordance with customer requirements, Minsk residents in 1984 created a “compact” eight-axle all-wheel drive MAZ-7906 with a length of almost 27 m (but with wheels of a smaller diameter), a width of “only” 4.8 m and a carrying capacity of “some” of 150 tons. In 1985, tests began on another 12-axle missile carrier - the MAZ-7907, designed to transport 150 tons. The car received a gas turbine engine with a capacity of 1250 hp, electric transmission and hydropneumatic suspension. To serve in the missile units this masterpiece of technical thought never happened. MAZ-7907 was used only once: in 1997, he transported a 100-ton 40-meter boat from Borisov to Lake Naroch. In recent history, polyaxists had to adapt to civic tasks.
STRENGTHS ON CITIZEN
At the Bryansk Automobile Plant, the heyday of polyaxial vehicles with five and six axles occurred just in the post-Soviet period. The main customers were oil and gas workers. On the basis of three-and four-axle four-wheel drive four-wheel drive vehicles “Voshchina” for the installation of hydraulic fracturing, repair and drilling units, mobile drilling derricks and cementing complexes created a five-axle BAZ-69096 and six-axle BAZ-69099. More recently, due to the use of new wheel gearboxes and suspension enhancement, the first load capacity was increased from 28 to 32 tons, and the second - from 33 to 40 tons.
But the most interesting Bryansk five-axis - KSh-8973 with a carrying capacity of 34 tons, with a drive on the first four axles and a hydropneumatic suspension, on the basis of which they created a 100-ton Ivanovets truck crane.
Interestingly, the design of the KSh-8973 provides for the connection of the fourth and fifth pairs of wheels to the steering - in this case, the radius of rotation of the machine decreases sharply. If necessary, she can move "crab". In the engine compartment - Yaroslavl V-shaped 8-cylinder diesel engine with 470 hp. and automatic transmission ZF. A two-stage razdatka with an asymmetric locked differential, as well as all bridges are supplied by Kessler, the cabin was borrowed from Tatra.
Minskers also continue to work on models for peaceful tasks. The most interesting and new - the five-axle crane chassis MZKT-790200 and MZKT-700650-013 with a wheel formula of 10 × 4 - were created at the declassified factory of wheeled tractors.
