Propeller sleigh history
Russian Empire
The first snowmobile was created in Russia in 1904 by engineer S.S.Nezhdanovsky. The model constituted a low weight sleigh equipped with the internal combustion engine and aerodynamic propulsive device.
In 1907 already «the ski automobile» was constructed and tested at the Moscow "Dux" factory by Yu. A. Meller This vehicle was designed jointly with engineer A.D.Dokuchayev. And a year later this vehicle was referred to as a snowmobile.
The invention of Russian engineers was of the greatest importance for Russia as it had vast areas where the snow cover was being kept for many months. The mechanical transport like this one could only make obtainable the back lands of the North.
Since 1912 the batch production of snowmobiles was initiated under the order of the military administration at the Russian-Baltic rail car building plant in Riga.
During the First World War the Russian army had in use more than twenty snowmobiles for the purpose of communication and transportation. The snowmobiles were also used at the fronts of the civil war.
Soviet Russia
The Committee of Snowmobile engineering (COMPAS) has played the key role in the development of the national snowmobile construction. This Committee was established in 1919 under the joint board resolution of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and the Research Automobile Laboratory (RAL). The COMPAS Committee was created in order to resolve the challenge the Revolutionary War Council formulated for TsAGI, namely: to produce urgently twenty snowmobiles for demands of the Red Army. During the years of its existence (1919-1923) the COMPAS that during those times constituted simultaneously the experimental design bureau and both the pilot and batch manufacturing designed and produced a good number of snowmobiles.
Since 1924 the metal snowmobile models emerged. The aluminum enabled producing the snowmobiles suitable for regular exploitation. The vehicle’s weight was reduced to minimum and its design was significantly simplified. The implementation of aero-engine that was provided with the air cooling made it possible to use snowmobiles for mail transportation and airfields maintenance in winter in Siberia and so on.
Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev has greatly contributed into progress of metal snowmobile in Russia. It was he, who proposed the snowmobile configuration scheme based on the Russian national duralumin (kolchugalumin). This configuration has become a classic one. The ÀNÒ-IV, ÀNÒ-VII, ÀNÒ-X Tupolev snowmobiles were outputs of the serial production. They were used both in arctic expeditions and for regular transportation of passengers and cargo within the USSR.
A number of runs were organized in order to trial the vehicles and to obtain the comparative evaluation. In 1926 a 1460 km Moscow-Leningrad run took place, where participated 13 snowplanes. The standard snowmobile (capacity of 100h. p., 4 seats) demonstrated the following properties
- Average cruising speed: 36 km/h,
- Speed, max.: 50 km/h,
- Average fuel consumption: 46 kg/100 km
It was already during those years when the hourly snowplane operating costs were not more expensive than those of the car. And this fact was in favor of snowplanes. This advantage that is of greater importance in modern environment has been kept proper to the new models of this off-highway vehicle.
The Golden Age of propeller sleigh
In 1961 the specialists of Tupolev Experimental Design Bureau under leadership of G.V. Makhotkin performed the trial of the first A-3 amphibian snowplanes lot. The serial production started in 1964 and lasted for 25 years. The À-3 amphibian vehicle gained shortly the popularity in the northern regions of the state. It was used at Baikal-Amur main railway road construction and by the border services. More than 700 snowplanes were produced and a part of them was exported abroad.
Current period
In 1995 “Tupolev” JSC through active participation of “AEROCON” Company initiated developing the propeller sleigh of the third generation. The AC-2 model has embodied the long-term experience of engineering, manufacturing and exploitation of snowplanes as well as the achievements of the up-to-date technologies and design ideas. In 2004 a aerial production of ÀÑ-2 started at “Tupolev” JSC Voronezh affiliate.
The road performance, the reliability and the efficiency of the propeller sleigh facilitate the enhancement of the transportation capabilities in those regions that are characterized by poor road network and in those areas that are attributed to the weather-bound conditions.