Tupolev ANT-43

ANT-43
Role	Prototype passenger/liaison aircraft
National origin	Soviet Union
Manufacturer	Tupolev
First flight	never flown
Number built	1
Developed from	Tupolev ANT-31

The Tupolev ANT-43 was an experimental passenger aircraft designed and built by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1930s, for purposes of gaining practical experience with the so-called "placemeter" production method.^[1]

Design and development

The ANT-43 was a seven-passenger, low-wing monoplane design of all-metal construction, bearing resemblance to the Tupolev ANT-31 (I-14) fighter. Intended as an HQ liaison aircraft, it was conceived using a stencil-based template design method rather than project drawings, and construction of the prototype was undertaken 1935–1936; it was this design method that proved to be the project's undoing. Due to concerns about weaknesses in the ANT-43's airframe construction, when the ANT-43 prototype was completed, TsAGI summoned a commission led by Viktor N. Belyayev to decide whether the ANT-43 was fit for flight testing. The commission, deciding that the ANT-43 prototype did not meet structural strength norms, refused to approve flight tests for the aircraft, and the ANT-43 was scrapped without ever being flown.^[2]^[3]

Specifications

Data from OKB Tupolev^[3]

General characteristics

Crew: 1
Capacity: 6 passengers
Powerplant: 1 × Gnome et Rhône 14Rsd 14-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, 600 kW (800 hp)

References

^ "ANT-43 :: Ruslet". ruslet.webnode.cz. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ Kandalov, Andrei; Duffy, Paul (1 December 1996). Tupolev : the man and his aircraft. SAE International. ISBN 978-1560918998.
^ ^a ^b Gordon, Yefim; Rigmant, Vladimir (2005). OKB Tupolev (1st ed.). Hinkley: Midland Publishing. p. 76. ISBN 1-85780-214-4.