In the late 40's and early of 50's both the Soviet Union and the USA were working on several projects to create "means of delivery" for nuclear warheads.The Soviets were working in two different directions – the design and creation of ICBM's and ICCM's. Both projects had weaknesses and strengths. ICCM would be vulnerable, but the needed supersonic engines and precise targeting systems were already designed and tested. The vulnerability of the ICBM's been hard to imagine at that time, but there was a big problem with the payload capability as the missiles were not yet powerful enough. As a result, the ICCM was favored over the ICBM, primarily because most rocket engineers came from the aeronautic industry. Even Korolyov's Design Bureau created experimental ICCM projects in the period 1951-1953. Acquired experience and knowledge from the ICCM project and the early successes with heavy missiles (R-1, R-5,) led to the ICCM project being transferred to the Aeronautical Design Bureaus. The ICBM project was entrusted now to Korolyov. On May 20, 1954 – there was a Decision made by Central Committee of Communist Party Politburo to start work on two ICCM projects – "Burya" at the Lavochkin Design Bureau and "Buran" at the Miasischev Design Bureau. The Lavochkin Design Bureau was well known already for it's first supersonic fighter jets and pioneer design of anti-aircraft missiles. Miasischev Design Bureau was designing the first Soviet supersonic bombers. Both projects were based on: 1 stage – rocket boosters 2 stages – supersonic air engines on a jet-type missile. Burya was supposed to deliver up to a 2.5-ton warhead as far as 8,500 kilometers with an altitude up to 20 kilometers. Buran was to deliver 3.5 tons the same distance and altitude. The Buran project was killed in 1957 before any test missile was ever constructed – because it was thought to be "...too expensive and similar to Burya." Around the same time there was a similar project in the USA – the Navaho, which was first tested November 1956, but was very unsuccessful with 10 accidents for 11 tests launches. Burya design and construction was going very well. The first on-the-ground tests were conducted in 1956. July 1, 1957 Burya was tested in flight for the first time. The last test was conducted December 16, 1960. All together there were 17 test flights, and only 3 failures. Unfortunately for the designers, Burya's first in-flight test was conducted almost at the same time as the first ICBM R-7. Partly because of Korolyov's influence, and partly because of the euphoria of top politicians regarding the R-7 (which powered the first ICBM, first and second Sputnik, and the upcoming launch of the first Man into space), there was a given which read "Project ceased, destroy all papers". Fortunately for History, the papers were not destroyed – and that is how the project is known about today. |
