Soviet Flying Tank — Antonov’s Secret Weapon on the Eastern Front | The Real Story скачать в хорошем качестве

Soviet Flying Tank — Antonov’s Secret Weapon on the Eastern Front | The Real Story

A tank with wings rises over a Moscow airfield in 1942—an image so improbable it feels like myth, yet it happened. This documentary uncovers the real story of the A-40 “flying tank,” Oleg Antonov’s secret attempt to deliver armor by air during Soviet WW2. Conceived amid the brutal fighting on the Eastern Front, the A-40 turned a T-60 light tank into a glider: detachable wooden biplane wings, twin-boom tail, and tow gear for a heavy bomber. On 2 September 1942, test pilot Sergei Anokhin lifted off behind a TB-3. As drag mounted, the tow was released; Anokhin glided to a safe landing, shed the wings, and the T-60 drove back under its own power. The project ended there—not for lack of courage, but for lack of a tow aircraft powerful enough to overcome the tank’s aerodynamic drag. Photographs, drawings, and reports survive, preserving a rare intersection of Soviet engineering, strategy, and airborne ambition. Through calm analysis and archival detail, we examine why the Red Army explored airborne armor, how Soviet intelligence and logistics shaped the idea, and why the A-40 remained a one-off. It’s a factual journey into wartime innovation—where necessity, technology, and history briefly converged in a single experimental flight.