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[mexchiwa]

OK, a thousand reasons this'll never happen (it never flew, for one thing), but the Russians had some wonderfully strange designs before the war, and this is one of those.  Haven't even seen a picture of it, but thought I'd see what y'all thought of it.

It had telescoping wings (Russian nesting dolls as design inspiration? Or the Gerin V-6E (http://www.airliners.net/photo/G%C3%A9rin-V-6E-Varivol/2010290/L/?)  NIAI earlier flew the LIG-7/RK, a two-seat cabin monoplane which tested the concept.

The RK-I fuselage was of light-alloy semi-monocoque construction with a conventional tail unit. The retractable tail-wheel undercarriage was attached to the fuselage, giving the aircraft a very narrow track, retracting into the fuselage and covered by doors. To reduce drag the engine sat in the nose, under a closely fitting cowling, and cooling radiators sat in ducts either side of the rear fuselage fed by long pipework.
 
The wings of the RK-I were very unusual in having tandem main-planes, used as guide tracks and supports for the hydraulically extending wing sections, which more than doubled the wing area when fully extended. The wings were of light-alloy and steel structure with 30KhGSA steel skins, only the rear wing having flaps and ailerons. Unfortunately for the RK-I Joseph Stalin was very interested in the project and insisted that the most powerful engine then available was used in the aircraft. This was the death-knell for the RK-I as the most powerful engine then available was the M-106 which was, unfortunately, a complete failure, not progressing further than bench testing. Construction of the RK-I was complete by 1940, but the aircraft remained un-flown in the workshop due to the unreliable engine.

From the 3-view, it seems that the wing sections retracted into the fuselage, though this would seem to take up a lot of useful volume.

Code: [Select]

General characteristics
 Crew: 1
 Length: 8.8 m (28 ft 10-1/2 in)
 Wingspan: 8.2 m (26 ft 10-3/4 in)
 Wing area: 11.9 to 28 m2 (128 to 301 ft2)
 Gross weight: 3,100 kg (6,834 lb)
 
Performance
 Maximum speed: 150 km/h (93 mph)
 
Armament
 2 x 20mm ShVAK cannon in the nose.
 2 x 7.62mm ShkKAS machine-guns in the nose.


Obviously, top speed is a typo, think the official estimates were pretty optimistic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIAI_RK-I

[Epervier]

150km/h ?
This request is to be classified in most applications rid... unnecessary.

[HundertzehnGustav]

nono, the yare stored in the fuselage.
the "endplate" would be flush with the fuselage.
One 20mm bullet through these "wing skins", and they are so deformed, that they can not retract at the necessary moment.
or expane.
Or only on one side. get stuck on the other.

in want it!
for whomever i fly against... that guy has already lost the battle at takeoff.