I've been struggling to put together a scratch build of an early Soviet airliner, the KHaI 3. It was a delta, with 6-8 seats. My question is is there anything more on the Shvetsov M11? Seeing as the engine is "right out in front", so to speak, uncowled at that, I'm having trouble getting the rocker arms right. Anyone know of any other sources, other than some close ups of PO2's. which would show better deatil of the M11?

Thanks and much appreciation in advance.

Wikipedia has this picture. Vector does one in 1/48. Look on the bottom of this page. Here's one hanging on the pointy end of a PO-2

I finally figured out most of the cabin details for the KHaI3. It was a tail less delta airliner prototype. The pilot and passengers were situated in two gondolas(gondoli?) on top of the center section. All I have to go on is a 3 view from Gunston's Aircraft of the Soviet Union.

My biggest bugaboo was the passenger seats. Seeing as I wanted to build it in 1/48 scale, and it had an M11, I got a 1/48 PO2. The first prototype had a pilot in front of each gondola. The PO2 model had accommodations for two pilots, one front and one back.

Now to the pax seating. It had six seats per gondola. Since I was basically winging it, I'm making copies of the pilot seats from the PO2. There are no photos of this beastie, just a basic 3-view. Seeing as this was to be a basic airliner, flying around on the steppes of Siberia, I thought the seats would be copies of pilot seats, with minimal cushioning. But the seats are little bears to build, seeing as I am using plastic card stock. I've never tried building a model with so little documentation. So, if and when I post a pic or two of it, please be understanding.

And y'know, this might make for an interesting RC model, especially if I can finagle a Saito five cylinder radial. The full size bird flew with much stability, but, sadly, never went beyond the prototype stage.

The paint scheme is kinda iffy too, as I'm thinking that it'll be doped aluminum, with a red star on the fin, and large black CCCP letters on the underside of the wing.

But, there is enough in the PO2 kit to build this(landing gear, and cockpit accommodations) to make this kind of doable.

All I have to find now is a tail wheel, as this did not hae a tail skid.

I did, however, order the Vector engine, which will be a big help.

Here's Fantastic Plastic's page on the 1/72 Unicraft kit that was issued in 2002 and is still available. Here's a build review showing some nice detail. Here's a 3 view drawing.

That's the three-view that I'm building from, and it is the one from Gunston's book. I'm building the first prototype with the shorter gondolas(gondoli?).

That said, according to Gunston, it never went beyond the prototype stage, but was judged to fly stably.

Now, I'm not trying to argue with the kit reviews, mebbe Gunston was wrong, after all, his book came out in the early 80's, and there was only one print run, to my knowledge. But if it did fly successfully for a number of years, carrying passengers, wouldn't there be at least a few photos extant, much like so many other Soviet designs, such as Polikarpov, Bratukhin, Grigorovich, Bartini, and even Tupolev and Petlyakov, who were tossed into prison for suspected espionage(the PE2 was viewed with some suspicion because it resembled the BF110, and the PE8 was such a dismal failure, and Stalin did not tolerate failures very well)?

I also know that Kharkov Khai still exists, as it is an aviation institute, and they even have a few current designs.

Not meaning to start an argument, I'm just trying to find things out, and with some subjects there seems to be a distinct dearth of data, at least as far as I can tell. Mebbe I just haven't delved deeply enough, I dunno.

But, I do appreciate the links, though.

Please go by the link http://files.mail.ru/1AJ2R5 and download file max_m_will.zip. Switch to English is on the lower blue band, at the right.