The Soviet “Flying Fortress” K-7 by Konstantin Kalinin

The Kalinin K-7  was a heavy experimental aircraft built and tested in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. It was named after Soviet aircraft designer Konstantin Alekseevich Kalinin (1889 – 1938). The K-7 was one of the biggest aircraft built before the jet age. It had an unusual arrangement of six tractor engines on the wing leading edge. In civil transport configuration, it would have had a capacity for 120 passengers and 7,000 kg  of mail. The K-7 was built in two years at Kharkiv starting in 1931. The K-7 first flew on 11 August 1933. The very brief first flight showed instability and serious vibration caused by the airframe resonating with the engine frequency. The solution to this was thought to be to shorten and strengthen the tail booms, little being known then about the natural frequencies of structures and their response to vibration. The aircraft completed seven test flights before a crash due to structural failure of one of the tail booms on 21 November 1933. The existence of the aircraft had only recently been announced by Pravda which declared it was "victory of the utmost political importance" since it had been built with steel produced in the USSR rather than imported (mostly from Sweden). Kalinin was executed as an enemy of the state in 1938 during the Stalinist purges. One of attached pictures were taken in Kharkiv early 1930s, and the third one is just a computer model created to show what the term of  "flying fortrass" was assosiated with many decades ago.

Corrected evidence of Poltava liberation.

70 years ago, troops of the Steppe front, successfully developing their offensive, forced the River Vorskla, and after three days' fierce fighting, on September 23, captured the regional centre of the Ukraine, the town of Poltava, a powerful German defense centre in the Ukraine to the east of the Dnieper River. 

In commemoration of the victory achieved, the formations and units who distinguished themselves in the fighting for the liberation of the town of Poltava were to bear the name of Poltava. On September 23, at 21.00 hours the capital of the USSR, Moscow, on behalf of the Motherland, saluted with 12 artillery salvoes from 124 guns the gallant troops of the Red Army which liberated the town of Poltava. One of the numerous places where the Soviet red flags were fixed was a monument dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava in the center of the Round Square. It is easy to notice on the picture taken on September 23th that the flagstaff is made of branch. Before to publish this picture in newspaper it was previously corrected using a needle and a paint because there was no any computer and Adobe Photoshop available at that time....

This fall 5000 youths to be conscripted to Ukrainian army

This fall, during the last conscription to the army, 5000 young soldiers will replenish the military forces of Ukraine.

In parallel, recruitment is ongoing to the army of contractors, said Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev.According to him, now Ukrainian army is manned by the military on contract by 58 percent. This year it is planned to recruit 10800 soldiers bearing service contract. According to him, unlike conscripted soldiers, the service contract will last from 3 to 5 years. Thus soldiers and sergeants on contract deal exclusively with their professional responsibilities that positively affect their military training.

The National Radio Company of Ukraine.

 http://www.nrcu.gov.ua