**3. Bartini's vision of the sustainable intercontinental high-speed transport**

Bartini was completely rehabilitated in 1957, and he returned to Moscow, where he worked in a small Kamov construction bureau. During this time, he began to study and compare the various forms of the transport and determine the most energy corresponding type to a certain speed.

Bartini developed a "Theory of intercontinental transport on Earth," which was completed in the 1960s. This sustainable theory takes into account the entire planet Earth for the implementation of transport services for ships, planes, helicopters, railways, etc. In addition, the interdependencies between the various criteria are considered: the amount of load, speed of delivery, the weather conditions, and the area required for various operations (stopping and moving vehicles, facilities for loading and unloading, etc.). He came to the solution that the most optimal and sustainable vehicle can fly just above the surface; it can take off and land vertically and can be applied on all surfaces—snow, water, earth, ice, and sand [6].

Similar research about the efficiency of the different means of the transport was launched by Von Karman in the 1950s of the last century. He noted that the "hydroglider" had the highest efficiency; in those times, this was probably the original term for the WIG vehicle or ekranoplan (Russian term). The term WIG vehicle or ekranoplan is used for vehicles that use ground effect—wing-in-ground effect (WIG effect) (**Figures 4** and **5**).

The optimum flight is just above the flat surface where vehicles can take advantage of ground effect. Vehicles using ground effect achieve up to 30% more lift than normal planes at the same wing surface. Therefore, the ground effect enables less surface of the wings for the same lift force. Moreover, it has less drag, which is best seen in the diagram. Vehicles using WIG effect are sustainable because they have lower energy or fuel consumption, and therefore they can reach longer range (**Figure 6**).

In the 1960s, Bartini began to develop the VVA-14 prototype aircraft, an amphibian plane in order to prove his theory. This plane could land on all possible surfaces: sea, earth, ice, and sand. It had an option for vertical takeoff and landing or conventional takeoff and landing from both airports and water surfaces.

*Red Wings Proposed by Robert Bartini for Sustainable Aviation*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85032*

development was not approved.

**Figure 6.**

**Figure 7.**

**199**

*Amphibian airplane Bartini-Beriev VVA-14. Source: Jakubovich [5].*

More importantly, WIG flight could save enough fuel for the vertical takeoff or landing of the aircraft. The plane was made in the Beriev factory. The first test flight was carried out in 1972, but 14 engines needed for vertical takeoff were never delivered. The plane made a series of test flights, took off on land and water in the conventional way (without testing vertical takeoff and landing). However, further

*Wing-in-ground effect flight changes drag and lift. Source: Aerodynamics in flight—Airplane ground schools, http://airplanegroundschools.com/Flight-Aerodynamics/index.html, web source: December 1, 2017.*

#### **Figure 4.**

*Transport efficiency diagram for different means of transport. Source: Trains and boats and planes, https:// trainsnboatsnplanes.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/the-price-of-speed/, web source: March 16, 2017.*

**Figure 5.** *Airplane in normal flight (a) and in fight with WIG effect (b). Source: Lun et al. [7].*

*Red Wings Proposed by Robert Bartini for Sustainable Aviation DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85032*

In the 1960s, Bartini began to develop the VVA-14 prototype aircraft, an amphibian plane in order to prove his theory. This plane could land on all possible surfaces: sea, earth, ice, and sand. It had an option for vertical takeoff and landing or conventional takeoff and landing from both airports and water surfaces.

More importantly, WIG flight could save enough fuel for the vertical takeoff or landing of the aircraft. The plane was made in the Beriev factory. The first test flight was carried out in 1972, but 14 engines needed for vertical takeoff were never delivered. The plane made a series of test flights, took off on land and water in the conventional way (without testing vertical takeoff and landing). However, further development was not approved.

#### **Figure 6.**

seen in the diagram. Vehicles using WIG effect are sustainable because they have lower energy or fuel consumption, and therefore they can reach longer range

*Environmental Impact of Aviation and Sustainable Solutions*

*Transport efficiency diagram for different means of transport. Source: Trains and boats and planes, https:// trainsnboatsnplanes.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/the-price-of-speed/, web source: March 16, 2017.*

*Airplane in normal flight (a) and in fight with WIG effect (b). Source: Lun et al. [7].*

(**Figure 6**).

**Figure 4.**

**Figure 5.**

**198**

*Wing-in-ground effect flight changes drag and lift. Source: Aerodynamics in flight—Airplane ground schools, http://airplanegroundschools.com/Flight-Aerodynamics/index.html, web source: December 1, 2017.*

**Figure 7.** *Amphibian airplane Bartini-Beriev VVA-14. Source: Jakubovich [5].*

portrayed as the aircraft designer, physicist, astronomer, philosopher, painter,

was appointed as the head of the Russian space program, he requested Robert Bartini as his mentor twice. Before this, Korolev often called Bartini his teacher. Firstly, Bartini was a head of Korolev for the first time before the Second World War, when he worked in Bartini's design bureau. Secondly, they cooperated in captivity (sharaska) when Bartini developed the rocket interceptor P-114. Sergei Korolev personally took care at the Soviet authorities about Bartini's project of the supersonic strategic bomber A-57. Korolev and Bartini also worked together on solutions to increase the range of the Myasishchev M-4 strategic bomber. Neither the presence nor the role of Bartini in advising the Soviet space program is yet fully known. In the last years of his life, he was primarily engaged in the exploration in

He cooperated many times in his life with Sergei Korolev. When Sergei Korolev

Bartini always tried to encourage innovative solutions. He gave an interesting answer to the question about what to do if the class filled with young professionals is given a problem, which should be solved in an innovative way. "Class must be extended," he responded. This means that many experts with their ideas from different fields of activity are more capable to get a better solution. Bartini was considering formulating mathematical method or model to determine the success of the idea or the patent. He developed a method AND-AND, which was based on recognized search solutions, which had already been used and therefore could predict the success of a given patent/idea for a new problem. He developed the method already in the 1930s, and it was called a method for the detection of talents. A similar but more general method was developed over 20 years later by Genrich Altshuller, who became famous with the TRIZ method. TRIZ method was spread to Western countries with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and is now quite

The whole time of working in the Soviet Union, Bartini was solving problems in aerodynamics in a special way. He said that mathematics was the most exact science, and there was no doubt in it, whereas physics is derived science and the physical findings change over the centuries. He most doubted about physical constants, which he considered to be dependent of the specific "time and space." In 1965, he published an article on this subject, entitled "The relation between physical constants" [9]. The English version of the article was published in 2005 [10]. He claimed that the universe takes the form of six-dimensional torus—three dimensions of space and three dimensions of time. Dimensions of time include the first dimension as a length of time (the duration of the existence of the object), the second dimension of time as the width of time (number of cases/copies/images of body (parallel worlds)), and the third dimension as height of time (the speed of

*Graphic presentation of the six-dimensional universe (Original Bartini's sketch). Source: Maslov [11].*

musician, and polyglot (he spoke seven languages and read nine).

*Red Wings Proposed by Robert Bartini for Sustainable Aviation*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85032*

physics, cosmology, and philosophy.

time is different in each of the worlds) (**Figure 10**).

well known.

**Figure 10.**

**201**

#### **Figure 8.**

*Model of the WIG aircraft carrier and ekranoplan T-500. Source: Slavin [8].*

**Figure 9.** *Model of the future transport system (magnitoplan or ekranohod). Source: On Accasion of 110th Jubilee of Robert Bartini [4].*

Bartini imagined a vehicle with greater utilization of ground effect, which could be used at high speed in transcontinental freight and passenger transport. Such ekranoplans would be more efficient than today's airplanes; they could transport more passengers and cargo and could actually still work in "friendlier" environment such as height above 10 km (**Figure 7**).

Bartini's design of WIG vehicles is probably the most efficient because the catamaran design with an open space between the floats, which accumulates compressed air, provides additional lift.

He continued with his ideas and designed an ekranoplan with weight of 2500 and 5000 tons, serving as an aircraft carrier and operating at speeds of 500 km/h. In such high speeds, aircrafts do not need a long runway for takeoff from the aircraft carriers. Aircraft carrier would travel at the same speed as the airplane (**Figure 8**).

Bartini was also considering quick continental transport. In the 1960s, he imagined a monorail vehicle traveling at high speed. Its performance is based on the compressed air such as hovercraft (ekranohod) [3] or on magnetic levitation (magnitoplan) [1]. The project was presented to the minister of transport B.P. Beschev and was also approved, but never realized. Bartini constructed additional aerodynamic surfaces at the sides of the vehicle to increase the lift or to control the correct distance of vehicle from the track (**Figure 9**).
