An
aerosan is a type of propeller-powered
snowmobileA snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, sled, or skimobile , is a land vehicle for travel on snow that is commonly propelled by a continuous track or tracks at the rear and steered by skis at the front....
, running on skis, used for communications, mail deliveries, medical aid, emergency recovery and border patrolling in northern
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, as well as for recreation. Aerosans were used by the Soviet
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
during the
Winter WarThe Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939, three months after the German invasion of Poland and the start of World War II, and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
and
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The first aerosans may have been built by young
Igor SikorskyIgor Sikorsky , born Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky , was a Russian-American pioneer of aviation in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. He designed and flew the world's first multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft, the Russky Vityaz in 1913...
in 1909–10, before he built multi-engine airplanes and helicopters.
An
aerosan is a type of propeller-powered
snowmobileA snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, sled, or skimobile , is a land vehicle for travel on snow that is commonly propelled by a continuous track or tracks at the rear and steered by skis at the front....
, running on skis, used for communications, mail deliveries, medical aid, emergency recovery and border patrolling in northern
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, as well as for recreation. Aerosans were used by the Soviet
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
during the
Winter WarThe Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939, three months after the German invasion of Poland and the start of World War II, and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
and
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The first aerosans may have been built by young
Igor SikorskyIgor Sikorsky , born Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky , was a Russian-American pioneer of aviation in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. He designed and flew the world's first multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft, the Russky Vityaz in 1913...
in 1909–10, before he built multi-engine airplanes and helicopters. They were very light
plywoodPlywoodis a type of engineered wood made from thin sheets of wood, called plies or wood veneers. The layers are glued together so that adjacent plies have their grain at right angles to each other for greater strength. There are usually an odd number of plies, as the symmetry makes the board less...
vehicles on skis, propelled by old airplane engines and propellers.
Military usage
Military use of the aerosan goes back to at least the 1920s. During the 1939–40 Winter War against
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
, some were equipped with a machine-gun ring mount on the roof. They could carry four to five men, and tow four more on skis. The aerosans were initially used for transport, liaison, and medical evacuation in deep snow, and mostly used in open country and on frozen lakes and rivers because of their poor hill-climbing ability and limited maneuverability on winding forest roads.
During WWII, aerosans were found to be useful for
reconnaissanceReconnaissance is a military and medical term denoting exploration conducted to gain information. Militarily, its shorthand Canadian and British form is recce , its American usage form is recon...
and light raiding in northern areas, thanks to their high mobility in deep snow (25–35 km/h, where many vehicles couldn't move at all). Responsibility for aerosans was transferred to the Soviet Armoured Forces (GABTU) and orders were submitted for design and fabrication of
lightly-armouredMilitary vehicles are commonly armoured to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, missiles, or shells, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include tanks, aircraft, and ships.Civilian vehicles may also be armoured...
versions, protected by ten millimetres of steel plate on front. They were organized into transport or combat
battalionA battalion is a military unit of around 1000-1500 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel...
s of 45 vehicles, in three companies, often employed in co-operation with ski infantry. Troops were usually carried or towed by transport aerosans, while fire support was provided by the heavier machine gun-armed, armoured models. Aerosans were not used for direct assault because of their vulnerability to explosives such as
mortarA mortar is a muzzle-loading indirect fire weapon that fires shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It typically has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber.- Function :...
rounds.
The ANT-I through ANT-V were a successful series of aerosans of the 1920s and ’30s, designed by aircraft engineer
Andrei TupolevAndrei Nikolayevich Tupolev was a pioneering Soviet aircraft designer.During his career, he designed and oversaw the design of more than 100 types of aircraft, some of which set 78 world records...
. However, there is reason to believe that in 1924 the Soviets obtained plans and specifications for 'air sleighs' from Chester B. Wing, an aviator, automobile dealer and former mayor of
St. Ignace, MichiganSaint Ignace, usually written as St. Ignace, is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 2,678. It is the county seat of Mackinac County. From the Lower Peninsula, St. Ignace is the gateway to the Upper Peninsula.St...
, U.S.A. He had built practical aerosleds to aid transportation across the ice between St. Ignace and
Mackinac IslandMackinac Island is an island covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European exploration began...
, and for use by fishermen. The Spring 1943 issue of the magazine
Science and Mechanics states that "from his aerosleds the Russians developed their present battle sled."
The first military aerosans used in Finland, the KM-5 and OSGA-6 (later called NKL-6), were initially built at the Narkomles Factory in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
. During WWII, improved NKL-16/41 and NKL-16/42 models were built, and production started at the
ZiSZiS may refer to:* Zavod imeni Likhacheva of Moscow, formerly Automotive Factory No. 2 Zavod imeni Stalina, and its products:** ZiS-101 limousine** ZiS-110 limousine...
and
GAZGAZ or Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod , translated as Gorky Automobile Plant , started in 1929 as NNAZ, a cooperation between Ford and the Soviet Union.-History:...
car factories, and at smaller industries such as the Stalingrad Bekietovskiy Wood Works. In 1941 the armoured
NKL-26The NKL-26 was an armoured aerosan introduced by the Soviet Union during the Second World War, based on the earlier NKL-6 . It was made of plywood and had a ten-millimetre armour plate on the front only, and was armed with a 7.62mm DT machine gun in a ring mount. It was powered by an M-11G...
, designed by M. Andreyev, started production at Narkomles. The following year, Gorki Narkorechflota developed the smaller, unarmoured GAZ-98, or
RF-8The RF-8, or GAZ-98, was an aerosan used by the Soviet Union during the Winter War and the Second World War. The GAZ-98K was a version with a more powerful GAZ M-11 110-hp aviation engine in place of the standard automotive engine.- External links :...
, powered by a GAZ-M1 truck engine and durable metal propeller. There was also an ASD-400 heavy assault sled used in WWII.
External links