OKB Chelomey
16Kha Priboy

Soviet winged pulse-jet powered missile

Brengun, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

Eduard's 1/72 Avia B.534 IV serie Weekend Edition is available online from Squadron.com

Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey was a Soviet mechanics scientist, aviation and missile engineer. He invented the first Soviet pulse jet engine and was responsible for the development of the world's first anti-ship cruise missiles and ICBM complexes like the UR-100, UR-200, UR-500 and UR-700.

From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Chelomey worked at the Baranov Central Institute of Aviation Motor Building (TsIAM) in Moscow, where he created the first Soviet pulsating air jet engine in 1942, independently of similar contemporary developments in Nazi Germany.

In the summer of 1944, it became known that Nazi Germany used V-1 cruise missiles against Southern England. On 9 October 1944, following a decision by the USSR State Defense Committee and People's Commissar for Aviation Industry Alexey Shakhurin, Chelomey was appointed the Director and Chief Designer of Plant N51 (its previous director Nikolay Polikarpov having died a short time before). Chelomey was to design, build, and test the first Soviet cruise missile at the earliest possible date.

As early as December 1944, the missile, code-named 10Kh, was test fired from Petlyakov Pe-8 and Tupolev Tu-2 aircraft.

The 16Kh was an experimental missile using 10Kh airframes and a single Chelomey D-6 engine.

This was later tested as the 16Kha with two Chelomey D-3 engines mounted side by side on V-configured pylons on the aft fuselage and extended tailplanes with rectangular fins and rudders at the tailplane tips.*

Although I was aware of the post-war developments of the V-1 pulse-jet missile in the USA, I was not familiar with this twin-engined Soviet development.

This is Brengun's very first plastic aircraft release in 1/48 scale. The kit is simple, in keeping with the subject, with only 27 parts in tan coloured plastic.

The plastic is quite soft but the recessed detail is crisp and fine. Sprue attachments are fine too, so removal and cleanup of the parts will not be a chore. I'd probably lightly sand the mating surfaces of the major parts prior to assembly though, especially the fuselage and pulse jet halves.

There are no photo-etched parts or decals so assembly should be fast and pretty simple.

You'll need to take some extra care with alignment as there are no locating pins for the fuselage and pulse jets, and the tabs for the stumpy wings are very shallow. Tailplanes and pulse jet mounts only get a slight depression. I would recommend drilling out some holes and reinforcing the wing, tailplane and pulse jet mount joins with brass rod (or similar).

The trolley will be simple to build too.

Two colour schemes are offered. One features a black fuselage with silver pulse jets (or more likely natural metal) that have white rings at the front. The second is green with silver pule jets.

If you've always wanted to build an OKB Chelomey 16Kha "Priboy" Soviet winged pulse-jet powered missile, your ship has finally come in.

If you're like the other 99.999% of us who have never even heard of it, this is a very interesting variation on the V-1 theme that should be a quick build for experienced modellers, even with its trolley.

Recommended.

* Reference courtesy of Wikipedia and Weapons and Warfare website.

Thanks to Brengun for the review sample.

Review Text Copyright © 2016 by Brett Green
Page Created 5 December, 2016
Last updated 6 December, 2016

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page