Tractor MAZ-7904: description and technical characteristics

The history of almost every enterprise shows that not all the prototypes are destined to become serial.

Wheeled tractors and missile carriers produced in1983 at the car factory in Minsk, has always been admired in connection with their weight and size. Nevertheless, the parameters more massive than those possessed by the missile complex "Topol" (the base for it were MAZ-7912 and 7917 with seven axes), differs from the analogs MAZ-7904.

The legendary giant

About the fact that there were these special chassis inSoviet era, only a few designers and military were aware of. The sunset of the period of the board of councils, which occurred in the 1980s, was marked in the world history by the fact that new models of giant cars were created on the territory of the special design bureau MAZ. Their uniqueness was confirmed not only within the territory of the USSR, but throughout the world.

Only after the collapse of the country was made publicInformation on the data of gigantic top-secret machines. Among these late-Soviet giants is MAZ-7904 with six axes. The design of this machine took place at the end of the 70s.

The influence of countries' opposition to the creation of a giant

The beginning of the 1980s was marked by the fact that inthe confrontation of the Soviet Union with the United States of America during the Cold War, the highest point of heat was reached. Earlier such a heat of relations was manifested in the midst of the Caribbean crisis. The two superpowers vividly demonstrated nuclear power before each other. February 1980 as a result was the period of the release of the order of the minister, the head of the automobile industry of the Union. According to this decree, the Minsk Automobile Plant was obliged to develop a special wheel conveyor - MAZ-7904. The technical characteristics of the highest level should have been demonstrated by this giant. In addition, they were to be accompanied by particularly significant indicators of load capacity. The missile complex "Celina" required such a load capacity for an autonomous transport-launcher. MAZ-7904 project "Celina", by the way, satisfied completely.

Project Manager

The projected machine with this index was createdunder the leadership at that time of the already middle-aged (80-year-old) B. Shaposhnik. He was also the head of projects, within which the creation of the first Soviet career giants MAZ-525 and MAZ-530, as well as all subsequent military tractors MAZ and multi-axle chassis for many of the complexes such as Elbrus, Topol and Pioneer ". In this particular situation, Shaposhnikov was faced with a difficult task. This is explained by the fact that the transport-launch container, launch equipment and missile for the Celina complex have a total weight of 220 tons. On the same model MAZ-7904 was to have a loaded weight equal to 140 tons. It was assumed that the weight of the new transport chassis and rocket will be within 360 tons. The MAZ-7904 project was a machine with incredible weight and dimensions, which will be heavily worked upon.

State Transformations

In February 1981, the Minsk Automobile Plant organized an interdepartmental meeting with the participation of:

• Ministers responsible for the automotive, defense and electrical industries;
• commander of strategic missile forces;
• Deputy Defense Minister for Armaments;
• Chief Designer of Ground Equipment Equipment for Missile Complexes OKB-1 of Barrikady Plant;
• chief designer of MIT and the missile complex "Celina";
• other high-ranking designers and chiefs.

Of course, there was a discussion of the project "Celina" anddeveloped for him a transport chassis, called MAZ 7904. One of the largest cars in the world for its creation required that during the meeting Shaposhnik had:

• refer to the complexity of the tasks;
• require the expansion of the staff of designers in the bureau (approximately 100 people);
• allocate a living space for them.

Fulfill a number of requirements

All of his requirements were taken seriously,Immediately they were executed. Minister of Automotive Industry V. Polyakov was allocated a budget for an additional wage fund for these professionals, and the Ministry of Defense of the Union was paid all the necessary for their resettlement real estate. In addition, Polyakov initiated the equipment of the building in which the office of Shaposhnik was located, an elevator. This allowed elderly designers to be able to climb to their third floor. The cabinet of the chief designer was additionally transformed by repair.

Construction Details

Although the MAZ-7904 super heavy truck weighed a lot and therebyprovoked the emergence of new difficulties, June 1983 marked the end of work on the first, and later it turned out that simultaneously with the last model of this transport. The giant with two cabins had fantastic dimensions. As a material for the cabins, specialists of the Osipovichi plant decided to use fiberglass. Thus, it was possible to reduce their weight. The length of the tractor reached 32.2 m. The width was 6.8 m. The height (the ground - the roofs of the parallel cabs) was 3.45 m. As a basis, this giant had a powerful welded support frame. On it was a pair of hydromechanical 4-speed transmissions (having two reverse gears). The delivery of wheels for the MAZ-7904 USSR was provided by the famous Japanese manufacturer - the company Bridgestone. The deal was structured as if the USSR were buying wheels to complete three quarry dump trucks. At that time, the domestic industry did not have the capacity, facilities, equipment and technologies needed to produce tires that would be designed to withstand this kind of loads. All this design was held by 12 huge wheels (their diameter exceeded 3 meters). MAZ-7904 was created as an all-terrain chassis, in this regard, its distinctive feature was the all-wheel drive (12x12 wheel formula), and the ride height was almost half a meter. To implement the all-wheel drive, the on-board method was used (by means of two synchronized hydromechanical gears). And a pair of front, and a pair of rear axles of the conveyor were manageable. This is the guarantee that the turning radius will be limited to 50 m. Two engines also distinguished it from among the analogs. At the first - ship V-shaped 12-cylinder diesel engine M-350 (it was made by the Leningrad PO Zvezda) - the power was 1500 horsepower. It was supplemented by gas turbine supercharging. Thanks to him, the machine itself was brought into motion. Due to the second 330-horsepower diesel V8 YaMZ-328, power was provided for the giant's auxiliary systems. It was supplemented by a turbocharger, which was used for the drive:

• hydraulic steering pumps;
• generators;
• fans;
• compressors of high and low pressure.

Highest level of secrecy

Secret factory testing andrun-in of this unit was accounted for exclusively at the dark time of the day. At the same time, these measures were coordinated with the military. Under their control, the time for running-in was set. For this, the airspace of Soviet Belarus should not have been occupied by Western spy satellites. After rolling the car 547 km along the Minsk environs, it was dismantled, loaded onto a special 12-axle platform and sent to the territory of Kazakhstan (to the cosmodrome of the Baikonur city of the same name).

The reasons for the connection of the giant with Kazakhstan

There were several reasons for this decision. If there is a leak of information clarifying the secret development, then the version of the explanation of its creation will be transportation of a large indivisible unit (or several indivisible blocks) of space rockets (for example, the Energia missile). The second reason was the nature of the true purpose of this machine, and Kazakhstan had a direct connection with it. The military sought to create conditions for a group of 10 such giants to constantly cruise within a closed multi-kilometer route in the middle of the steppes of Kazakhstan. Each of these dozens of chassis had a so-called "house". It looked like a hangar. Within the framework of one of them (and maybe several), it was planned to equip the hangar with a launcher with a rocket. At the same time, it was theoretically assumed that it would be an impossible task for the enemy to find out in which or in what hangars the installation is located. This idea can not be called new at that time. On the territory of the USSR, there was already a single train running, and even their group. He was disguised as a commodity or a passenger train. At the same time, an intercontinental nuclear missile was located inside it, ready to strike back at the Pentagon in any unexpected for the enemy.

Unrealized plans

Positive or negative for the world it is worth calling it an outcome, it is not known, but the idea of ​​such a moving column did not come true.

The only model of this machine could not even be equipped with a hangar.

During the Kazakh tests after passing4100 kilometers (the developed maximum speed was fixed within 27 km / h) revealed the presence of a significant negative moment. The bearing surface was under the influence of excessive specific pressure, and a huge load of 30 tons was directed to each wheel. As a result, it resulted in reduced cross-country ability, rigidity and poor handling. In the case of this ballasted slow-moving car, traffic was possible only within hard road surfaces.

Shaposhnik and in the process of work feared that the huge axial load will provoke the fact that the wheels of the chassis can not fail and not get stuck in the ground.

As a result, at the beginning of 2007 it turned out that afterlong years of storage of the machine in the hangar of the Zenitovsky launch (this area was owned by the civil organization "Design Bureau of Transport Engineering"), it was destroyed under the influence of rust. In 2010, she was cut for scrap metal.