How was the KT flying tank meant to land?

Short answer

By gliding: the tank would reach the battlefield, shed its wings, and be ready to fight within minutes. The A-40 was the Soviet attempt to have a tank glide to a battlefield after being towed in flight by an aircraft; in 1942 a T-60 was converted into a glider.

Published: November 2, 2026 · Updated: November 2, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

How was the KT flying tank meant to land?

T-60 Kubinka 6Saiga20K (CC BY SA), vía commons

A tank with wings

The Soviet Air Force tasked Oleg Antonov with designing a glider for landing tanks. The A-40 was the Soviet attempt to have a tank reach a battlefield by gliding after being towed in flight by an aircraft. In 1942, a T-60 was converted into a glider, with the intention of towing it using a Petlyakov Pe-8 or a Tupolev TB-3.

The planned landing

The idea was that the tank would glide to the battlefield, shed its wings and be ready to fight within a matter of minutes. At the controls of the A-40 flew Sergei Anokhin, a celebrated Soviet test glider pilot.

A single flight

That flight, the aircraft's only one, took place on 2 September 1942, and the TB-3 bomber had to release the glider in the air. The T-60 generated extreme aerodynamic drag. With no aircraft powerful enough to tow it at the required 160 km/h (99 mph), the project was abandoned.