Myasishchev M-17 Stratosphera

The Myasishchev M-17 Stratosphera is a Soviet high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft built by the Myasishchev design bureau and given the NATO reporting name Mystic-A. It grew out of Subject 34, a single-seat twin-boom balloon interceptor whose first prototype, nicknamed Chaika, was destroyed in December 1978 when it accidentally lifted off during taxi tests at Kumertau. The design was adapted as a reconnaissance aircraft with a revised airframe, straight tapered wings, a shorter fuselage pod and a single unreheated Kolesov RD-36-51 turbojet. The M-17 prototype first flew on 26 May 1982, at least two were built, and one was later used to study the ozone layer over Antarctica in 1992. The type set twelve FAI world records, five of which still stand, including an altitude of 21,830 metres on 28 March 1990. The M-17 was terminated in 1987 and replaced by the twin-engined M-55 Geophysica.