Cloud4Y has already talked about interesting developed in the USSR. Continuing the topic, let's recall what other projects had good prospects, but for a number of reasons did not receive wide recognition or were shelved altogether.
PFS
During the preparations for the Olympics-80, it was decided to demonstrate to everyone (and first of all to capitalist countries) the modernity of the USSR. And gas stations have become one of the ways to demonstrate the strength and best practices of the country. In Japan, several (according to some reports, 5 or 8, but the figure is inaccurate) gas stations were ordered, which were radically different from the usual gas stations.
The first one was installed on Brovarsky Prospekt in Kyiv, between the Darnitsa and Levoberezhna metro stations. By the way, the gas station works and , although fuel nozzles are no longer fed from above. The rest of the equipment lay idle in the warehouse for a long time, and either rotted or was stolen, but the rest was only enough for one more gas station. She was placed on the Kharkov highway.
They didn't do more of these. However, there were others. For example, in Kuibyshev (now Samara), at the intersection of Moskovsky highway and Revolutionary street, there was a gas station, where fuel was also supplied from above.
On the highway of the Black Sea coast in Nizhnyaya Khobz (near Sochi) there was a gas station-plate. The station was built in 1975 according to the original project, taking into account the nature of the terrain, climatic conditions and is equipped with domestic equipment.
It is a pity that the creative ideas for the design of gas stations ended there. The country was not up to design, so the look of the gas station has not changed much even today. Yes, everything has become more modern and more convenient, but the essence is the same. And what about the registration of filling stations in other countries? Here is a small selection of beautiful gas stations.
Lots of gas station photos
Gas station on the Kharkov highway
Refueling in Sochi now
And here is another unusual gas station. The photo is dated 1977.
POPS Arcadia Route 66 gas station in Oklahoma (USA) can be seen from afar thanks to a giant bottle 20 meters high
The gas station in the American town of Zilla got this shape in honor of the nearby mountain, in the bowels of which oil was extracted. The mountain was called Tipot Dome, which is consonant with the word teapot - that is, a teapot
But such a gas station-hut, as in Canada, will never be built here. She looks like a fire hazard
The gas station from the Slovak town of Matushkovo, built in 2011, also looks interesting. Canopy shapes look like flying saucers
But this "golden gas station" from Iraq will make you feel like King Midas.
Tea set by Malevich
No, he's not black. White. The famous artist came up with a service of an unusual geometric shape. Kazimir spent his whole life looking for new forms, trying to change the idea of how familiar things might look. And in the case of the service, he succeeded.
The creation of the service became possible due to the fact that after the October Revolution, the Imperial Porcelain Factory began to produce porcelain "revolutionary in content, perfect in form and impeccable in technical execution." And he actively attracted avant-garde artists to create new collections.
Malevich's service, consisting of four items, is a vivid example of the implementation of avant-garde ideas in functional items. Four cups are made in the form of simplified hemispheres with rectangular handles. A kettle can be described as a triumph of design over functionality and convenience. Its unusual shape will confuse you.
Malevich's dishes were not comfortable, but the idea itself was more important for the artist. The products of the avant-garde artists did not go into mass production, although the service is still produced at the Imperial Porcelain Factory.
More photos
Lunar base "Zvezda"
The first detailed design of a base on the Moon. The concept of a lunar city was considered in the 1960s and 70s. It was planned to operate the station on the Moon exclusively for scientific purposes, although in fact the base also had a military potential: it could accommodate missile systems and tracking equipment that are inaccessible to earthly weapons. The program reached its final stage, but due to a number of problems, scientists had to curtail the project.
According to the project, the "lunar train" with 4 astronauts on board was to land first on the moon. With the help of the train, the expedition members would conduct a detailed study of the area and begin the construction of a temporary lunar base. With the help of heavy launch vehicles, it was planned to deliver 9 modules to the lunar surface. Each module had a specific purpose: a laboratory, a storage room, a workshop, a galley, a canteen, a first-aid post with a gym, and three living quarters.
The length of the inhabited modules was 8,6 m, diameter - 3,3 m; total mass - 18 tons. A shortened block no more than 4 m long was delivered to the Moon, on the spot. And then, thanks to a metal accordion, it was stretched to the desired length. The interior was supposed to be filled with inflatable furniture, and living cells were designed for two people.
The crews for the lunar ships were selected, flights were planned for the late 1980s. What went wrong? The launch vehicles were up. The program was closed on November 24, 1972, when the fourth launch of the N-1 “lunar rocket” ended in another accident. According to analysts, the cause of the explosions was the inability to coordinate a large number of engines. This was the biggest failure of S.P. Queen. In addition, the designers have calculated that about 50 billion rubles (80 billion dollars) will be required for lunar expeditions, construction and habitation of the lunar base. It was too much. The idea of building a lunar base was shelved until later.
Visualization and drawings
OS DEMOS
Approximately in 1982-1983 at the Institute of Atomic Energy. I. V. Kurchatov brought distributions of the UNIX operating system (v6 and v7). By involving specialists from other organizations in the work, the scientists tried to adapt the OS to Soviet conditions: translate it into Russian and establish compatibility with domestic technology. First of all, with the SM-4 and SM-1420 machines. Localization was carried out by the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Ministry of Automotive Industry.
After the team merged, the project was named DEMOS (Interactive Unified Mobile Operating System). It's funny that it could also be called UNAS, as if opposing the fact that UNIX is “they have”. And the Minavtoprom even called the system MNOS (Machine-Independent Operating System).
The Soviet OS effectively merged two versions of Unix: the 16-bit DEC PDP OS and the 32-bit VAX system. DEMOS worked on both architectures. And when the production of the SM 1700, an analogue of the VAX 730, began at the plant in Vilnius, the DEMOS OS was already installed on it.
In 1985, the DEMOS 2.0 version was released, and in 1988, the developers of the Soviet OS were awarded the Science and Technology Prize of the USSR Council of Ministers. But in the 1990s the project was closed. It's a pity of course. After all, who knows, could our development surpass the enemy product from Microsoft?
More photos
DEMOS developers after the award ceremony
There was even a book on the Soviet OS. And her more buy!
The company named after the created OS survived the USSR
Rodchenko's workspace
The constructivist interior of Alexander Rodchenko, dubbed the "Workers' Club", was exhibited in the USSR Pavilion at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1925. It was the first major international exhibition in which the Soviet Union took part. Rodchenko created a multifunctional space that reflects the ideals of a new society looking to the future. It was believed that the interior would become the basic form of workers' clubs, both in terms of design and planning.
The Workers' Club is not just a room decorated in a constructivist style. It was a real philosophy of creating a space in which Soviet workers could exchange opinions, give speeches, educate themselves, play chess, etc. Following the canons of multifunctionality, the artist created compact objects that could transform into others.
For example, a folding platform could also be a place for lectures, performances, theatrical evenings, and in order to save space, the chess table was made swivel so that the players could change the color of the pieces without getting up. According to Rodchenko, he was guided by the principle "which makes it possible to deploy the object in his work over a large area, as well as compactly fold it when the work is completed."
Four colors were used in the design - gray, red, black and white. Coloring was given great importance - it emphasized the nature of objects and how they were used.
The project received a silver medal, and after the exhibition it was presented to the French Communist Party, so it has never been exhibited in Russia. However, in 2008, German specialists reconstructed the club for their exhibition “From Plane to Space. Malevich and Early Modernism”, and then donated a copy to the Tretyakov Gallery.
More office photos
Underground boat
A dramatic story full of spy passions and mysterious explosions. In the 1930s, engineer Alexander Trebelsky (according to other sources - Trebelev) literally raved about the idea of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbcreating a "subterrine" - a vehicle capable of moving underground like tunneling shields, but at the same time faster, quieter and more useful.
Initially, Trebelevsky tried to create a thermal supercircuit - a device that, if necessary, could heat the outer shell of an underground boat and burn through solid ground. But later he abandoned this idea, inventing a design, the principle of operation of which was borrowed from an ordinary mole. These animals dig the ground by rotating their paws and head, and then push their body through with their hind legs. In this case, the earth is pushed into the walls of the resulting hole.
The underground boat was designed in the same way. A powerful drill was located on the bow, in the middle there were augers that pressed the rock into the walls of the wells, and behind there were four powerful jacks that moved the device forward. With the rotation of the drill at a speed of 300 rpm, the underground boat covered a distance of 10 m in an hour. It seemed to be a success. It turned out that it did.
In 1933, Trebelevsky was arrested by the NKVD because during a trip to Germany he met with a certain engineer and brought drawings from there. It turned out that Trebelevsky borrowed the idea of an underground boat from Horner von Wern and tried to bring it to mind. The drawings settled somewhere in the NKVD. Just like the engineer himself.
The iron mole was remembered again in the 60s: Nikita Khrushchev publicly promised "to get the imperialists not only in space, but also underground." The advanced minds of the USSR were connected to work on the new boat: the Leningrad professor Babaev and even academician Sakharov. The result of painstaking work was a car with a nuclear reactor, controlled by a crew of 5 crew members and capable of carrying a ton of explosives and 15 fighters. The subterrin was tested in the autumn of 1964 in the Urals near Mount Blagodat. The underground boat was named "Battle Mole".
The device penetrated the ground at the speed of a pedestrian, traveled about 15 km and destroyed the enemy's conditional underground bunker. The military and scientists were surprised by the results of the test. They decided to repeat the experiment, but the combat mole exploded underground, killing all the people on board and forever stuck in the bowels of the Ural mountains. What caused the explosion is not known for certain, because all the materials on this incident are still classified as “top secret”. Most likely, the atomic engine of the installation exploded. After the emergency, the decision on the further use of the underground boat was postponed, and then completely curtailed.
More photos
What could a subterrine look like?
Crew equipment
The same mountain where the tests took place
And what interesting, but not "taken off" projects, do you remember?
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Source: habr.com