Moskalyev SAM-9 Strela

The Moskalyev SAM-9 Strela (Arrow) was a one-off, Soviet, 1930s experimental tailless aircraft designed to test the characteristics of a leaf-shaped low-aspect-ratio delta wing.

As early as 1933, Aleksandr Moskalyev was designing a rocket-powered, tailless aircraft with a highly-swept short-span curved delta wing with wingtip fins and rudders, able to fly faster than sound.

[1] The tailless Strela was built to test the behaviour of the SAM-4's radically new wing plan using a highly swept delta with moderately convex leading and trailing edges.

Set at shoulder height, the wing root ran from ahead of the engine to the extreme tail and was fitted with broad-chord elevons equipped with trim tabs.

The Strela's enclosed cockpit was at about mid-chord with a fairing behind it reaching the large, triangular fin with a narrow chord rudder equipped with a trim tab.