Hello Punu,
Yes,major variants of ASh-82s used turbochargers. The great problem with turbochargers -on the ´30- was its single speed configuration: that means good performance at low altitude only. The critical altitude (where the turbocharger had its best performance) was beetwen 2000 and 3000 meters: over this altitude the engine lost power pretty fast. On the late ’30, new turbocharger types appears: the French invented the Szydlowski-Planiol device (a large single speed turbocharger, much more efficient that all previous boost systems), this improved the critical attitude to 4000 or 6400m on Hispano-Suiza engines, but reduce the performance at low altitude (typical in single speed turbochargers with a high critical altitude). The Americans and Britons used 2 speeds turbochargers to improve low and medium altitude performance, but they wanted to improve high altitude performance too, and developed a two stage system (typically a 2 speeds turbocharger that boost air to an intercooler, and a single speed blower that boost the air from the intercooler to the engine). The supercharger increased the power at all altitudes with a high price: reducing the engine’s TBO (boost pressure was much higher) and reducing the engine’s reliability (About half of the B-29 built during the war were lost, most of them crashed due mechanical failures, engine fires were very common). The Germans had the knowledge to design superchargers, but considered it complicated and unreliable, and fellow a different way to reach similar results: designed very efficient variable speed turbochargers (later models at war reached critical altitudes around 9000m). The Soviets maintain the two speeds turbo, with a not brilliant performance at high altitude (the “Achilles heel” of Soviets fighters). A fighter with an Ash-82 engine had similar to western aircrafts performance below 5000m, but had lower speed over 6000m. That wasn’t a great problem, because the extreme cold temperatures at the Soviet Union skies limited the altitude of the enemy aircrafts (they had a long winter with temps around -60 Celsius over 6000m of altitude…). Nevertheless, the Shvetsov design bureau improved the turbocharger system in the FN and FNU variants: installing two new turbochargers with a better air flow: the critical altitude was lower that previous models (around 5000m), but the engine “retained” more power over the critical altitude. With the FN and FNU engines, the Lavochkin fighters increased the maximum altitude from 8500m to 10500m. In 1950, the Shvetsov design bureau developed an experimental variable speed axial turbocharger for the ASh-4K. This device was comparable to a multiple stage “supercharger” but it wasn't a true one, in any case it dramatically improved high altitude performance: the cruise altitude for these engines was 11000m, and the top altitude was over 12000m (the Tu-4LL testbed arrived to 12000m plenty of power, but cannot exceed this height because it was the aircraft design limit). This axial turbocharger never reached mass-production, because it was complicate to build (needed very precise production techniques and expensive alloys). I’m looking for more information about this device and the Ash-4 at engineering manuals, but my German and Russian language skills are far to be brilliant. ---- Adarech 20:48, 1 February 2009