The ANT-20 was designed by Andrei Tupolev, using German engineer Hugo Junkers' original all-metal aircraft design techniques from 1918. It was constructed between 4 July 1933 and 3 April 1934, and was one of two aircraft of its kind built by the Soviets. The aircraft was named after Maksim Gorki and dedicated to the 40th anniversary of his literary and public activities. The ANT-20 was the largest known aircraft to have used the Junkers aviation firm's design philosophy of corrugated sheet metal for many of the airframe's key components, especially the corrugatedsheet metal skinning of the airframe. It was intended for Stalinistpropaganda purposes and was equipped with a powerful radio set known as the "Voice from the sky", printing machinery, a library, radio broadcasting equipment, a photographic laboratory and a film projector with sound for showing films in flight. In a first in aviation the aircraft was equipped with a ladder which would fold on itself to become part of the floor. The aircraft was the first to use both direct current and alternating current. The aircraft could be dismantled and transported by rail if needed. The aircraft set several carrying-capacity world records and is also the subject of a 1934 painting by Vasily Kuptsov, which is now in the collection of the Russian Museum at Saint Petersburg.
1935 ''Maksim Gorky'' crash
On 18 May 1935, the Maksim Gorky and three more aircraft took off for a demonstration flight over Moscow. The main purpose of the other three aircraft flying so close was to make evident the difference in size. The accompanying I-5fighter piloted by Nikolai Blagin had performed two loop manoeuvres around the Maksim Gorky. On the third loop, they collided. The Maksim Gorky crashed into a low-rise residential neighbourhood west of present-day Sokol metro station. Forty-five people were killed in the crash, including the fighter pilot as well as both crew members and the 33 passengers on the Maksim Gorky, and an additional nine people on the ground.
ANT-20bis
A replacement aircraft, designated ANT-20bis had begun production the following year and first flew in 1938. It was largely identical in design but with six more-powerful Mikulin AM-34FRNV engines. In December 1940, the aircraft was re-engined with two slightly more powerful Mikulin AM-35 engines in the inner positions. This aircraft, designated PS-124 and registered CCCP-L760, served with Aeroflot on transport routes in Russia and Uzbekistan. On 14 December 1942, it crashed after the pilot allowed a passenger to take his seat momentarily and the passenger apparently disengaged the automatic pilot, sending the airplane into a nosedive from an altitude of, killing all 36 on board.
