Wednesday, 16 August 2017

Aviotehas PN-3

Today it's the turn for one of those rare aircraft projects, the Estonian Aviotehas PN-3.
The Aviotehas PN-3 was an Estonian fighter and surveillance airplane of the late 1930s. It was nicknamed as Isamaa Päästja (the savior of the fatherland in Estonian).
It was designed in 1935 by the engineer Küttner, a resident of St. Peterburg who moved to Germany in 1937 and later was completed by Voldemar Post, Rein Tooma and E. Lesta in 1938 and the airplanes made its maiden flight in January 1939.
Only one prototype was built powered by a Rolls-Royce Kestrell engine that featured a top speed of 395km/h (245mph) and fixed landing gear. It was going to be armed with two fixed machine guns in the wings and one flexible defensive machine gun in the back, when flying as a surveillance aircraf. However there were plans to develop an advanced version with retractable landing gear, but the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States in June 1940 stopped any development and it could never enter into mass production.
Regarding the fate of the prototype, it was mobilized in early 1940 but it never could flight and, after the occupation it was taken over by the Soviets who took it to Moscow to test it and it ended as a target for target practice.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviotehas_PN-3
2. https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/PN-3 (translated)

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