Supermarine Spitfire. European Users, part eighteen. Soviet Spitfires.

 

Since June 1941, when Germany invaded the USSR and the Soviets joined the Allies, the USSR showed interest in acquiring the Spitfire. In fact, as early as August 1941, a Soviet test pilot was sent to Great Britain to test the type.

The first Spitfires to fly with the Soviets were of the reconnaissance variant. As early as 1942 three Spitfires PR.IV (a recon variant of the Mk. V) from Royal Air Force's No. 1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit, were left in Vayenga airfield, in Murmansk. In 1943 and 1944, using the same delivery method, the Soviet Northern Fleet acquired five more operational Spitfires PR. IV plus two seriously damaged ones. They were then employed by the 118 ORAP (118th Independent Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment) until 1946.

During early 1943, one hundred and forty-three Spitfire Mk. Vb were delivered to the USSR by road via the Iranian port of Abadan. These aircraft were first assigned to 25 ZAP (25th Reserve Air Regiment), from where they were transferred to at least two fighter regiments on the frontlines.

The first of those Air Regiments was 36 IAP (Fighter Aviation Regiment), which was awarded the title of 'Guards' and was renamed to 57 GIAP (Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment). After several months, however, the Spitfires were withdrawn from front-line regiments, onyl after three months of service, in the Kuban sector, as they were considered unsuitable for use in the front. 
Some Mk. Vs were sent to Moscow's anti-aircraft defence units, where they were employed against Luftwaffe's Junkers Ju.86R, the high-altitude bomber variant of the Junkers Ju.86.

From February 1944 the USSR began to receive the Spitfire Mk. IX. A total of 1.183 LF.IX and two HF.IX were delivered by the end of the war. Some Russian studies point that nine additional Mk. XVI were also delivered in the spring of 1945. 
As we said, after the first experiences in the battlefield with the Mk. V, the Soviet Air Command considered the Spitfire to be unsuitable for frontline use, so almost all those Mk. IXs were assigned to PVO (anti-aircraft defence) units. At the end of the war, twenty-six of eighty-one PVO's regiments were equipped with Spitfires. 
In 1944 out of 5.318 aircraft in PVO's inventory, there were 297 Spitfire Mk. IXs and in 1945 the number rose to 825, out of a total of 5.047 aircraft.

Not very much is known about the combat usage of the Spitfires in the USSR. The only known episode, is the shooting down of a late variant of a Junkers Ju.88 (probably either a Ju. 88S or a Ju. 88T) near Leningrad on 8th March 1945, achieved by two Spitfire Mk. IX pilots: V.  Rybin (from 11 GIAP) and A. Fedotov (from 102 GIAP).

Towards the end of the war, some Spitfires were employed to test a television-guidance system. This worked in such a way that the image of the situation from the ground radar was presented on a screen placed inside the cockpit. Two Mk. IXs from 26 GIAP, flown by Lt. Col. W. Macjewicz and Capt. N. Szczerbina were modified.

In the operational history of the Spitfire in the USSR, the official magazine of the PVO stated the following: "... Although the Spitfire did not leave a significant mark on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, at its end and during the first post-war years, it became irreplaceable in the role of a high-altitude interceptor of the PVO".

After the end of the war, Spitfires remained in PVO's fighter pool until 1947/1948, with the last being withdrawn in 1951. Towards the end of their career in the USSR, they served as a transition aircraft for retraining pilots for jet fighters. This was due to the excellent high-altitude characteristics of the Spitfire, incomparably better than any Soviet piston aircraft. 
An unknown number of Spitfire Mk. IXs were converted to two-seaters, following Soviet doctrine of retraining pilots in two-seater versions of front-line fighters. This conversion has been commonly known as Spitfire Mk. IXUTI.

After the war, several of those Mk. IXUTIs were used to break parachute jump altitude records. On 25th September 1945 V. Romaniuk set a new world altitude record by jumping from a Mk. IXUTI piloted by A. Proshakov, at an altitude of 13.105,5 m.

In addition to unit service, all versions of the Spitfire delivered to the USSR underwent testing in research facilities. 

Also, according to unconfirmed reports, a number of Soviet Spitfires were transferred to Communist China in the early 1950s. This however, is most likely false.

Sources:

1st AJ-Press - Monografie Lotnicze 40 - Supermarine Spitfire Part 3 (translated)

2nd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Supermarine_Spitfire_operators#USSR

Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor. Part Three. Even more foreign Users

 

The Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor was a German four-engined monoplane designed and manufactured by Focke-Wulf which was initially conceived as an airliner. Luftwaffe and Lufthansa were its main users, however, there were many other non German users of the Fw.200:

• USSR: During World War 2, many Fw.200s were captured by the Soviets and push into service with the VVS (Soviet Air Force). The first machine depicted below was captured at Gumrak, Stalingrad, in January 1943. Repainted with Soviet markings, it was evaluated by the NII-VSS (Soviet Air Force's Scientific Test Institute) and it was displayed in Moscow for a brief period of time. Its fate is unknown.
  Many more were captured by the Soviets during the late period of the war. Some of these machines were reconverted Fw.200C bombers turned into airliners during 1944 to serve with Lufthansa in order to evacuate high-ranking officers and personalities from Germany. Due to the constant bombing of Germany, very few machines were reconverted.
  When the Soviet Army conquered Germany, at least three of those repurposed machines were captured and, eventually sent to serve with Aeroflot (Soviet airlines), at the Arctic Sea division. Those three planes were registered as H-400, H-401 and H-500, though it's believed that there could've been a fourth one. 
  Due to the harsh conditions of the Arctic Sea, these machines suffered many breakdowns and failures due to their temperature-sensitive Bramo engines. In fact, H-400 crash-landed on the Polar Circle in April 1946. The other machine, H-401, depicted below, served in the Polar reconnaissance role until 1950, when it was written off. Its fate is unknown, but it was most probably scrapped.
  However, H-500 was assigned to Polar Aviation in as late as 1948. It was under reparation at Factory No. 23 in Moscow and had its original Bramo engines replaced by Russian Shvetsov ASh-62 engines. It's not clear though if the engines were fitted at Factory No.23 or they were replaced in 1950 after a maintenance accident in which an oil cooler was destroyed. Anyway it received the unofficial denomination of Focke-Wulf Mk.200 and it was used to supply remote Arctic scientific outpost until April 1950 when it crash-landed and was damaged beyond reparation at Yakutsk airport, putting an end to the Fw.200 in the USSR.
• Spain: A single unarmed Fw.200C-4 served with the Spanish Air Force, at the Escuela Superior de Vuelo (Superior Air School) in Salamanca, Old Castile. This airplane, serialled T-4.2, based at Bordeaux-Merignac, landed in Seville on 1st January 1943 after having been attacked over Casablanca. It was interned and later bought by the Spanish Air Force.
  Four additional Fw.200s crash-landed in Spain during the war. They were bought by the Spanish authorities, but they were not pushed into service for political reasons and they were used as a source for spare parts. 
  The machine labeled as T-4.2 served until 1950 when it was grounded due to a lack of spare parts.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200_Condor

2. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200 (translated)

3. https://www.luftfahrtmuseum-hannover.de/index.php/en/neuigkeiten-2/aircraft-of-the-month/629-modell-des-monats-januar-2022

4. Osprey Publishing - Combat Aircraft 115 - Fw 200 Condor Units of World War II

Miles M.14 Magister. Part four. More European users

 

The Miles M.14 Magister is a British two-seat elementary trainer aircraft designed and built by British aircraft manufacturer Miles, which was used by many foreign users, among them, the following ones:

• Latvia: The Latvian Aviation Regiment (Latvian Air Force of the 1930s) had two Magisters in strength. When the USSR invaded in June 1940, they were captured and tested by the VVS (Soviet Air Force). Later, in June 1941, when Germany invaded, they were re-captured by the Luftwaffe which employed them in the Sonderstaffel Buschmann. Their ultimate fate is, however, unknown.
• Portugal: The Portuguese Arma da Aeronáutica Militar (Military Aeronautical Arm) operated ten Miles Magister supplied by the British during the World War II. They were in active service as trainers until the early 1950s.
• USSR: The VVS evaluated some ex-Baltic Magister planes for a brief period of time. When Germany invaded, they were re-captured by the Luftwaffe.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Magister

2. http://www.airwar.ru/enc/other2/i17.html (translated - there's a mention both Latvian and Soviet Magisters)

3. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235039699-miles-m14a-magister-estonian-air-force-1938-1940-rs-model-172/

Junkers Ju.52/3m various European Users

 

The Junkers Ju.52/3m is a German cargo aircraft which was widely used all around the globe. It was used, among many other ones, by the following countries:

• Slovak Republic: Two Ju.52/3mg7e were purchased from Germany in 1942 when the Slovak Air Force (SVZ) replaced their old inherited Czechoslovak-made material. They were destined to their flying school. Their fate is not known, but they were most probably destroyed on the ground during an aerial strike. 
• USSR: The Soviet Union employed the Ju.52/3m both before and after World War 2. Before the war, the type was evaluated by the NII-VVS (Soviet Air Force's Technical Research Unit) in 1937. 
  The Soviet State airline, Aeroflot, began operating captured Ju.52/3m on the Perm to Samara aerial route in the summer of 1944. These aircraft were also used to transport sulphur from mines in Central Asia to Soviet factories. Many of them were retrofitted with Soviet RPK-10 radio compasses and remained in active service until the late 1950s.
• Sweden: The Swedish national airline, AB Aerotransport, bought five Ju.52/3m, (according to some sources it was just 5 of them) in 1932. Though the airline's main aircraft was the famous Douglas DC-3, the Ju.52/3m was kept in service for routes from Sweden to Germany. They were extensively used, even during the war years, with neutrality markings. After the War, they served until 1948. 
  In order to prepare the country for a possible invasion during World War 2, the Swedish Air Force hired five Ju.52/3m from Aerotransport which gave them the designation of 'TP-5'. They were employed in many different roles, like cargo, personnel and VIP transport, but also as trainers and some of them were allocated to train the first Swedish paratroopers, though, eventually, they never served as such.
• Yugoslavia: During the very end of World War 2 and the immediate postwar, the Yugoslav Air Force operated some ex-German Ju.52/3m. They were complemented in 1946 with two French-made AAC.1 Toucan which were ordered in late 1945. In 1950 they acquired four more Toucans and two years later they were replaced by the Soviet Lisunov Li-2, the Soviet copy of the Douglas DC-4. The AAC.1s were passed on to JAT, the Yugoslav state airline, which operated the type until 1964. Nowadays one of them is preserved in Belgrade.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Junkers_Ju_52_operators

2. https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABA (translated)

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AB_Aerotransport

4. http://www.vrtulnik.cz/ww2/slovac.htm (translated)

5. http://www.lietadla.com/historia/slov-heinkel.htm (translated)

6. https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2020/04/11/aac-1-toucan-frances-post-wwii-ju-52/

7. https://www.avrosys.nu/aircraft/Transport/255tp5/255Tp5.htm

8. Signal Squadron - Aircraft in Action 186 - Junkers Ju.52 in Action

Messerschmitt Me.262. Part three. - Foreign users part one

On this post, we're going to cover many foreign users of the Messerschmitt Me.262.

• Russian Liberation Army: According to some sources, only one Me.262 served with the Russian Liberation Army Air Force. It was part of the Aufklarungstaffel 3. (3rd recce escadrille) piloted by CO Hptm. Artemejev. The machine was delivered in February 1945, in the airfield Cheb (Eger) in West Bohemia. The fate of the aircraft is unknown, but was most likely destroyed because when the 5. Jagdstaffel of the Russian Liberation Army moved on to the airfield in Nemecky Brod (Deutsch Brod - nowadays Havlickuv Brod) in Eastern Bohemia and by then they didn't have any Me.262 in their inventory.
• USSR: When the war was on its last stages, the Soviet troops managed to capture many Me.262 left over by their previous users. They were sent to the NII-VVS (the test unit of the Soviet Air Force) and were flight-tested both at the end of the war and in its aftermath. It was the main inspiration for the Sukhoi Su-9 (1946).
• United States of America: The USAAF (United States Army Air Force) managed to have some Me.262 in its ranks.
  The Me.262A-1a 'Screamin Meemie' was maybe the most famous case. It was surrendered to American troops in Lechfeld's airfield, in Bavaria and was given to Watson's Whizzers (the USAAF Foreign aircraft test unit). It was nicknamed as 'Screamin Meemie' and sent to the US Navy Flight Test Division where it was used to test the reaction of jet aircraft to a wave off from an aircraft carrier. It was withdrawn from testing and put into storage in 1947, where it stood for ten years. In 1957 it was donated to the USAF's museum where it can be seen nowadays.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_262

2. https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/free-russian-airforce.7574/

3. https://books.google.es/books?id=8dUGAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT16&lpg=PT16&dq=Messerschmitt+Me.262+Screaming+Meemie&source=bl&ots=vAN-ETxH4m&sig=ACfU3U2QpvIoa0V1fpAof1uzjuAePoY0Uw&hl=es&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj_qI2-pvzhAhVVA2MBHUswDx8Q6AEwDHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=Messerschmitt%20Me.262%20Screaming%20Meemie&f=false

4. Salamander Books - The complete book of fighters

Messerschmitt Me.410 - Foreign Users

The Messerschmitt Me.410 (nicknamed "Hornisse" - Hornet) was a German heavy-fighter and fast bomber that was used by the Luftwaffe during the World War II. Although it was basically an improvement of the previous Me.210, it had a completely redesigned wing, longer fuselage and more powerful engines. As the changes were significant enough, it received the designation of Me.410.
It was used by some foreign countries, though the type wasn't exported.

• United Kingdom: There were at least three Me.410 captured by the United Kingdom. One of them was captured at the town of Gerbini, in Sicily, by the British. It was test flown by the No.601 Squadron and then handed over to the American 12th Bomber Group, but it crashed in October 1943 killing the pilot.
  Another one was taken by British Troops in May 1945 that had previously served with the ZG.26. The aircraft and its crew surrendered to British troops at the town of Vaerlose, in Denmark, in May 1945 and became one of the six that were sent to the United Kingdom for evaluation. It was repainted in test colours and assigned to the No. 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight, RAF, the famous "Rafwaffe". It was selected for preservation and is nowadays shown in RAF Cosford.
  
• USSR: After the German retreat, the Soviets captured loads of German material. Among them there were some Me.410B-2/U4 which were distinguishable by the anti-tank cannon at the nose. At least one of them was captured intact and in flying conditions in Poznan in October 1944. It was sent to the USSR ,assigned to the NII-VVS (the aeronautical research section of the Soviet Air Force) and flown by test pilot Maj. Ivan P. Piskunov who was later promoted to Lt. Col. and had the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. It was tested until 1946 and was discarded shortly after.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_410

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._1426_Flight_RAF

3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Messerschmitt Me.163 'Komet' - Foreign users

Germany wasn't the only operator of the Me.163 as it was used, mostly post-war by the following countries.

• United Kingdom: Twenty-one Me.163 were captured by the Royal Air Force at the end of the war but only three of them survived. The one depiceted below was sent to RAE Farnborough, where it was used as a glider, towed by a Spitfire as, apparently, the engine was damaged and couldn't ignite. It was used nonetheless for aerodynamic research and employed in an study for the feasibility of under-carriage-less naval fighters. At the end of the war it was repaired and was flown in different trials until 1947 when it was wrecked in a crash landing accident. 
• France: After the war the United Kingdom sent at least one Me.163 to France as a gift. After being repainted in French markings and tested at the CEV Bretigny. Many of the research made served for the upcoming French rocket-research aircraft like the Leduc 0.21. After testing it was sold to private owners, in this case a company called "Avions Lootrade", where it was employed as an acrobatic aircraft.
• Soviet Union: The USSR managed to capture many Me.163 during 1945 which were sent to the Research Institute for Aeronautics of the Soviet Air Forces (NII-VVS) where they were tested during 1945-1946. They tested not just the regular Me.163B-1b fighter but also the Me.163S version which was a two-seat training version and the aerodynamic research they got was used for later development of the earlier Soviet fighters.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163_Komet

2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Mikoyan-Gurevich I-310

The MiG I-310 was design in 1946 to meet a requeriment issued by Soviet authorities for a high-altittude interceptor. Mikoyan-Gurevich, Lavochkin and Yakovlev competed for the contract, strugling to achieve the mach 0.9 to speed, the high rate of climb to 10000m (32800ft) good maneouvrability at its ceiling and above, minimum of one hour of endurance and it had to be armed with cannons, combining it with the simplicity of design and operation.
The need for a sub-sonic speed required the adoption of a swept wing, and the design team was able to draw on the expertise of Gurevich himself and additional work made by Russian and German engineers. A swept-forward wing configuration was examined but it was quickly discarded in favour of the swept back configuration. It was designed around the RD-10A turbojet engine of 2205lb of thrust, which was based on the German Junkers Jumo 004. However, as the Soviet authorities signed a commercial deal with the United Kingdom, they received the next year 25 Rolls-Royce Nene engines, which was more attractive and was reverse-engineered by Klimov design bureau and was called RD-45. The original imported Nene engines powered all three of the I-310 exemplars.
The layout of the fuselage involved air fed from a bifurcated nose intake via four ducts which passed either side of the cockpit and then over and under the unbroken wing centre section. The wing was swept back at 35 degrees at the leading edge and was built up from two main spars skinned with light alloy. The upper surfaces had two full chord fences on each sides and large Fowler flaps, set at 20 degrees for takeoff and 55 degrees for landing and were attached to the wing, just forward of the trailing edge. The ailerons were the only power-operated aerodynamic controls.
The circular-section fuselage was built in two halves which could be separated by quick-release bolts at the attachment point of the rear-wing spar, leaving the whole engine exposed for maintenance purposes. Air brakes were fitted to both sides of the rear fuselage and tailplane was swept back by 40 degrees and its incidence could be adjusted manually before takeoff. It had also two secondary fuel tanks in the rear fuselage with a capacity of 90 litres (19.8 imp. gal.) each, but the main one was contained in a 1225 litre (269 imp. gal.) fitted between the wing spars. The undercarriage was made wide on purpose to make it able to operate from rough airfields and the levered-suspension mainwheels retracted inwards to lie within the fork of the front main spar.
Avionics for navigation, communications and fire control, shined for its simplicity and correctness when it was tested in combat. A gyro gunsight ,which was copied from the British GGS Mk.2, had a maximum range of 800m was used to aim the two 23mm NS-23KM cannons mounted under the nose. That weapon layout was later replaced with a single 37mm N-37 cannon on the right hand side and a pair of NS-23KM on the left. The wing hardpoints were strengthned to carry up to 500kg (1102lb) of bombs, mounted weapons, rockets or, as it became more usual, auxiliary external fuel tanks.
The I-310 was the first prototype of the MiG-15, designated S-1, and made its maiden flight some time in July 1947 and crashed during low-speed trials. To fix that error many small changes were made like installing wing fences and many changes to the back end. The second, more refined prototype flew for the first time on 30 December 1947, just two months after the prototype of the F-86 Sabre. It showed an exceptional performance reaching 1042 Km. per hour (647mph) at 3000m (9800ft) high and, in March 1948, the I-310 was cleared for mass production under the designation of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15.

Sources:
1. http://all-aero.com/index.php/home2/6774-mikoyan-gurevich-mig-15--i-310
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-15
3. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/808/Mikojan-Gurevic-I-310
4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Beriev Be-4 (KOR-2)

The Beriev Be-4 (which originally was designated as KOR-2) was a Soviet reconnaissance flying boat that operated from Soviet warships during World War II.
Back in 1939, Berive was ordered to design and develop a successor for the promising yet disappointing Beriev Be-2 (KOR-1) which should overcome the numerous problems the Be-2 presented during its operational life.
The new aircraft, which received the internal designation of KOR-2, flew for the first time on 21st October 1940 at Beriev's main factory in Taganrog, Rostov.
It was an elegant, parasol-winged monoplane with a slight inverse-gull wing wing with the engine, a radial Shvetsov M-62 which yielded 1000hp (746Kw) of power, mounted in a nacelle above the fuselage to have enough clearance for the propellers.
The testing process continued through January 1941, when it was ordered to commence its mass manufcaturation, under the designation of Beriev Be-4, however, due to the German invasion of the USSR, in June 1941, only two of them were completed. Due to the war, the factory was dismantled and moved to Omsk first and later, in May 1943, to Krasnoyarsk where production was resumed until late 1945 with a total of 46 or 47 exemplars produced.
It was armed with a fixed forward firing 0.3in (7.62mm) ShKAS machine-gun in the nose and one defensive flexible rearward firing 0.3in ShKAS machine gun placed inside an MV-5 turret. It could carry up to four FAB-100 bombs, depth charges, RS-82 unguided missiles, or four RS-132 unguided missiles.
It served on board every cruiser of the Soviet Black Sea fleet from 1942 where it was used in various roles like coastal reconnaissance (role where it operated also from shore bases under the Soviet Navy command) anti-submarine and even transport duties. It served on board many Soviet cruisers like Maxim Gorki, Kirov, Molotov and Kalinin (among others) during World War II and even during the early post war period when it was gradually being replaced with naval reconnaissance helicopters like the Kamov Ka-8 and Ka-10.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriev_Be-4
2. http://www.airpages.ru/eng/ru/kor2.shtml
3. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/161411

Ilyushin Il-22

As today starts 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, what better than a Russian aircraft to celebrate it?
The Ilyushin Il-22 was a jet bomber aicraft that had the honour of being the first Russian jet-bomber to fly.
Ordered by the council of ministers on 12th February 1946, Ilyushin started to work on a bomber that would be powered by the new TR-1 jet engines. As experiments with jet-powered fighters showed, there were many high speed flight problems, and Ilyushin worked hard to mitigate them. Therefore, in spite of the conventional looking shape of the unswept wing, it was designed to improve lateral stability at high angles of attack and to prevent the onset on tip stall.
It was also discovered that jet fighters unexpectedly dropped a wing at high speed and altitudes. An investigation on this problem traced its roots on manufacturing defects in the wings that made no difference at low speeds and altitudes, but meant that each wing had a slightly different airfoil and therefore, a different amount of lift. In order to counter that problem, Sergey Ilyushin and his team developed a new manufacturing technique which, although it imposed a small weight penalty due to new welding techniques, had the advantage of greatly accelerating the assembly process as the internal equipment could be installed before the halves were joined together, allowing that way to various teams to work on a single sub-assembly before they were mated.
The engines, four Lyul'ka TR-1 with 12,75KN (2870lbf) each, where chosen to be placed ahead and below the wing leading edge in short horizontal pylons, unlike most of the jet-bomber of its time, which had the engines either buried into the fuselage (increasing the risk of a total failure in case of fire, albeit offering better aerodynamical improvements) or having them into nacelles attached directly to the underside of the wing.
The chose configuration proved to be beneficial acting as an anti-flutter weights and proved to be more efficient than underwing nacelles, keeping one of the main advantage of the nacelles, which was the easy access for ground crew to the engines.
As neither fuselage or wings offered enough space to store the main landing gear, the fuselage was designed as flattened oval to give them as wide a track as possible. That fuselage configuration also gave plenty of space to the fuel depots, as it could carry 9300kg (20500lb) of fuel stored in three bags, one placed each ahead, above and behind the bomb bay which had a payload of 300kg (6600lb) of bombs and the nose was rounded and largely glazed (like the Boeing B-29, Heinkel He.111 or Arado Ar.234, among others) to reduce drag.
It had a crew of five, with two pilots in the nose, a bombardier-navigator in front of them, a dorsal gunner who was also the radioman just behind the pilots and the rear-gunner just behind the tail.
It had a defensive armament of a single fixed 23mm (0.91in) Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 autocannon on the lower starboard side of the nose which could be fired by the pilot and was aimed with a rather primitive ring-sight. Dorsal turret was equipped with two 20mm (0.79in) Berezin B-20E guns and was capable of traversing 360º with special microswitches that prevented the gunner from shooting the aircraft tail. It was remotely controlled by the radio operator and was powered by electric motours both for traversing and elevation. A small observation blister was added for the gunner and his gunsight at the rear of the main crew compartment to help laying the guns on their target, and the sight automatically compensated for parallax between the gunner and the turret and also for the required amount of target lead and the shell's ballistics. The remote turret system offered many advantages including a smaller turret which offered less drag, the guns could be fixed more rigidly to their mounts, the sight wasn't exposed to vibrations from firing and could track targets softer and gunner's confort did not have to be sacrificed to better operate the turret.
Anyway, the major disadvantage was that the analog computer remote control system was too complicated for the period and was prone to breaking down, just like the systems present also at the Boeing B-29. The rear gunner was placed behind the tail, at the very end of the fuselage in order to optimize his field of fire in an electro-hydraulically powered Il-KU3 turret which mounted another 23mm NS-23 cannon. That turret could traverse a total of 140º with an elevation of 35º and a depress of 30º.
The prototype was hastly assembled and flew for the first time on 24th July 1947. It showed docile flying characteristics, but it was seriously underpowered as the TR-1 engines provided only 80% of the required thrust. When it was tested by the manufacturers, it made the first ever Soviet jet-assisted takeoff on 7th February 1948 with a pair of SR-2 boosters attached. As thrust engines couldn't be increased in time, Ilyushin decided to no submit the bomber for state acceptance trials as its performance didn't meet the requirements made back in 1946.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-22
2. http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/il-22.php

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-13

Due to the success of the rocket fighters deployed by the Germans in 1944, the Soviets were aware that both British and Americans were working to create rocket fighters of their own, so the Soviets wanted to create the rocket fighters of their own. The Soviet GKO (State Defence Committee) ordered the NKAP (People's Commissariat for Aviation Industry) to centralize jet research under their control and present proposals for a new rocket fighter as soon as possible as the war in 1944 wasn't still over.
Therefore, the NKAP ordered Lavochkin, Sukhoi, Yakovlev and Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) bureaus to design and develop jet aircraft quickly. As they were aware of the problems with other novel propulsion systems, like ramjets, both Sukhoi and MiG chose to use VRDK booster engine that had been in development since 1942.
Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau presented their design, under the internal designation of I-250 which was a low-wing all-metal aircraft with a monocoque fuselage. The design was of a very conventional nature, except for the cockpit which was pushed very far back, almost to the base of the tail. The two spar-wings had a thick of 10% to preserve aileron control to avoid tip stall. They were fitted with Frise ailerons and slotted flaps and there was a fuel tank containing up to 412 litre (91imp. gal., 109 US gal) and a 100 litre (22 imp gal, 26 US gal) tank in each wing. It had a conventional landing gear with a levered suspension that retracted inwards. The tail wheel retracted aft into the small ventral fin.
It was powered by two engines, as the jet engine wasn't enough to achieve the results ordered by the NKAP. A primary 1650hp Klimov VK-107RV-12 propeller engine and the VRDK jet engine. It was armed with three 20mm Berezin B-20 autocannons, two of them fitted to one side each of the nose and a third one firing through the propeller shaft.
Two prototypes were built, the first one armed and the second one unarmed and both were tested until July 1945 when the order for the pre-production aircraft was placed shortly after, in September 1945 at Factory No.381, in Moscow. The order was to have at least five aircraft made by the end of the year, but by December only one of them was delivered as the engines weren't completely ready yet. In spite of the production problems, the aircraft was submitted for state acceptance trials under the designation of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-13 but the production order associated to the tests acceptances with a deadline of 5th July 1946 was stymied again as the airframes were completed but not the engines. On 8th August the first production MiG-13 flew for the first time, but they had some engine seal failures which forced them to make reparations which made it to miss the acceptance trials. Later, on 15th September it was handed to the NII VVS (Air Force Institute)  to finally pass the trials and by October all ten of them (the ones they had been able to fully build, complete with engines) were delivered, although one of them was used as a static engine testbed.
Stalin convined a meeting to settle the dispute of the jet fighters and it was decided that the MiG-9 was going to be the main fighter with the Yakovlev Yak-15 relegated to conversion training and familiarization. Due to the access to both British and German jet engines, there was no longer need for mixed-powered fighters, however Stalin himself demanded the MiG-13 to undergo state acceptance trials and keep both designs and airframes even if the programme was already cancelled.
In May 1947 MiG tried to sell it to the Soviet Navy as an escort for their torpedo bombers, with a revised design with increased fuel capacity, however, as by that date there were far better options available, by 21st January 1948 the MiG-13 was declared not having passed the trials. In total, the MiG-13 flew only for two hours and twenty-five minutes and the VDRK rocket engine was run only run for a minute and half during a ground test.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_I-250
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9, part two

On this post today, we're covering the various variants and prototypes that were made around the MiG-9.

• The MiG-9, which was known internally in OKB as the I-307 was powered by the same two RD-21 engines, like the previous versions. The armament was rearranged in order to solve the gun gas ingestion problem with the N37 mounted on the starboard side of the fuselage and the two NS-23 on the port side, well aft so the gun barrels did not protrude beyond the air intake. Therefore, the cockpit had to be moved forward slightly giving pilot that way better field of view when landing. Internal fuel tanks were reduced to five, but the overall fuel capacity of the fighter remained the same.It flew for the first time in July 1947 but factory test flights weren't completed until early 1948. It failed the state acceptance trials in spite of a top speed of 965Km/h (600mph) at 5000m (16000ft) as apparently the engines continued to flame out if they were run at low rpm at altitudes above 8000m (26000ft) and the mounts for the cannons weren't fully developed and the workmanship of the pressurized cockpit was low. However, the real reason was that the MiG-15, which already under development, was far superior.
• There was a, two-seat trainer version, called I-301T internally and izdeliye FT, which was a converted regular MiG-9 one. Fuel capacity was reduced by a third in order to make room for the second cockpit. Dual controls were fitted as well as an intercom to allow instructor and student to communicate in the air. Each cockpit had ejectable seats designed after the ones used in the German Heinkel He.162 Salamander. It was delivered on 17th January 1947 but it wasn't fully tested until 5th April. Ejection seats weren't tested in mid-air as they required extensive ground-training to ensure proper operation of the seat. It was tested by the state in June, but it was rejected due to poor visibility from the rear cockpit. A second aircraft was made on 15th July, which had better visibility from the rear cockpit as it had removed the original bulletproof windscreen with a larger glass plate, reshaping that way canopy's side panels and removing the partition between cockpits. It was fitted with wing airbrakes and two 260 litres (57 imp. gal - 69 US gal) drop tanks under wingtips. This version passed state acceptance trials in late 1947 and was recommended fro production with the designation of MiG-9UTI. Ejection seats were extensively tested all through 1948 but, as the aircraft was considered obsolete, there was not point in developing a trainer version. Sixty of them were ordered together with two-hundred and fifty regular fighter versions in 1948 but as the aircraft was deemed obsolete, the order was cancelled as the MiG-15 was already pushing forward.
• The MiG-9FK was a modified version made in 1949 to serve as a testbed for the Raduga KS-1 Komet air-launched anti-shipping cruise missile. This version featured a second unpressurized cockpit in line with the trailing edge of the wing for the guidance system operator. It was fitted with two radars, a KM-1 target illumination radar and a prominent bullet-shaped fairing above the air intake plus an aft-looking radar mounted on a cigar-shaped fairing at the top of the vertical-stabilizer. This system was intended to test the mid-course guidance system of the launching aircraft and the guidance systems of the missile. Signals from the KM-1 radar were received in small bullet-shaped fairings on the leading edges of the wings. This aircraft served in this role for four years, until the Raduga KS-1 passed its state acceptance trials in 1952-1953.
• The MiG-9FP was a regular MiG-9 with the N-37 cannon moved to the port side in order to solve the gas ingestion problem, but it seems that it wasn't successful.
• The MiG-9FL was a version powered by two Lyulka TR-1 Turbojet engines instead of the RD-20. These engines, the TR-1, had a power of 1500kgf (15KN, 3300lbf) and were the first jet ones to be natively developed in the USSR. Armament was rearranged as well, with the 23mm cannons moved to each of them to a side of the fuselage and the N-37 still in the centre of the air intake. It had the ammunition for the N-37 increased to 45 rounds. It was intended to have a pressurized cockpit and a reduced overall weight of 4500Kg (9900lb). However, as the engine was not fully developed by 1948 and the MiG-15 was already pushing forward, the variant was discarded.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-9 
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9, part one

Back in February 1945 the Soviet Council of People's Commissars ordered Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau to develop a single-seat jet fighter that was powered by the German BMW 003 engines.As it was intended to destroy strategical bombers, it was going to be heavily armed; its expected armament was a single 57mm (2.2in) or 37mm (1.5in) fast-firing guns plus two 23mm (0.9in) guns. According to the directive, it also had to have a maximum speed of 900km/h (559mph) at sea level and it had to achieve a speed of 910km/h (565mph) at 5000m high (16400ft). It had to climb to that altittude in four minutes or less and had to have a range of 820km (510mi). Three prototypes were ordered with a deadline on 15th March 1946.
The prototype, called I-300 by Mikoyan-Gurevich, had a 'pod-and-boom' configuration as it offered many advantages in landing performance and had better visibility from the cockpit when landing, but it had also some setbacks like the unusual tricycle arrangement landing gear which protected the rear fuselage from the jet exhaust, and where to place the aircraft's armament.
It was an all-metal with unswept mid-mounted wings with two prominents air intakes in the nose. Both spar-wings were equipped with slotted flaps and Frise ailerons. It was powered by two RD-20 turbojets (which were a Soviet copy of the German BMW 003) integrated into the fuselage, with a power of 7.8kN (1754lbf) each of them. A steel laminate heatshield was installed on the bottom of the rear fuselage in order to protect it from the exhaust gasses and the fuselage held four bag-type fuel tanks plus other three in each wing, providing a total internal fuel capacity of 1625L (429US gal) and the cockpit wasn't pressurized.
The construction of the three prototypes began in late 1945 and the first prototype was ready to be tested on 30th December. However it wasn't until 24th April 1946 that it flew for the first time, after luck favoured MiG bureau in the rivalry with Yakovlev to see which one would be the first official Soviet jet aircraft to flight. MiG won the contest and they were awarded with a production contract with production starting in 1946 at the No.1 factory in Kazan.
A total of 598 exemplars were manufactured and they served with the Soviet Air Force from 1946 until 1948 (when they replaced by the better MiG-15) and they served with the Fighter Regiments of the 1st, 7th, 14th, 15th and 16th Air Armies with the 15th and 16th based in Kaliningrad and East Germany respectively. Additionaly, the 177th Fighter Aviation Regiment, of the 303rd Aviation Division, based in Yaroslavl, in the USSR, flew the aircraft in 1949 as an interim fighter before receiving the MiG-15.
The USSR sent six Air Divisions, each of them with two Fighter Regiments, to China in November/December 1950 to defend the air space and train Chinese pilots after the outbreak of the Korean War.
The 17th Guards Fighter Aviation Division was based in Shenyang area, the 20th Fighter Aviation Division was based in Tangshan and the 65th Fighter Aviation Division was based in Guangzhou. Shortly later the 144th Fighter Aviation Division arrived in Shanghai, the 309th Fighter Aviation Division was sent to Gongzhuling and the 328th Fighter Aviation Division was assigned to protect Peking. After the training was completed they handed over the MiG-9s to the 6th, 7th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 17th Fighter Divisions of the, back then, newly created, People's Liberation Army Air Force. They considered to send the MiG-9s to Korea, as the Soviets pressured them, however, after some after battle reports about the performance of the F-86 Sabre and other UN fighters, they considered that it was better to retrain their pilots on the MiG-15 as it was a better adversary for the F-86 Sabre.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-9
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Antonov E-153 & Antonov Masha

And now, we continue with another fighter designed by Antonov, the Antonov Masha, AKA Antonov M.

After the OKB abandoned the Antonov Salamandra, they started working on a lightweight tailless fighter in a flying wing configuration. According to official instructions, it had to be powered by two RD-10 engines which had to be feed by root intakes. The wing had 60º of sweep on the leading edge and had full span flaps plus all-flying forward-swept ailerons, the latter forming the outer-wing sections.
Twin fins were used, mounted at the tips inside the ailerons, and it would've been armed with four 23mm cannons or two 37mm plus two 23mm ones, housed underneath the intake and underneath the nose. It would've had a trycicle undercarriage and was named "Masha" or, abbreviated just M as it was designed by A.A. Batumov and V.A. Dominikovskiy.
It was almost completed when the OKB was told to replace the RD-10 with an RD-45 (a copy of the British Rolls-Royce Nene) in 1947, and that required the airplane to be redesigned. In fact, apart from the forward fuselage, the redesign was almost total and, after some wind tunnel tests, the construction of the prototype proceeded with haste.
The redesigned layout of the fuselage had a new wing with a larger span and area and was, in fact, a delta wing. The root intakes and the tip ailerons were also replaced by elevons. It was stimated that it could've reach 5000m in five minutes, having a service ceiling of 10000m and a range, when flying at 8000 of 620km (385 miles). A 1/10 model was built to check the flying and spinning characteristics and make some performance stimations, but it was impossible to make all that with just a scale model, so it was decided to build a scale mock-up glider, the E-153.

The Antonov E-153 was the designation given to a full-sized glider made out of wood which served also a structural and equipment mock-up for the Antonov Masha. It was to be launched using a dolly as an undercarriage, to be jettisoned after having taken-off, whilst a fixed skid was fitted for landing.
However, in July 1948, shortly before the glider flight test, both Masha and E-153 were terminated by order of the Soviet MAP (the Ministry of Aviation Industry) as they considered that there were already many fighter designs.
When the order was issued, the prototype of the Masha was almost completed and Antonov was disappointed as he thought that the Masha would have been far more maneouvrable than any of the other designs and he felt that it should have flown. There was also potential for radar equipment and for a more powerful engine to be fitted.

Source:
1. Midland Publishing - Soviet Secret Projects - Fighters since 1945

Alekseyev I-212

We continue with our Soviet Alekseyev airplanes, and now it's the turn for the I-212.

The Alekseyev I-212 was a twin-engined jet fighter designed in the USSR in 1947 at the Alekseyev Design Bureau.
It was a twin-seat long-range variant of the I-211, modified in order to achieve better aerodynamical performance. It was intended to be used as an escort, reconnaissance and night fighter.
Even if it's unclear if a prototype was built or not, it's known that, even if it was built, it never was flown.

Designed by Semyon Alekseyev, chief of the newly founded OKB-21 Design Bureau which had the headquarters in Gorky. The aim of this Bureau was to create jet fighter using new, Soviet designed fighters using new engines instead of the old captured World War 2 German ones. The Alekseyev I-21 in every variant was the answer of that Bureau to the requirements of the VVS (Soviet Air Force).

The development of the I-212 began in 1947 as a twin-engined all-metal two-seat jet fighter which featured a round, streamlined fuselage designed to reduce the drag and host the considerable amount of fuel and equipment requested by the VVS. It featured also mid-mounted straight laminar flow wings with nacelles in the middle of the wing and the spars continued by banjo rings around the engines. The tail was cruciform and swept at 45º and, in order to save weight, the main-load bearing structures of the airframe were constructed out of V-95 alluminium alloy and high strength steel. A magnesium alloy, named Elektron, was used for many components and castings and the undercarriage had a trycicle undercarriage and also featured air brakes.

The pilot and the gunner/radio operator sat in tandem back to back in a single pressurized armoured cockpit which featured also ejection seats as well as bullet-proof windscreens. It was going to be powered by two Klimov VK-1 (the Soviet copy of the Rolls-Royce nene) engines but, as they weren't available yet, the Kuznetsov RD-45 were used. It also had a Toryii -1 radar for use by the gunner/radio operator.

It was armed with various guns and cannons, positioned in the nose and in the tail, in a remote-controlled barbette. The cannons placed in the barbette were either two 20mm Berezin B-20 or 23mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 and in the front, were either 23mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23, 37mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 and 45mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-45 in the nose, this is it, two back-firing remote-controlled guns and three (up to four) forward firing one, so it could be safely said that the airplane was heavily armed.
It also featured a single hardpoint under each wing in order to carry either a 500kg bomb under each wing or a drop tank of 550kg of fuel.

A prototype was completed and even started taxiing tests in June 1948 but it seems that it never took-off. It's believed that a training version was also planned, the UTI-212 had it gone into production. It's also doubted that a prototype was even completed, however in a meeting at the Kremlin, Alexander Yakovlev, head designer of the Yakovlev design bureau, who saw the Alekseyev's Bureau as a threat for his own "bussiness" deemed the I-212 as "another copy of the Messerschmitt Me-262 and that comment may have influenced into the decission of Stalin about disbanding the OKB-21, because theoretically it wasn't achieving the objectives set.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alekseyev_I-212
2. Salamander Books - The complete book of fighters (inside the I-215 they refer to the I-212)
3. http://rufor.org/showthread.php?t=25308

Alekseyev I-215

This Sunday we dedicate it to write about a development of the previously posted Alekseyev I-211.

The Alekseyev I-215 was a Soviet fighter which used a license-built Rolls-Royce Derwent engine (the same ones that the Gloster Meteor used), instead of the original Lyulka TR-1. Even if it seemed difficult at first, it proved to be just the opposite, it proved to be very easy to replace the engines and the larger diameter compressor of the Brisith engine forward of the leading edge.

That's why, apart from the engines and the redesigned wings, the I-211 was virtually identical to the I-211 and it was flown for the first time on 31st December 1947.

The Derwent engines gave a thrust of 1590kgp each, solving the lack of power of the I-211 and, as the original I-211 wings started cracking with these new engines, new, more aerodynamical wings replaced the original ones. The central section was also modified in order to strength it up and, when a second prototype, named I-215D, was completed, it featured a bycicle style arrangement for the undercarriage.

It was flown for the first in the spring of 1948 and, it seems that the test results were good enough that the Kremlin gave it the green light to start producing it. However, for reasons that aren't very clear, the OKB-21 (the Alekseyev Design Bureau) was disbanded and the airplanes were never mass-produced.

Sources:
1. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
2. http://survincity.com/2012/05/transformer-alexeev-i-211-215-216-okb-21-fighter/

Alekseyev I-211

We start with a new nation in our symbols: The USSR.

The Alekseyev I-211 was a twin jet-engined soviet fighter developed from 1946 until 1948.

After having worked in the Lavochkin design bureau, the designer Semyon M. Alekseyev received permission to stablish his own design bureau in September 1946.
The first design of this newly stablished bureau was a single-seat fighter powered by two 1365Kgp Lyulka TR-1 axial-flow turbojets. Named the I-211, it had its' maiden flight in the autumn of 1947 but, considering that the engines were only performing at around 70% of their power, even if the handling was highly satifactory.

It was proposed to be armed with three 37mm cannons or two 52mm ones, but, apparently, they were never installed as they were expecting the better TR-1A engines which would be fitted in the second prototype, which was also kwnown as the I-215.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alekseyev_I-21
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters