Petlyakov Pe-2B

This Soviet high-performance light bomber was operational from 1941. Vladimir Petyakov was one of a number of top Soviet aircraft designers who were arrested in 1938 and were allocated the task of developing new combat aircraft in special prisons set up at aircraft factories. His particular responsibility was the VI-100, a fast high-altitude long-range two-seat fighter with pressurized crew accommodation.

While the prototype was being built, its job was changed to high-altitude bombing. It flew for the first time on 7 May 1939, powered by two 1,100 hp M-105R supercharged engines, and had such slim, clean lines that it proved capable of 387mph at 33,000ft. It was less capable as a bomber, as accuracy proved impossible when bombs were dropped from its operating height of over 16,500ft. However, this did not matter as the Soviet High Command had ordered the VI-100s to be redesigned as the PB-100 dive-bomber following the successes achieved by Ju87s in the Spanish Civil War.

The PB-100 prototype flew in early 1940 and was ordered into large-scale production in June. It was now a three seater, with two crew-members under a blister canopy near the glazed nose, and a radio operator/rear gunner in a cramped position in the rear fuselage. The turbochargers that had been fitted to engines of the VI-100 were no longer needed. Weapon load comprised six 220lb bombs in the fuselage bomb-bay, two more under each wing center-section, and two in the rear of the engine nacelles. Two 7.62mm machine guns were carried in the nose and one in the rear of the cabin; another could be fired under the tail by means of a periscope sight.

Production aircraft were designated Pe-2s. A total of 460 had been built by mid-1941, and were already popular with service pilots, who said they were easy to fly, stable in a dive, and accurate in attack. Equally important when Germany invaded Russia, the Pe-2s were found to be as fast as the German Bf109E fighters that attempted to shoot them from the sky. When the Germans introduced the Bf109F, Pe-2s had to fly at anything up to 23,000ft to elude it. Bombing results suffered badly until the observer's flexable 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun in the dorsal turret, the ventral 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun and one of the fixed 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns in the nose were exchanged for 12.7mm Beresin UBT machine guns, after which the dive-bombers could again hold their own in combat.

At the end of 1942, the Luftwaffe replied with the Bf109G-2. The Pe-2s were fitted with engines upgraded to 1,210 or 1,260hp and the airframe was generally cleaned up, to raise their maximum speed by 25mph. Altogether 11,427 were built, remaining in production throughout the war. Variants included about 500 Pe-3 fighters, and Pe-2R reconnaissance aircraft.

Ventral 12.7 mm Beresin UBT machine gun