Aircraft
“Stalin’s Hawks”
Yak-9. Stalin’s Hawk In the continuation war between Finland and the USSR the most common fighters were the Yak series 1-7 and 9, and the Messerschmitt 109 G2 and G6 used by the Finnish Air Force. The planes had structural differences, but generally taken performance was nearly identical. Speed at low level 620640 km/h, but at 6000m and above the…
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B-52 into Service
Development of the B-52 had begun in June 1945 after the AAF had directed Air Materiel Command (AMC) to consider second generation intercontinental bombers eventually to replace the B-36 Peacemaker in post-war service. On 23 November a series of specifications were issued, calling for a bomber with an operating radius…
Tupolev Tu-12 &Â Tu-14
Tu-12 The Tu-12 was the last derivative of the Tu-2, but this was not just another variant of a well-tried theme. It was also, better perhaps, known as the Tu-77, really as a follow-on of the ANT numbering sequence. The VVS gave it the designation Tu-12. The Tu-12 was the…
Dornier 217s with glider bombs
In the summer of 1943, some Dornier 217s were modified to carry air launched guided missiles the first such weapons ever to be used in action. There were two quite different types of missile, though subsequent accounts have frequently confused them or treated them as one. The first of the…
Luftwaffe Raid on Portsmouth, 15 August 1943
Dornier Do.217E-4 Unit: III/KG 2 Dieppe raid, on August 19th, 1942. Dornier Do.217E-4 Unit: 6./KG 2 Summer 1942. Dornier Do.217M Unit: 2./KG 2 Netherlands, Winter 1943-1944. Dornier Do.217M Unit: 9./KG 2 The aircraft equipped with DB.603 engines. I & II./KG2, Oberstleutnant Karl Kessel, CO 18 May 1943 – February 1944…
The I-Go (IJA)
Kawasaki Ki-102 Otsu with Kawasaki I-Go While the IJN put its focus on SAMs, the IJA’s resources went into developing Air-to-Surface missiles (ASMs). The culmination of these developments, begun in 1942 by the Koku Hombu, was the I-Go series of missiles. The majority of the research on the I-Go was…
Early Soviet Jets I
On 2nd April 1946 I. V. Stalin, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, held a briefing on the prospects of Soviet aviation, including jet aircraft development. One of the items on the agenda was the possibility of copying the Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 a fighter, an example of which had…