WWII fighter plane. The best aircraft of World War II: Soviet and German fighters

In World War II, aviation was one of the main branches of the military and played a very important role during the fighting. It is no coincidence that each of the warring parties sought to ensure constant increase combat effectiveness of its aviation by increasing the production of aircraft and their continuous improvement and renewal. As never before, scientific and engineering potential was widely involved in the military sphere; many research institutes and laboratories, design bureaus and testing centers operated, through whose efforts the latest military equipment was created. It was a time of unusually rapid progress in aircraft manufacturing. At the same time, the era of evolution of aircraft with piston engines, which had reigned supreme in aviation since its inception, seemed to be ending. The combat aircraft of the end of the Second World War were the most advanced examples of aviation technology created on the basis of piston engines.

A significant difference between the peacetime and war periods of the development of combat aviation was that during the war the effectiveness of equipment was determined directly by experiment. If in peacetime military specialists and aircraft designers, ordering and creating new aircraft models, relied only on speculative ideas about the nature of a future war or were guided by limited experience of local conflicts, then large-scale military operations dramatically changed the situation. The practice of air combat has become not only a powerful catalyst in accelerating the progress of aviation, but also the only criterion when comparing the quality of aircraft and choosing the main directions for further development. Each side improved its aircraft based on its own experience in combat operations, the availability of resources, the capabilities of technology and the aviation industry as a whole.

During the war years, a large number of aircraft were created in England, the USSR, the USA, Germany and Japan, which played a significant role in the armed struggle. Among them there are many outstanding examples. A comparison of these machines is of interest, as is a comparison of the engineering and scientific ideas that were used in their creation. Of course, among the numerous types of aircraft that took part in the war and represented different schools of aircraft construction, it is difficult to single out the undeniably best. Therefore, the choice of cars is to some extent conditional.

Fighters were the main means of gaining air superiority in the fight against the enemy. The success of combat operations of ground troops and other types of aviation and the safety of rear facilities largely depended on the effectiveness of their actions. It is no coincidence that it was the fighter class that developed most intensively. The best of them are traditionally called the Yak-3 and La-7 (USSR), North American P-51 Mustang (Mustang, USA), Supermarine Spitfire (England) and Messerschmitt Bf 109 ( Germany). Among the many modifications of Western fighters, the P-51D, Spitfire XIV and Bf 109G-10 and K-4 were selected for comparison, that is, those aircraft that were mass-produced and entered service with the military. air force at the final stage of the war. All of them were created in 1943 - early 1944. These vehicles reflected the wealth of combat experience already accumulated by that time by the warring countries. They became, as it were, symbols of military aviation equipment of their time.

Before you compare different types fighters, it is worth saying a little about the basic principles of comparison. The main thing here is to keep in mind those conditions combat use for which they were created. The war in the East showed that in the presence of a front line, where the main force of armed struggle is ground troops, aviation was required to have relatively low flight altitudes. The experience of air battles on the Soviet-German front shows that the vast majority of them were fought at altitudes of up to 4.5 km, regardless of the altitude of the aircraft. Soviet designers, while improving fighter aircraft and engines for them, could not help but take this circumstance into account. At the same time, the English Spitfires and American Mustangs were distinguished by their higher altitude, since the nature of the actions for which they were designed was completely different. In addition, the P-51D had a much longer range to escort heavy bombers and was therefore significantly heavier than Spitfires, German Bf 109s and Soviet fighters. Thus, since British, American and Soviet fighters were created for different combat conditions, the question of which of the machines as a whole was the most effective loses its meaning. It is advisable to compare only the main technical solutions and features of the machines.

The situation is different with German fighters. They were intended for air combat on both the Eastern and Western fronts. Therefore, they can quite reasonably be compared with all Allied fighters.

So what made the best fighters of World War II stand out? What was their fundamental difference from each other? Let's start with the main thing - with the technical ideology laid down by the designers in the designs of these aircraft.

The most unusual in terms of the concept of creation were, perhaps, the Spitfire and the Mustang.

“It’s not just a good plane, it’s a Spitfire!” - this assessment by the English test pilot G. Powell undoubtedly applies to one of the last fighting versions of the fighter of this family - the Spitfire XIV, the best fighter of the British air force during the war. It was the Spitfire XIV that shot down the German Me 262 jet fighter in an air battle.

When creating the Spitfire in the mid-30s, the designers tried to combine seemingly incompatible things: high speed, characteristic of the high-speed monoplane fighters that were then coming into use, with excellent maneuverability, altitude and takeoff and landing characteristics inherent in biplanes. The goal was largely achieved. Like many other high-speed fighters, the Spitfire had a cantilever monoplane design with well-streamlined shapes. But this was only an external resemblance. For its weight, the Spitfire had a relatively large wing, which gave a small load per unit of bearing surface, much less than that of other monoplane fighters. Hence, excellent maneuverability in the horizontal plane, high ceiling and good takeoff and landing properties. This approach was not something exceptional: Japanese designers, for example, did the same. But the creators of the Spitfire went further. Due to the high aerodynamic drag of a wing of such significant size, it was impossible to count on achieving a high maximum flight speed - one of the most important indicators of the quality of fighter aircraft of those years. To reduce drag, they used profiles with a much smaller relative thickness than other fighters and gave the wing an elliptical planform. This further reduced aerodynamic drag when flying at high altitude and in maneuver modes.

The company managed to create an outstanding combat aircraft. This does not mean that the Spitfire was without any shortcomings. They were. For example, due to the low wing load, it was inferior to many fighters in terms of acceleration properties during a dive. It responded more slowly in roll to the pilot’s actions than German, American, and especially Soviet fighters. However, these shortcomings were not fundamental, and in general the Spitfire was undoubtedly one of the strongest air combat fighters, which demonstrated excellent qualities in action.

Among the many variants of the Mustang fighter, the greatest success fell on the planes equipped with English Merlin engines. These were the P-51B, C and, of course, the P-51D - the best and most famous American fighter of the Second World War. Since 1944, it was these aircraft that ensured the safety of heavy American B-17 and B-24 bombers from attacks by German fighters and demonstrated their superiority in battle.

The main distinguishing feature of the Mustang in terms of aerodynamics was the laminar wing, which was installed on a combat aircraft for the first time in world aircraft manufacturing practice. Special mention should be made about this “highlight” of the aircraft, born in the laboratory of the American NASA research center on the eve of the war. The fact is that the opinion of experts regarding the advisability of using a laminar wing on fighters of that period is ambiguous. If before the war high hopes were placed on laminar wings, since under certain conditions they had less aerodynamic drag compared to conventional ones, then the experience with the Mustang diminished the initial optimism. It turned out that in real operation such a wing is not effective enough. The reason was that to implement laminar flow on a part of such a wing, very careful surface finishing and high precision in maintaining the profile were required. Due to the roughness that arose when applying protective paint to the aircraft, and even slight inaccuracies in the profiling that inevitably appeared in mass production (slight undulations of thin metal skin), the effect of laminarization on the P-51 wing was greatly reduced. In terms of their load-bearing properties, laminar profiles were inferior to conventional ones, which caused difficulties in ensuring good maneuverability and takeoff and landing properties.

At low angles of attack, laminar wing profiles (sometimes called laminated) have less aerodynamic drag than conventional airfoils.

In addition to lower resistance, laminar profiles had better speed properties - with equal relative thickness, the effects of air compressibility (wave crisis) appeared in them at higher speeds than on conventional profiles. This had to be taken into account even then. When diving, especially at high altitudes, where the speed of sound is significantly less than that of the ground, aircraft began to reach speeds at which features associated with approaching the speed of sound already appeared. It was possible to increase the so-called critical speed either by using higher speed profiles, which turned out to be laminar, or by reducing the relative thickness of the profile, while putting up with the inevitable increase in the weight of the structure and a reduction in wing volumes, often used (including on the P-51D) for placement of gas tanks and. Interestingly, due to the much smaller relative thickness of the profiles, the wave crisis on the Spitfire wing occurred at a higher speed than on the Mustang wing.

Research at the English aviation research center RAE showed that, due to the significantly smaller relative thickness of the wing profiles, the Spitfire fighter at high speeds had a lower aerodynamic drag coefficient than the Mustang. This was explained by the later manifestation of the wave flow crisis and its “softer” nature.

If air battles were fought at relatively low altitudes, the crisis phenomena of air compressibility almost did not manifest themselves, so the need for a special high-speed wing was not acutely felt.

The path to creating the Soviet Yak-3 and La-7 aircraft turned out to be very unusual. Essentially, they were deep modifications of the Yak-1 and LaGG-3 fighters, developed in 1940 and mass-produced.

In the Soviet Air Force at the final stage of the war there was no fighter more popular than the Yak-3. At that time it was the lightest fighter aircraft. The French pilots of the Normandie-Niemen regiment, who fought on the Yak-3, spoke about its combat capabilities this way: “The Yak-3 gives you complete superiority over the Germans. On the Yak-3, two people can fight against four, and four can fight against sixteen!”

A radical redesign of the Yak design was undertaken in 1943 with the goal of dramatically improving flight characteristics with a very modest power plant power. The decisive direction in this work was to lighten the aircraft (including by reducing the wing area) and significantly improve its aerodynamics. Perhaps this was the only opportunity to qualitatively promote the aircraft, since the Soviet industry had not yet mass-produced new, more powerful engines suitable for installation on the Yak-1.

Such a path of development of aviation technology, extremely difficult to implement, was extraordinary. The usual way to improve the complex of aircraft flight characteristics then was to improve aerodynamics without noticeable changes in the dimensions of the airframe, as well as to install more powerful engines. This was almost always accompanied by a noticeable weight gain.

The designers of the Yak-3 coped with this difficult task brilliantly. It is unlikely that in aviation during the Second World War one can find another example of similar and so effectively completed work.

The Yak-3, compared to the Yak-1, was much lighter, had a smaller relative profile thickness and wing area, and had excellent aerodynamic properties. The aircraft's power supply has increased significantly, which has dramatically improved its rate of climb, acceleration characteristics and vertical maneuverability. At the same time, such an important parameter for horizontal maneuverability, takeoff and landing as the specific wing load has changed little. During the war, the Yak-3 turned out to be one of the easiest fighters to pilot.

Of course, in tactical terms, the Yak-3 did not at all replace aircraft that were distinguished by stronger weapons and a longer combat flight duration, but perfectly complemented them, embodying the idea of ​​a light, high-speed and maneuverable air combat vehicle, designed primarily to combat fighters enemy.

One of the few, if not the only fighter with an air-cooled engine, which can rightfully be considered one of the best air combat fighters of the Second World War. Using the La-7, the famous Soviet ace I.N. Kozhedub shot down 17 German aircraft (including the Me-262 jet fighter) out of 62 he destroyed on La fighters.

The history of the La-7 is also unusual. At the beginning of 1942, on the basis of the LaGG-3 fighter, which turned out to be a rather mediocre combat vehicle, the La-5 fighter was developed, which differed from its predecessor only in the power plant (the liquid-cooled engine was replaced with a much more powerful two-row “star”). During the further development of the La-5, the designers focused on its aerodynamic improvement. During the period 1942-1943. La brand fighters were the most frequent “guests” in the full-scale wind tunnels of the leading Soviet aviation research center TsAGI. The main purpose of such tests was to identify the main sources of aerodynamic losses and determine design measures that help reduce aerodynamic drag. An important feature of this work was that the proposed design changes did not require major alterations to the aircraft or changes in the production process and could be carried out relatively easily by serial factories. It was truly “jewelry” work, when seemingly mere trifles produced a rather impressive result.

The fruit of this work was the La-5FN, which appeared at the beginning of 1943 - one of the strongest Soviet fighters of that time, and then the La-7 - an aircraft that rightfully took its place among the best fighters of the Second World War. If, during the transition from the La-5 to the La-5FN, an increase in flight performance was achieved not only due to better aerodynamics, but also thanks to a more powerful engine, then the improvement in the characteristics of the La-7 was achieved solely by means of aerodynamics and a reduction in the weight of the structure. This plane had a speed of 80 km/h more than the La-5, of which 75% (that is, 60 km/h) was due to aerodynamics. Such an increase in speed is equivalent to an increase in engine power by more than a third, without increasing the weight and dimensions of the aircraft.

The best features of an air combat fighter were embodied in the La-7: high speed, excellent maneuverability and rate of climb. In addition, compared to the other fighters discussed here, it had greater survivability, since only this aircraft had an air-cooled engine. As is known, such motors are not only more viable than liquid-cooled engines, but also serve as a kind of protection for the pilot from fire from the front hemisphere, since they have large cross-sectional dimensions.

The German fighter Messerschmitt Bf 109 was created around the same time as the Spitfire. Like the English aircraft, the Bf 109 became one of the most successful examples of a combat vehicle during the war and went through a long path of evolution: it was equipped with more and more powerful engines, improved aerodynamics, operational and aerobatic characteristics. In terms of aerodynamics, the biggest changes last time were carried out in 1941, when the Bf 109F appeared. Further improvement of flight data was achieved mainly through the installation of new engines. Externally, the latest modifications of this fighter - the Bf 109G-10 and K-4 - differed little from the much earlier Bf 109F, although they had a number of aerodynamic improvements.

This aircraft was the best representative of the light and maneuverable combat vehicle of Hitler's Luftwaffe. Throughout almost the entire Second World War, Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters were among the best examples of aircraft in their class, and only towards the end of the war did they begin to lose their position. It turned out to be impossible to combine the qualities inherent in the best Western fighters, designed for relatively high combat altitudes, with the qualities inherent in the best Soviet “medium-altitude” fighters.

Like their English colleagues, the designers of the Bf 109 tried to combine a high maximum speed with good maneuverability and takeoff and landing qualities. But they solved this problem in a completely different way: unlike the Spitfire, the Bf 109 had a large specific wing load, which made it possible to achieve high speed, and to improve maneuverability they used not only the well-known slats, but also flaps, which at the right time the battle could be deviated by the pilot at a small angle. The use of controlled flaps was a new and original solution. To improve takeoff and landing characteristics, in addition to automatic slats and controlled flaps, hovering ailerons were used, which worked as additional sections of flaps; A controlled stabilizer was also used. In short, the Bf 109 had a unique system of direct lift control, largely characteristic of modern aircraft with their inherent automation. However, in practice, many of the designers' decisions did not take root. Due to the complexity, it was necessary to abandon the controlled stabilizer, hovering ailerons, and flap release system in combat. As a result, in terms of its maneuverability, the Bf 109 was not very different from other fighters, both Soviet and American, although it was inferior to the best domestic aircraft. The takeoff and landing characteristics turned out to be similar.

The experience of aircraft construction shows that the gradual improvement of a combat aircraft is almost always accompanied by an increase in its weight. This is due to the installation of more powerful and therefore heavier engines, an increase in fuel reserves, an increase in the power of weapons, the necessary structural reinforcements and other related measures. Eventually there comes a time when the reserves of a given design are exhausted. One of the limitations is the specific wing load. This, of course, is not the only parameter, but one of the most important and common to all aircraft. Thus, as Spitfire fighters were modified from variant 1A to XIV and Bf 109 from B-2 to G-10 and K-4, their specific wing load increased by about a third! Already the Bf 109G-2 (1942) had 185 kg/m2, while the Spitfire IX, which was also released in 1942, had about 150 kg/m2. For the Bf 109G-2, this wing load was close to the limit. With its further growth, the flight, maneuverability and takeoff and landing characteristics of the aircraft sharply deteriorated, despite the very effective mechanization of the wing (slats and flaps).

Since 1942, German designers have been improving their best air combat fighter under very strict weight restrictions, which greatly limited the possibilities for qualitative improvement of the aircraft. But the creators of the Spitfire still had sufficient reserves and continued to increase the power of the installed engines and strengthen the weapons, without particularly taking into account the increase in weight.

The quality of their mass production has a great influence on the aerodynamic properties of aircraft. Careless manufacturing can negate all the efforts of designers and scientists. This doesn't happen very rarely. Judging by captured documents, in Germany, at the end of the war, conducting a comparative study of the aerodynamics of German, American and British fighters, they came to the conclusion that the Bf 109G had the worst quality of production workmanship, and, in particular, for this reason its aerodynamics turned out to be the worst, that with a high probability can be extended to the Bf 109K-4.

From the above it is clear that in terms of the technical concept of creation and aerodynamic design features, each of the compared aircraft is completely original. But they also have a lot common features: well-streamlined shapes, careful engine bonneting, well-developed local aerodynamics and aerodynamics of cooling devices.

As for the design, Soviet fighters were much simpler and cheaper to produce than British, German and, especially, American cars. Scarce materials were used in very limited quantities. Thanks to this, the USSR was able to ensure a high rate of aircraft production in conditions of severe material restrictions and a lack of qualified labor. It must be said that our country finds itself in the most difficult situation. From 1941 to 1944 inclusively, a significant part of the industrial zone, where many metallurgical enterprises were located, was occupied by the Nazis. Some factories were evacuated inland and production was set up in new locations. But a significant part of the production potential was still irretrievably lost. In addition, a large number of skilled workers and specialists went to the front. They were replaced at the machines by women and children who could not work at the appropriate level. And yet, the aircraft industry of the USSR, although not immediately, was able to meet the needs of the front for aircraft.

Unlike all-metal Western fighters, Soviet cars Oh wood was widely used. However, metal was used in many of the power elements, which actually determined the weight of the structure. That is why, in terms of weight perfection, the Yak-3 and La-7 were practically no different from foreign fighters.

In terms of technological sophistication, ease of access to individual units and ease of maintenance in general, the Bf 109 and Mustang looked somewhat preferable. However, Spitfires and Soviet fighters were also well adapted to combat conditions. But according to these very important characteristics, both the quality of equipment and the level of automation, the Yak-3 and La-7 were inferior to Western fighters, the best of which in terms of the degree of automation were German aircraft (not only the Bf 109, but also others).

The most important indicator of an aircraft’s high flight performance and its combat effectiveness as a whole is the power plant. It is in aircraft engine building that the latest achievements in the field of technology, materials, control systems and automation are primarily implemented. Engine building is one of the most knowledge-intensive branches of the aircraft industry. Compared to an airplane, the process of creating and fine-tuning new engines takes much longer and requires more effort.

During the Second World War, England occupied a leading position in aircraft engine building. It was the Rolls-Royce engines that equipped the Spitfires and best options"Mustangs" (P-51B, C and D). It can be said without exaggeration that it was the installation of the English Merlin engine, which was produced in the USA under license by Packard, that made it possible to realize the great capabilities of the Mustang and brought it into the category of elite fighters. Before this, the P-51, although original, was a rather mediocre aircraft in terms of combat capabilities.

A feature of English engines, which largely determined their excellent characteristics, was the use of high-grade gasoline, the nominal octane number of which reached 100-150. This made it possible to apply a greater degree of air pressurization (more precisely, the working mixture) into the cylinders and thereby obtain greater power. The USSR and Germany could not meet the aviation needs for such high-quality and expensive fuel. Typically, gasoline with an octane rating of 87-100 was used.

A characteristic feature that united all the engines that were installed on the compared fighters was the use of two-speed drive centrifugal superchargers (MCP), providing the required altitude. But the difference between Rolls-Royce engines was that their superchargers had not one, as usual, but two successive compression stages, and even with intermediate cooling of the working mixture in a special radiator. Despite the complexity of such systems, their use turned out to be completely justified for high-altitude motors, since it significantly reduced the loss of power spent by the motor on pumping. This was a very important factor.

The original was the injection system of the DB-605 engines, driven through a turbo coupling, which, under automatic control, smoothly adjusted the gear ratio from the engine to the supercharger impeller. Unlike the two-speed drive superchargers found on Soviet and British engines, the turbo coupling made it possible to reduce the drop in power that occurred between pumping speeds.

An important advantage of German engines (DB-605 and others) was the use of direct fuel injection into the cylinders. Compared to a conventional carburetor system, this increased the reliability and efficiency of the power plant. Of the other engines, only the Soviet ASh-82FN, which was installed on the La-7, had a similar direct injection system.

A significant factor in increasing the flight performance of the Mustang and Spitfire was that their engines had relatively short-term operating modes at high power. In combat, the pilots of these fighters could for some time use, in addition to the long-term, that is, nominal, either combat (5-15 minutes), or in emergency cases, emergency (1-5 minutes) modes. Combat, or, as it was also called, military mode, became the main mode for engine operation in air combat. The engines of Soviet fighters did not have high-power modes at altitude, which limited the possibility of further improving their flight characteristics.

Most versions of the Mustangs and Spitfires were designed for high combat altitudes, characteristic of aviation operations in the West. Therefore, their engines had sufficient altitude. German engine builders were forced to solve a complex technical problem. Given the relatively high design altitude of the engine required for air combat in the West, it was important to provide the necessary power at low and medium altitudes required for combat operations in the East. As is known, a simple increase in altitude usually leads to increasing power losses at low altitudes. Therefore, the designers showed a lot of ingenuity and used a number of extraordinary technical solutions. In terms of its height, the DB-605 motor occupied an intermediate position between English and Soviet engines. To increase power at altitudes below the design one, the injection of a water-alcohol mixture (MW-50 system) was used, which made it possible, despite the relatively low octane number of the fuel, to significantly increase the boost, and, consequently, the power without causing detonation. The result was a kind of maximum mode, which, like the emergency mode, could usually be used for up to three minutes.

At altitudes above the calculated one, the injection of nitrous oxide (GM-1 system) could be used, which, being a powerful oxidizer, seemed to compensate for the lack of oxygen in a rarefied atmosphere and made it possible to temporarily increase the altitude of the engine and bring its characteristics closer to those of Rolls engines. Royce. True, these systems increased the weight of the aircraft (by 60-120 kg) and significantly complicated the power plant and its operation. For these reasons, they were used separately and were not used on all Bf 109G and K.

A fighter's weaponry has a significant impact on its combat effectiveness. The aircraft in question differed greatly in the composition and arrangement of weapons. If the Soviet Yak-3 and La-7 and the German Bf 109G and K had a central location of weapons (cannons and machine guns in the forward part of the fuselage), then the Spitfires and Mustangs had them located in the wing outside the area swept by the propeller. In addition, the Mustang had only large-caliber machine gun armament, while other fighters also had cannons, and the La-7 and Bf 109K-4 had only cannon armament. In the Western Theater of Operations, the P-51D was intended primarily to combat enemy fighters. For this purpose, the power of his six machine guns turned out to be quite sufficient. Unlike the Mustang, the British Spitfires and the Soviet Yak-3 and La-7 fought against aircraft of any purpose, including bombers, which naturally required more powerful weapons.

Comparing the wing and central weapons installations, it is difficult to answer which of these schemes was the most effective. But still, Soviet front-line pilots and aviation specialists, like the German ones, preferred the central one, which ensured the greatest accuracy of fire. This arrangement turns out to be more advantageous when an enemy aircraft is attacked from extremely short distances. And this is exactly how Soviet and German pilots usually tried to act on the Eastern Front. In the West, air battles were fought mainly at high altitudes, where the maneuverability of fighters deteriorated significantly. Get close to the enemy close quarters it became much more difficult, and with bombers it was also very dangerous, since the fighter’s sluggish maneuver made it difficult to evade the fire of air gunners. For this reason, they opened fire from a long distance and the wing-mounted weapon, designed for a given range of destruction, turned out to be quite comparable to the central one. In addition, the rate of fire of weapons with a wing configuration was higher than that of weapons synchronized for firing through a propeller (cannons on the La-7, machine guns on the Yak-3 and Bf 109G), the weapons were close to the center of gravity and ammunition consumption had virtually no effect on its position. But one drawback was still organically inherent in the wing design - an increased moment of inertia relative to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, which caused the fighter's roll response to the pilot's actions to deteriorate.

Among the many criteria that determined the combat effectiveness of an aircraft, the most important for a fighter was the combination of its flight data. Of course, they are important not on their own, but in combination with a number of other quantitative and qualitative indicators, such as stability, flight properties, ease of operation, visibility, etc. For some classes of aircraft, training ones, for example, these indicators are of paramount importance. But for combat vehicles of the last war, it was the flight characteristics and weapons that were decisive, representing the main technical components of the combat effectiveness of fighters and bombers. Therefore, the designers sought first of all to achieve priority in flight data, or rather in those of them that played a primary role.

It is worth clarifying that the words “flight data” mean a whole range of important indicators, the main of which for fighters were maximum speed, rate of climb, range or time of sortie, maneuverability, ability to quickly gain speed, and sometimes service ceiling. Experience has shown that the technical perfection of fighter aircraft cannot be reduced to any one criterion, which would be expressed in a number, formula, or even an algorithm designed for implementation on a computer. The question of comparing fighters, as well as finding the optimal combination of basic flight characteristics, still remains one of the most difficult. How, for example, can you determine in advance what was more important - superiority in maneuverability and practical ceiling, or some advantage in maximum speed? As a rule, priority in one comes at the expense of the other. Where is the “golden mean” that gives the best fighting qualities? Obviously, a lot depends on the tactics and nature of the air war as a whole.

It is known that the maximum speed and rate of climb significantly depend on the operating mode of the engine. Long-term or nominal mode is one thing, and extreme afterburner is quite another. This is clearly seen from a comparison of the maximum speeds of the best fighters in the final period of the war. The presence of high-power modes significantly improves flight characteristics, but only for a short time, since otherwise the motor may be destroyed. For this reason, a very short-term emergency mode of operation of the engine, which provided the greatest power, was not considered at that time the main one for the operation of the power plant in air combat. It was intended for use only in the most emergency, deadly situations for the pilot. This position is well confirmed by an analysis of the flight data of one of the last German piston fighters - the Messerschmitt Bf 109K-4.

The main characteristics of the Bf 109K-4 are given in a fairly extensive report prepared at the end of 1944 for the German Chancellor. The report covered the state and prospects of German aircraft manufacturing and was prepared with the participation of the German aviation research center DVL and leading aviation companies such as Messerschmitt, Arado, Junkers. In this document, which has every reason to be considered quite serious, when analyzing the capabilities of the Bf 109K-4, all its data provided correspond only to the continuous operation mode of the power plant, and the characteristics at maximum power mode are not considered or even mentioned. And this is not surprising. Due to thermal overloads of the engine, the pilot of this fighter, when climbing at maximum take-off weight, could not use even the nominal mode for a long time and was forced to reduce speed and, accordingly, power within 5.2 minutes after take-off. When taking off with less weight the situation did not improve much. Therefore, it is simply not possible to talk about any real increase in the rate of climb due to the use of an emergency mode, including the injection of a water-alcohol mixture (MW-50 system).

The above graph of the vertical rate of climb (in fact, this is the rate of climb characteristic) clearly shows what kind of increase the use of maximum power could provide. However, such an increase is more of a formal nature, since it was impossible to climb in this mode. Only at certain moments of the flight could the pilot turn on the MW-50 system, i.e. extreme power boost, and even then when the cooling systems had the necessary reserves for heat removal. Thus, although the MW-50 boost system was useful, it was not vital for the Bf 109K-4 and therefore it was not installed on all fighters of this type. Meanwhile, the press publishes data on the Bf 109K-4, corresponding specifically to the emergency regime using the MW-50, which is completely uncharacteristic of this aircraft.

The above is well confirmed by combat practice at the final stage of the war. Thus, the Western press often talks about the superiority of Mustangs and Spitfires over German fighters in the Western theater of operations. On the Eastern Front, where air battles took place at low and medium altitudes, the Yak-3 and La-7 were beyond competition, which was repeatedly noted by pilots of the Soviet Air Force. And here is the opinion of the German combat pilot V. Wolfrum:

The best fighters I encountered in combat were the North American Mustang P-51 and the Russian Yak-9U. Both fighters had a clear performance advantage over the Me-109, regardless of modification, including the Me-109K-4

Assessing the decisive role of aviation as the main strike force in the struggle for the spread of Bolshevism and the defense of the state, in the very first five-year plan the leadership of the USSR set a course for creating its own, large and autonomous military force from other countries. air fleet.

In the 20s, and even in the early 30s, USSR aviation had a fleet of aircraft, mostly foreign-made (only Tupolev aircraft appeared - ANT-2, ANT-9 and its subsequent modifications, which becamesubsequently the legendary U-2, etc.). The aircraft that were in service with the Red Army were of many brands, had outdated designs and poor technical condition. In the 20s, the USSR purchased a small number of German aircraft of the Junkers type and a number of other types for service air routes of the North / research of the Northern Sea Route / and the performance of government special flights. It should be noted that civil aviationin the pre-war period it practically did not develop, with the exception of the opening of a number of unique “demonstration” airlines or occasional flights of ambulance and service aviation.

During the same period, the era of airships ended, and the USSR builtin the early 30s, successful designs of “soft” (frameless) airships of the “B” type. Digression, it should be noted about the development of this type V aeronautics abroad.

In Germany, the famous rigid airshipdesign "Count Zeppepelin" explored the North, was equipped with cabins for passengers, had a significant flight range and quitehigh cruising speed / up to 130 km/h or more, providedseveral motors designed by Maybach. There were even several on board the airship dog sled as part of expeditions to the North. The American airship "Akron" is the largest in the world, with a volume of 184 thousand cubic meters. m carried 5-7 aircraft on board and transported up to 200 passengers, not counting several tons of cargo over a distance of up to 17 thousand km. without landing. These airships were already safe, because... were filled with the inert gas helium, and not hydrogen as at the beginning of the century. Low speed, low maneuverability, high cost, complexity of storage and maintenance predetermined the end of the era of airships. Experiments with balloons also came to an end, which proved the latter’s unsuitability for active combat operations. A new generation of aviation with new technical and combat performance was needed.

In 1930, our Moscow Aviation Institute was created - after all, the replenishment of factories, institutes and design bureaus of the aviation industry with experienced personnel was of decisive importance. The old cadres of pre-revolutionary education and experience were clearly not enough; they were thoroughly eliminated and were in exile or in camps.

Already by the Second Five-Year Plan (1933-37), aviation workers had a significant production base, the basis for the further development of the air force fleet.

In the thirties, by order of Stalin, demonstration, but in fact test, flights of bombers “camouflaged” as civilian aircraft were carried out. The aviators Slepnev, Levanevsky, Kokkinaki, Molokov, Vodopyanov, Grizodubova and many others distinguished themselves.

In 1937, Soviet fighter aircraft underwent combat tests in Spain and demonstrated technical inferiority. AircraftPolikarpov (type I-15,16) were defeated by the latest German machines. The race for survival began again. Stalin gave the designersindividual assignments for new aircraft models, widely and generouslyThere were bonuses and benefits - the designers worked tirelessly and demonstrated a high level of talent and preparedness.

At the March 1939 Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilovnoted that, compared to 1934, the Air Force has grown in its personalis 138 percent...The aircraft fleet as a whole has grown by 130 percent.

Heavy bomber aircraft, which were assigned the main role in the upcoming war with the West, doubled in 4 years, while other types of bomber aircraft, on the contrary, decreased by half. Fighter aircraft increased two and a half times. Altitudeaircraft already amounted to 14-15 thousand m. The technology for the production of aircraft and engines was put on stream, stamping and casting were widely introduced. The shape of the fuselage changed, the aircraft acquired a streamlined shape.

The use of radios on board aircraft began.

Before the war, great changes took place in the field of aviation materials science. In the pre-war period there was a parallel development of heavy aircraft of all-metal construction with duralumin skinand light maneuverable aircraft of mixed structures: wood, steel,canvas. As the raw material base expanded and the aluminum industry developed in the USSR, aluminum alloys found increasing use in aircraft construction. There was progress in engine construction. The M-25 air-cooled engines with a power of 715 hp and the M-100 water-cooled engines with a power of 750 hp were created.

At the beginning of 1939, the USSR government convened a meeting in the Kremlin.

It was attended by leading designers V.Ya. Klimov, A.A. Mikulin,A.D. Shvetsov, S.V. Ilyushin, N.N. Polikarpov, A.A. Arkhangelsky, A.S. Yakovlev, head of TsAGI and many others. The People's Commissar of the aviation industry at that time was M.M. Kaganovich. Possessing a good memory, Stalin was quite well aware of the design features aircraft, all important issues regarding aviation were decided by Stalin. The meeting outlined measures for the further accelerated development of aviation in the USSR. Until now, history has not conclusively refuted the hypothesis of Stalin’s preparation for an attack on Germany in July 1941. It was on the basis of this assumption about the planning of Stalin’s attack on Germany (and further for the “liberation” of Western countries), adopted at the “historic” plenum of the CPSU Central Committee in August 1939 and this fact, incredible for that (or any other) time, of the sale of advanced German equipment and technology to the USSR seems explainable. A large delegation of Sovietaviation workers, who traveled to Germany twice shortly before the war, got their hands on fighters, bombers, guidance systems, and much more, which made it possible to sharply advance the level of domestic aircraft production. A decision was made to increase the combat power of aviation, since it was from August 1939 The USSR began covert mobilization and prepared strikes against Germany and Romania.

Mutual exchange of information on the state of the armed forces of the three states (England, France and the USSR), represented in Moscow in August1939, i.e. before the start of the partition of Poland, showed that the numberThere are 2 thousand first-line aircraft in France. Of these, twothirds were completely modern aircraft. By 1940, it was planned to increase the number of aircraft in France to 3000 units. Englishaviation, according to Marshal Burnet, had about 3,000 units, and the potential production was 700 aircraft per month.German industry underwent mobilization only at the beginning1942, after which the number of weapons began to increase sharply.

Of all the domestic fighter aircraft ordered by Stalin, the most successful variants were the LAGG, MiG and YAK.The IL-2 attack aircraft delivered a lot to its designer Ilyushinneniya. Manufactured initially with rear hemisphere protection (double)he, on the eve of the attack on Germany, did not suit the customers of hiswastefulness.” S. Ilyushin, who did not know all of Stalin’s plans, was forced to change the design to a single-seat version, i.e., bring the design closer to the “clear sky” plane. Hitler violated Stalin’s plans and at the beginning of the war the plane urgently had to be returned to its original design.

On February 25, 1941, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution "Onreorganization of the aviation forces of the Red Army." The resolution provided for additional measures to re-equip air units. In accordance with the plans for a future war, the task was set to urgently form new air regiments, and, at the same time, equip them, as a rule, with new machines. The formation of several airborne corps began.

The doctrine of war on “foreign territory” and “little bloodshed” causedthe emergence of a “clear sky” aircraft intended for the unpunishedraids on bridges, airfields, cities, factories. Before the war, hundreds of thousands

young men were preparing to transfer to a new one, developed by the post-Stalincompetition, the SU-2 aircraft, of which it was planned to produce 100-150 thousand units before the war. This required accelerated training of the corresponding number of pilots and technicians. SU-2 is essentially a Soviet Yu-87, and in Russia it did not stand the test of time, because There was never a “clear sky” for either country during the war.

Air defense zones with fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft artillery were formed. An unprecedented recruitment into aviation began, voluntarily andforcibly. Almost all of the small civil aviationwas mobilized into the Air Force. Dozens of aviation schools were opened, incl. ultra-accelerated (3-4 months) training, traditionally, the officers at the helm or control handle of the aircraft were replaced by sergeants - an unusual fact and evidence of haste in preparing for war. Airfields were urgently moved to the borders (about 66 airfields), supplies of fuel, bombs, and shells were imported. Carefully and raids on German airfields and the Ploieşti oil fields were detailed in special secrecy...

On June 13, 1940, the Flight Test Institute was formed(LII), during the same period other design bureaus and research institutes were formed.In the war with the Soviet Union, the Nazis assigned a special role to theiraviation, which by this time had already gained complete dominance inair in the West. Basically a plan for the use of aviation in the Eastplanned the same as the war in the West: first to conquer the dominantin the air, and then transfer forces to support the ground army.

Outlining the timing of the attack on the Soviet Union, Hitler's commandThe operation set the following tasks for the Luftwaffe:

1.Destroy Soviet airfields with a surprise attackSoviet aviation.

2.Achieve complete air supremacy.

3. After solving the first two tasks, switch aviation to support ground forces directly on the battlefield.

4. Disrupt the work of Soviet transport, complicate the transfertroops both in the front line and in the rear.

5. Bombard large industrial centers - Moscow, Gorky, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Kharkov, Tula.

Germany dealt a crushing blow to our airfields. Only for 8Hours of the war, 1,200 aircraft were lost and mass casualties occurred.flight personnel, storage facilities and all supplies were destroyed. Historians noted the strange “crowding” of our aviation at the airfields the day beforewar and complained about the “mistakes” and “miscalculations” of the command (i.e. Stalin)and assessment of events. In fact, “crowding” foreshadows plansa super-massive strike on targets and confidence in impunity, which did not happen. The Air Force flight personnel, especially the bomber ones, suffered heavy losses due to the lack of support fighters; the tragedy of the death of perhaps the most advanced and powerful air fleet inhistory of mankind, which had to be revived again under the blows enemy.

It must be admitted that the Nazis managed to largely implement their plans for an air war in 1941 and the first half of 1942. Almost all available forces were thrown against the Soviet Union G Hitler's aviation, including units removed from the Western Front. Atit was assumed that after the first successful operations part of the bombsarmored and fighter formations will be returned to the Westfor the war with England. At the beginning of the war, the Nazis had not only quantitative superiority. Their advantage was also the fact that the pilotsthe personnel who took part in the air attack have already been seriouslynew fighting school with French, Polish and English pilots. Onthey also had a fair amount of experience interacting with their troops,acquired in the war against Western European countries.Old types of fighters and bombers, such as the I-15,I-16, SB, TB-3 could not compete with the latest Messerschmitts and"Junkers". Nevertheless, in the unfolding air battles, even on the lipsnew types of aircraft, Russian pilots caused damage to the Germans. From 22June to July 19, Germany lost 1,300 aircraft only battles

Here is what the German General Staffist Greffath writes about this:

" Behind period from June 22 to July 5, 1941 German air Force lost 807 aircraft of all types, and during the period from July 6 to July 19 - 477.

These losses indicate that despite the surprise achieved by the Germans, the Russians were able to find the time and strength to provide decisive resistance ".

On the very first day of the war, fighter pilot Kokorev distinguished himself by ramming an enemy fighter, the crew’s feat is known to the whole worldGastello ( latest research This fact suggests that the ramming crew was not Gastello’s crew, but was the crew of Maslov, who flew with Gastello’s crew to attack enemy columns), who threw his burning car onto a concentration of German equipment.Despite the losses, the Germans in all directions brought everything into battlenew and new fighters and bombers. They abandoned the front4940 aircraft, including 3940 German, 500 Finnish, 500 Romanianand achieved complete air supremacy.

By October 1941, the Wehrmacht armies approached Moscow and were busycities supplying components for aircraft factories, the time has come to evacuate the factories and design bureaus of Sukhoi, Yakovlev and others in Moscow, Ilyushin inVoronezh, all factories in the European part of the USSR demanded the evacuation.

Aircraft production in November 1941 decreased by more than three and a half times. Already on July 5, 1941, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to evacuate from the central regions of the country part of the equipment of some aircraft equipment factories in order to duplicate their production in Western Siberia, and After some time, a decision had to be made to evacuate the entire aviation industry.

On November 9, 1941, the State Defense Committee approved schedules for the restoration and relaunch of evacuated factories and production plans.

The task was not only to restore aircraft production,but also to significantly increase their quantity and quality. In December 1941The aircraft production plan was completed in less than 40 years.percent, and motors - only 24 percent.In the most difficult conditions, under bombs, in the cold, cold of Siberian wintersbackup factories were launched one after another. They were refined and simplified.technologies, new types of materials were used (without compromising quality), women and teenagers took over the machines.

Lend-Lease supplies were also of no small importance for the front. Throughout the Second World War, aircraft supplied 4-5 percent of the total production of aircraft and other weapons produced in the USA. However, a number of materials and equipment supplied by the USA and England were unique and indispensable for Russia (varnishes, paints, other chemicals substances, devices, tools, equipment, medicines, etc.) that cannot be characterized as “insignificant” or secondary.

The turning point in the work of domestic aircraft factories came around March 1942. At the same time, the combat experience of our pilots grew.

Between November 19 and December 31, 1942 alone, the Luftwaffe lost 3,000 combat aircraft in the battles for Stalingrad. Our aviation becameact more actively and showed all its combat power in the NorthCaucasus. Heroes of the Soviet Union appeared. This title was awardedboth for downed aircraft and for the number of combat sorties.

In the USSR, the Normandie-Niemen squadron was formed, staffed by French volunteers. The pilots fought on Yak aircraft.

Average monthly production of aircraft rose from 2.1 thousand in 1942 to 2.9 thousand in 1943. Total industry in 1943produced 35 thousand aircraft, 37 percent more than in 1942.In 1943, factories produced 49 thousand engines, almost 11 thousand more than in 1942.

Back in 1942, the USSR surpassed Germany in the production of aircraft - the heroic efforts of our specialists and workers and the “complacency” or unpreparedness of Germany, which did not mobilize industry in advance for war conditions, had an impact.

In the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943, Germany used significant quantities of aircraft, but the power of the Air Force for the first time ensured air supremacy. For example, in just one hour on one day of the operation, a force of 411 aircraft was struck, and so on in three waves during the day.

By 1944, the front received about 100 aircraft daily, incl. 40 fighters.The main combat vehicles were modernized. Aircraft withimproved combat qualities of the YAK-3, PE-2, YAK 9T, D, LA-5, IL-10.German designers also modernized the aircraft."Me-109F,G,G2", etc.

By the end of the war, the problem of increasing the range of fighter aircraft arose; airfields could not keep up with the front. Designers proposed installing additional gas tanks on airplanes, and jet weapons began to be used. Radio communications developed, and radar was used in air defense. Bomb strikes became more and more intense. So, on April 17, 1945, bombers 18 air army in the Königsbergaz area, 516 sorties were carried out in 45 minutes and 3,743 bombs were dropped with a total weight of 550 tons.

In the air battle for Berlin, the enemy took part in 1,500 combat aircraft based at 40 airfields near Berlin. This is the most intense air battle in history, and it should be taken into account highest level combat training of both sides.InThe Luftwaffe was fought by aces who shot down 100,150 or more aircraft (record300 downed combat aircraft).

At the end of the war, the Germans used jet aircraft, which were significantly faster than propeller-driven aircraft in speed - (Me-262, etc.). However, this did not help. Our pilots in Berlin flew 17.5 thousand combat sorties and completely destroyed the German air fleet.

Analyzing military experience, we can conclude that our aircraft, developed in the period 1939-1940. had constructive reserves for subsequent modernization. Along the way, it should be noted that in the USSR not all types of aircraft were accepted for service. For example, in October 1941, production of MiG-3 fighters was stopped, and in 1943, IL-4 bombers.

The USSR aviation industry produced 15,735 aircraft in 1941. In the difficult year of 1942, during the evacuation of aviation enterprises, 25,436 aircraft were produced, in 1943 - 34,900 aircraft, in 1944 - 40,300 aircraft, in the first half of 1945, 20,900 aircraft were produced. Already in the spring of 1942, all factories evacuated from the central regions of the USSR beyond the Urals and to Siberia, they fully mastered the production of aviation equipment and weapons. Most of these factories in new locations in 1943 and 1944 produced products several times more than before the evacuation.

The successes of the rear made it possible to strengthen the country's air force. By early 1944, the Air Force And grounded 8818 combat aircraft, and German - 3073. In terms of the number of aircraft, the USSR exceeded Germany by 2.7 times. By June 1944, the German Air Forcehad only 2,776 aircraft at the front, and our Air Force - 14,787. By the beginning of January 1945, our Air Force had 15,815 combat aircraft. The design of our aircraft was much simpler than that of American, German or British aircraft. This partly explains such a clear advantage in the number of aircraft. Unfortunately, it is not possible to compare the reliability, durability and strength of our and German aircraft, as well as to analyze the tactical and strategic use of aviation in the war of 1941-1945. Apparently, these comparisons would not be in our favor and would conditionally reduce such a striking difference in numbers. However, perhaps, simplifying the design was the only way out in the absence of qualified specialists, materials, equipment and other components for the production of reliable and high-quality equipment in the USSR, especially since, unfortunately, in Russian army traditionally they hire by number, not by skill.

Aircraft weapons were also improved. in 1942, a large-caliber 37 mm aircraft gun was developed, later it appearedand a 45 mm cannon.

By 1942, V.Ya. Klimov developed the M-107 engine to replace the M-105P, adopted for installation on water-cooled fighters.

Greffoat writes: “Relying on the fact that the war with Russia, like the war in the West, would be lightning fast, Hitler intended, after achieving the first successes in the East, to transfer bomber units, as well asthe required number of aircraft back to the West. In the East they mustair connections intended for directsupport for German troops, as well as military transport units and a number of fighter squadrons..."

German aircraft created in 1935-1936 at the beginning of the war no longer had the possibility of radical modernization. According to the German General Butler "The Russians had the advantage that in the production of weapons and ammunition they took into account all the featuresconducting the war in Russia and ensuring maximum simplicity of technology. As a result of this, Russian factories produced a huge amount of weapons, which were distinguished by their great simplicity of design. Learning to wield such a weapon was relatively easy... "

Second World War fully confirmed the maturity of domestic scientific and technical thought (this ultimately ensured the further acceleration of the introduction of jet aviation).

Nevertheless, each country followed its own path in designing airplanes.

The aviation industry of the USSR produced 15,735 aircraft in 1941. In the difficult year of 1942, during the evacuation of aviation enterprises, 25,436 aircraft were produced, in 1943 - 34,900 aircraft, for1944 - 40,300 aircraft, 20,900 aircraft were produced in the first half of 1945. Already in the spring of 1942, all factories evacuated from the central regions of the USSR to the Urals and Siberia had fully mastered the production of aviation equipment and weapons. Most of these factories moved to new locations in 1943 and 1944 years they produced several times more production than before the evacuation.

Germany had, in addition to its own resources, the resources of the conquered countries. In 1944, German factories produced 27.6 thousand aircraft, and our factories produced 33.2 thousand aircraft in the same period. In 1944, aircraft production was 3.8 times higher than the 1941 figures.

In the first months of 1945, the aircraft industry prepared equipment for the final battles. Thus, the Siberian Aviation Plant N 153, which produced 15 thousand fighters during the war, transferred 1.5 thousand modernized fighters to the front in January-March 1945.

The successes of the rear made it possible to strengthen the country's air force. By the beginning of 1944, the Air Force had 8,818 combat aircraft, and the German - 3,073. In terms of the number of aircraft, the USSR exceeded Germany by 2.7 times. By June 1944, the German Air Forcehad only 2,776 aircraft at the front, and our Air Force - 14,787. By the beginning of January 1945, our Air Force had 15,815 combat aircraft. The design of our aircraft was much simpler than the American and Germanor English cars. This partly explains such a clear advantage in the number of aircraft. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make a comparison of the reliability, durability and strength of our and German aircraft, andalso analyze the tactical and strategic use of aviation in the war of 1941-1945. Apparently these comparisons would not be inour benefit and would conditionally reduce such a striking difference in numbers. However, perhaps, simplifying the design was the only way out in the absence of qualified specialists, materials, equipment and other components for the production of reliable and high-quality equipment in the USSR, especially since, unfortunately, in the Russian army they traditionally hire by “numbers”, not by skill .

Aircraft weapons were also improved. In 1942, a large-caliber 37 mm aircraft gun was developed, and later a 45 mm caliber gun appeared. By 1942, V.Ya. Klimov developed the M-107 engine to replace the M-105P, adopted for installation on water-cooled fighters.

The fundamental improvement of the aircraft is its conversionchanging from a propeller to a jet. To increase flight speeda more powerful engine is installed. However, at speeds above 700 km/hspeed increase from engine power cannot be achieved. Outputhouse from the position is the use of jet traction. Appliesturbojet/turbojet/ or liquid jet/LPRE/ engine.the second half of the 30s in the USSR, England, Germany, Italy, later - inThe United States was intensively creating a jet aircraft. In 1938, jets appearedhighest in the world, German jet engines BMW, Junkers. In 1940the first Campini-Capro jet aircraft made test flightsneither", created in Italy, later the German Me-262, Me-163 appearedXE-162. In 1941, the Gloucester aircraft with a jet was tested in Englandengine, and in 1942 they tested a jet aircraft in the USA - "Irokometh". In England, the twin-engine jet aircraft "Me" was soon createdtheor", who took part in the war. In 1945, on the Me planeTheor-4" set a world speed record of 969.6 km/h.

In the USSR in the initial period practical work on the creation of reacttive engines was carried out in the direction of the liquid rocket engine. Under the leadershipS.P.Koroleva, A.F.Tsander, designers A.M.Isaev, L.S.DushkindevelopedThe first domestic jet engines were built. Pioneer turbojeakA.M.Lyulka became the first ative engine.At the beginning of 1942, G. Bakhchivandzhi made the first flight on a rockettive domestic aircraft. Soon this pilot diedduring aircraft testing.Work on the creation of a jet aircraft for practical useresumed after the war with the creation of the Yak-15, MiG-9 using non-German JUMO jet engines.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the Soviet Union entered the war with numerous, but technically backward fighter aircraft. This backwardness was, in essence, an inevitable phenomenon for a country that had only recently embarked on the path of industrialization, which Western European states and the United States followed in the 19th century. By the mid-20s of the 20th century, the USSR was an agricultural country with a half-illiterate, mostly rural population and a tiny percentage of engineering, technical and scientific personnel. Aircraft manufacturing, engine manufacturing and non-ferrous metallurgy were in their infancy. Suffice it to say that in Tsarist Russia they did not produce ball bearings and carburetors for aircraft engines, aircraft electrical equipment, control and aeronautical instruments at all. Aluminum, wheel tires and even copper wire had to be purchased abroad.

Over the next 15 years, the aviation industry, along with related and raw materials industries, was created practically from scratch, and simultaneously with the construction of the largest air force in the world at that time.

Of course, with such a fantastic pace of development, serious costs and forced compromises were inevitable, because it was necessary to rely on the available material, technological and personnel base.

The most complex knowledge-intensive industries—engine building, instrument making, and radio electronics—were in the most difficult situation. It must be admitted that the Soviet Union was unable to overcome the gap from the West in these areas during the pre-war and war years. The difference in the “starting conditions” turned out to be too great and the time allotted by history was too short. Until the end of the war, we produced engines created on the basis of foreign models purchased back in the 30s - Hispano-Suiza, BMW and Wright-Cyclone. Their repeated forcing led to overstressing of the structure and a steady decrease in reliability, and to bring our own promising developments, as a rule, it was not possible. The exception was the M-82 and its further development, the M-82FN, which gave birth to perhaps the best Soviet fighter of the war, the La-7.

During the war years, the Soviet Union was unable to establish serial production of turbochargers and two-stage superchargers, multifunctional propulsion automation devices similar to the German “Kommandoherat”, powerful 18-cylinder air-cooled engines, thanks to which the Americans crossed the milestone of 2000, and then at 2500 hp. Well, by and large, no one in our country was seriously involved in work on water-methanol boosting of engines. All this greatly limited aircraft designers in creating fighters with higher performance characteristics than the enemy.

No less serious restrictions were imposed by the need to use wood, plywood and steel pipes instead of scarce aluminum and magnesium alloys. The irresistible weight of the wooden and mixed construction forced us to weaken the weapons, limit the ammunition load, reduce the fuel supply and save on armor protection. But there was simply no other way out, because otherwise it would not have been possible to even bring the flight data of Soviet aircraft closer to the characteristics of German fighters.

For a long time, our aircraft industry compensated for the lag in quality through quantity. Already in 1942, despite the evacuation of 3/4 of the aircraft industry's production capacity, the USSR produced 40% more combat aircraft than Germany. In 1943, Germany made significant efforts to increase the production of combat aircraft, but nevertheless the Soviet Union built 29% more of them. Only in 1944, the Third Reich, through the total mobilization of the resources of the country and occupied Europe, caught up with the USSR in the production of combat aircraft, but during this period the Germans had to use up to 2/3 of their aviation in the West, against the Anglo-American allies.

By the way, we note that for each combat aircraft produced in the USSR there were 8 times fewer machine tools, 4.3 times less electricity and 20% fewer workers than in Germany! Moreover, more than 40% of workers in the Soviet aviation industry in 1944 were women, and over 10% were teenagers under 18 years of age.

The given figures indicate that Soviet aircraft were simpler, cheaper and more technologically advanced than German ones. Nevertheless, by the middle of 1944, their best models, such as the Yak-3 and La-7 fighters, surpassed German aircraft of the same type and contemporary ones in a number of flight parameters. The combination of fairly powerful engines with high aerodynamic and weight efficiency made it possible to achieve this, despite the use of archaic materials and technologies designed for simple conditions production, outdated equipment and low-skilled workers.

It can be argued that the named types in 1944 accounted for only 24.8% of the total production of fighter aircraft in the USSR, and the remaining 75.2% were older types of aircraft with worse flight characteristics. We can also recall that in 1944 the Germans were already actively developing jet aviation, having achieved considerable success in this. The first samples of jet fighters were put into mass production and began to arrive in combat units.

Nevertheless, the progress of the Soviet aircraft industry during the difficult war years is undeniable. And his main achievement is that our fighters managed to recapture from the enemy low and medium altitudes, at which attack aircraft and short-range bombers operated - the main striking force of aviation on the front line. This ensured the successful combat operation of the Ilovs and Pe-2s against German defensive positions, force concentration centers and transport communications, which, in turn, contributed to the victorious offensive of the Soviet troops at the final stage of the war.

War creates a need unprecedented in peacetime. Countries compete to create the next most powerful weapon, and engineers sometimes resort to intricate methods to design their killing machines. Nowhere was this more evident than in the skies of World War II: daring aircraft designers invented some of the strangest aircraft in human history.

At the beginning of World War II, the German Imperial Air Ministry stimulated the development of a tactical reconnaissance aircraft to provide information support for army operations. Two companies responded to the task. Focke-Wulf modeled a fairly standard twin-engine airplane, while Blohm & Voss miraculously came up with one of the most unusual aircraft at that time - the asymmetrical BV 141.

Although at first glance it may seem that this model was dreamed up by delirious engineers, it successfully served certain purposes. By removing the skin from the right side of the aircraft, the BV 141 gained an incomparable field of view for the pilot and observers, especially to the right and front, since the pilots were no longer encumbered by the huge engine and spinning propeller of a familiar single-engine aircraft.

The design was developed by Richard Vogt, who realized that the aircraft of that time already had, in fact, asymmetrical handling characteristics. With a heavy engine in the nose, the single-engine airplane experienced high torque, requiring constant attention and control. Vogt sought to compensate for this by introducing an ingenious asymmetrical design, creating a stable reconnaissance platform that was easier to fly than most of her airliner contemporaries.

Luftwaffe officer Ernst Udet praised the aircraft during a test flight at speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour. Unfortunately for Blohm & Voss, Allied bombing seriously damaged one of Focke-Wulf's main factories, forcing the government to devote 80 percent of Blohm & Voss' production area to building Focke-Wulf aircraft. Since the company's already tiny staff began to work for the benefit of the latter, work on the “BV 141” was stopped after the production of only 38 copies. All of them were destroyed during the war.

Another unusual Nazi project, the Horten Ho 229, was launched almost before the end of the war, after German scientists had improved jet technology. By 1943, Luftwaffe commanders realized that they had made a huge mistake by refusing to produce a long-range heavy bomber like the American B-17 or the British Lancaster. To remedy the situation, the commander-in-chief of the German air force, Hermann Goering, put forward the “3x1000” requirement: to develop a bomber capable of transporting 1000 kilograms of bombs over a distance of 1000 kilometers at a speed of at least 1000 kilometers per hour.

Following orders, the Horten brothers began designing a "flying wing" (a type of aircraft without a tail or fuselage, like later stealth bombers). In the 1930s, Walter and Reimar experimented with similar types of gliders, which demonstrated superior handling characteristics. Using this experience, the brothers built an unpowered model to support their bomber concept. The design impressed Goering, and he transferred the project to the aircraft manufacturing company “Gothaer Waggonfaebrik” for mass production. After some modifications, the Horten airframe acquired a jet engine. It was also converted into a fighter to support the needs of the Luftwaffe in 1945. They managed to create only one prototype, which at the end of the war was placed at the disposal of the Allied forces.

At first, “Ho 229” was viewed simply as an outlandish trophy. However, when a stealth bomber of a similar design, the B-2, entered service, aerospace experts became interested in the stealth characteristics of its German ancestor. In 2008, Northrop Grumman engineers recreated a copy of the Ho 229 based on a surviving prototype housed in the Smithsonian Institution. By emitting radar signals at frequencies used during World War II, experts discovered that the Nazi aircraft actually had a lot to do with stealth technology: it had much lower radar signature compared to its combat contemporaries. Quite by accident, the Horten brothers invented the first stealth fighter-bomber.

In the 1930s, American Vought engineer Charles H. Zimmerman began experimenting with disc-shaped aircraft. The first flying model was the V-173, which took off in 1942. It had problems with the gearbox, but overall it was a durable, highly maneuverable aircraft. While his company churned out the famous “F4U Corsair,” Zimmerman continued work on a disc-shaped fighter that would eventually see the light of day as the “XF5U.”

Military experts assumed that the new “fighter” would in many ways surpass other aircraft available at that time. Powered by two huge Pratt & Whitney engines, the plane was expected to reach a high speed of about 885 kilometers per hour, slowing down to 32 kilometers per hour upon landing. To give the airframe strength while keeping weight as low as possible, the prototype was built from “metalite,” a material consisting of a thin sheet of balsa wood coated with aluminum. However, various engine problems caused Zimmerman a lot of trouble, and World War II ended before they could be fixed.

Vought did not cancel the project, but by the time the fighter was ready for testing, the US Navy decided to focus its attention on jet aircraft. The contract with the military expired, and Vought employees tried to dispose of the XF5U, but it turned out that the metalite structure was not so easy to destroy: the demolition core dropped on the airplane only bounced off the metal. Finally, after several new attempts, the body of the aircraft bent, and blowtorches incinerated its remains.

Of all the aircraft presented in the article, the Boulton Paul Defiant remained in service the longest. Unfortunately, this resulted in many deaths of young pilots. The airplane appeared as a result of a misconception in the 1930s regarding the further development of the situation on the air front. The British command believed that the enemy bombers would be poorly protected and largely without reinforcements. In theory, a fighter with a powerful turret could penetrate the attacking formation and destroy it from the inside. Such a weapon arrangement would free the pilot from the duties of a gunner, allowing him to concentrate on getting the aircraft into the optimal firing position.

And the Defiant coped well with all the tasks during its first missions, as many unsuspecting German fighter pilots mistook the aircraft for an appearance similar to the Hawker Hurricane, attacking it from above or from the rear - ideal points for the machine gunner Defiant. However, the Luftwaffe pilots quickly realized what was happening and began to attack from below and from the front. Without frontal weapons and limited maneuverability due to the heavy turret, Defiant aviators suffered huge losses during the Battle of Britain. The Foggy Albion Air Force lost almost its entire fighter squadron, and the Defiant gunners were not able to leave the plane in emergency situations.

Although the pilots were able to come up with various makeshift tactics, the Royal Air Force soon realized that the turret fighter was not designed for modern air combat. The Defiant was demoted to a night fighter role, after which it found some success sneaking up on and destroying enemy bombers on night missions. The Briton's robust hull was also used as a target for target practice and in testing the first Martin-Baker ejection seats.

During the period between the First and Second World Wars, various countries became increasingly concerned about the issue of defense against strategic bombing during subsequent hostilities. Italian General Giulio Douhet believed that it was impossible to defend against massive air attacks, and British politician Stanley Baldwin coined the phrase “the bomber will always get through.” In response, major powers invested heavily in developing “bomber busters”—heavy fighters designed to intercept enemy formations in the skies. The English Defiant failed, while the German BF-110 performed well in various roles. And finally, among them was the American “YFM-1 Airacuda”.

This aircraft was Bell's first attempt at military aircraft construction and featured many unusual features. In order to give the Airacuda the highest chance of destroying the enemy, Bell equipped it with two 37mm M-4 guns, placing them in front of the rare pusher engines and propellers located behind them. Each gun was assigned a separate shooter, whose main responsibility was to manually reload it. Initially, gunners also directly fired weapons. However, the results were a complete disaster, and the design of the aircraft was changed, placing the control levers of the guns in the hands of the pilot.

Military strategists believed that with additional machine guns in defensive positions - in the main fuselage to repel flank attacks - the aircraft would be indestructible both when attacking enemy bombers and when escorting B-17s over enemy territory. All these design elements gave the aircraft a rather three-dimensional appearance, making it look like a cute cartoon airplane. The Airacuda was a veritable death machine that looked like it was made for cuddling.

Despite optimistic forecasts, tests revealed serious problems. The engines were prone to overheating and did not produce enough thrust. Therefore, in reality, the Airacuda had a lower maximum speed than the bombers it was supposed to intercept or protect. The original arrangement of the weapon only added to the difficulties, since the gondolas in which it was placed filled with smoke when firing, making the work of the machine gunners extremely difficult. In addition to this, they could not escape from their cabins in an emergency because the propellers were working right behind them, turning their attempt to escape into a meeting with death. As a result of these problems, the US Army Air Forces acquired only 13 aircraft, none of which received a baptism of fire. The remaining gliders were scattered around the country for pilots to add notes about the strange aircraft to their logbooks, and Bell continued to try (more successfully) to develop a military aircraft.

Despite the arms race, military gliders were an important component air technology Second World War. They were lifted into the air in tow and detached near enemy territories, ensuring the rapid delivery of cargo and troops within airborne operations. Among all the gliders of that period, the Soviet-made A-40 “flying tank” certainly stood out for its design.

The countries participating in the war were looking for ways to quickly and efficiently transport tanks to the front. Transferring them using gliders seemed like a worthwhile idea, but engineers soon discovered that the tank was one of the most aerodynamically imperfect vehicles. After countless attempts to create good system To supply tanks by air, most states simply gave up. But not the USSR.

In fact, Soviet aviation had already achieved some success in landing tanks before the A-40 was developed. Small equipment like the T-27 was lifted aboard huge transport aircraft and dropped a few meters from the ground. With the gearbox set to neutral, the tank landed and rolled by inertia until it stopped. The problem was that the tank crew had to be transported separately, which greatly reduced the system's combat effectiveness.

Ideally, tank crews would fly in on a tank and be ready for battle within a few minutes. To achieve these goals, Soviet planners turned to the ideas of American engineer John Walter Christie, who first developed the concept of a flying tank in the 1930s. Christie believed that, thanks to armored vehicles with fitted biplane wings, any war would be instantly over, since no one would be able to defend against a flying tank.

Based on the work of John Christie, the Soviet Union crossed the T-60 with a flying machine and conducted the first test flight in 1942 with brave pilot Sergei Anokhin at the helm. And although, due to the aerodynamic resistance of the tank, the glider had to be removed from the tug before reaching the planned altitude, Anokhin managed to land softly and even brought the tank back to base. Despite the enthusiastic report written by the pilot, the idea was rejected after Soviet specialists realized that they did not have aircraft powerful enough to tow operational tanks (Anokhin flew with a lightweight machine - without most weapons and with a minimal fuel supply). Unfortunately, the flying tank never left the ground again.

After Allied bombing began to undermine the German war effort, Luftwaffe commanders realized that their failure to develop heavy multi-engine bombers was a huge mistake. When the authorities finally established the corresponding orders, most German aircraft manufacturers jumped at the opportunity. These included the Horten brothers (as noted above) and the Junkers, who already had experience building bombers. Company engineer Hans Focke led the design of perhaps the most advanced German aircraft of the Second World War - the Ju-287.

In the 1930s, designers came to the conclusion that a straight-wing aircraft had a certain upper speed limit, but at that time this did not matter, since turboprop engines could not get close to these indicators in any case. However, with the development of jet technology, everything has changed. German specialists used swept wings on early jet aircraft, such as the Me-262, which avoided the problems - air compression effects - inherent in a straight wing design. Focke took this one step further and proposed the introduction of an aircraft with a forward-swept wing, which he believed would be capable of defeating any air defense. The new type of wing had a number of advantages: it increased maneuverability at high speeds and at high angles of attack, improved stall characteristics and freed the fuselage from weapons and engines.

First, Focke's invention was aerodynamically tested using a special stand; many parts from other aircraft, including captured Allied bombers, were taken to make the model. “Ju-287” performed excellently during test flights, confirming compliance with all declared operational characteristics. Unfortunately for Focke, interest in jet bombers quickly faded, and his project was shelved until March 1945. By that time, desperate Luftwaffe commanders were looking for any fresh ideas to inflict damage on the Allied forces - production of the Ju-287 was launched in record time, but the war ended two months later, after the construction of only a few prototypes. It took another 40 years for the forward-swept wing to begin to revive in popularity, thanks to American and Russian aerospace engineers.

George Cornelius is a famous American engineer, designer of a number of extravagant gliders and aircraft. During the 30s and 40s he worked on new types of aircraft designs, among other things, experimenting with forward-swept wings (like the Ju-287). Its gliders had excellent stall characteristics and could be towed at high speeds without exerting a significant braking effect on the towing airplane. When World War II broke out, Cornelius was brought in to design the XFG-1, one of the most specialized aircraft ever built. In essence, the XFG-1 was a flying fuel tank.

George's plans included producing both manned and unmanned versions of his glider, both of which could be towed the latest bombers at their cruising speed of 400 kilometers per hour, twice the flight speed of most other gliders. The idea of ​​using the unmanned XFG-1 was revolutionary. The B-29s were expected to tow the glider, pumping fuel from its tank through connected hoses. With a tank capacity of 764 gallons, the XFG-1 would act as a flying refueling station. After emptying the fuel storage, the B-29 would detach the airframe and it would dive to the ground and crash. This scheme would significantly increase the flight range of bombers, allowing raids on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The manned XFG-1 would be used in a similar way, but more rationally, since the glider could be landed, and not simply destroyed after the fuel intake was completed. Although it is worth wondering what kind of pilot would dare to undertake such a task as flying a fuel tank over a dangerous combat zone.

During testing, one of the prototypes crashed, and Cornelius's plan was abandoned without further attention when the Allied forces captured the islands near the Japanese archipelago. With the new location of the air bases, the need to refuel the B-29 to achieve its mission objectives was eliminated, taking the XFG-1 out of the game. After the war, George continued to pitch his idea to the US Air Force, but by then their interest had shifted to specialized refueling aircraft. And the “XFG-1” simply became an inconspicuous footnote in the history of military aviation.

The idea of ​​a flying aircraft carrier first appeared during the First World War and was tested during the interwar period. In those years, engineers dreamed of a huge airship carrying small fighters capable of leaving the mother ship to protect it from enemy interceptors. British and American experiments ended in complete failure, and in the end the idea was abandoned, as the loss of tactical value by large rigid airships became obvious.

But while American and British specialists were winding down their projects, the Soviet Air Force was just getting ready to enter the development arena. In 1931, aviation engineer Vladimir Vakhmistrov proposed using heavy bombers Tupolev to lift smaller fighters into the air. This made it possible to significantly increase the latter's flight range and bomb load compared to their usual capabilities as dive bombers. Without bombs, aircraft could also defend their carriers from enemy attacks. Throughout the 1930s, Vakhmistrov experimented with different configurations, stopping only when he attached as many as five fighters to a single bomber. By the time the Second World War began, the aircraft designer revised his ideas and came to a more practical design of two I-16 fighter-bombers suspended from the mother TB-3.

The USSR High Command was sufficiently impressed with the concept to try to put it into practice. The first raid on Romanian oil storage facilities was successful, with both fighters detaching from the aircraft and striking before returning to the Soviet forward base. After such a successful start, 30 more raids were carried out, the most famous of which was the destruction of the bridge near Chernovodsk in August 1941. The Red Army spent months trying to destroy him to no avail, until they finally deployed two of Vakhmistrov's monsters. The carrier aircraft released their fighters, which began to bomb the previously inaccessible bridge. Despite all these victories, a few months later the Zveno project was closed, and the I-16 and TB-3 were discontinued in favor of more modern models. Thus ended the career of one of the strangest - but most successful - aviation creations in human history.

Most people are familiar with Japanese kamikaze missions, which used old planes loaded with explosives as anti-ship weapons. They even developed a rocket plane projectile special purpose"MXY-7". Less widely known is Germany's attempt to build a similar weapon by turning the V-1 "cruise bomb" into manned "cruise missile."

As the end of the war approached, the Nazi High Command desperately sought a way to disrupt Allied shipping across the English Channel. The V-1 rounds had potential, but the need for extreme accuracy (which was never their advantage) led to the creation of a manned version. German engineers managed to install a small cockpit with simple controls in the fuselage of the existing V-1, right in front of the jet engine.

Unlike the V-1 missiles, which were launched from the ground, the Fi-103R manned bombs were supposed to be lifted into the air and launched from He-111 bombers. After which the pilot had to see the target ship, direct his plane at it, and then fly away.

German pilots did not follow the example of their Japanese colleagues and did not lock themselves in the cockpits of aircraft, but tried to escape. However, with the engine roaring directly behind the wheelhouse, escape would probably have been fatal in any case. These slim chances of survival for the pilots soured the Luftwaffe commanders' impression of the program, so no operational mission was destined to take place. However, 175 V-1 bombs were converted into Fi-103Rs, most of which fell into Allied hands at the end of the war.

Once on the site we held an “Air Parade” competition dedicated to the anniversary of the Victory, where readers were asked to guess the names of some of the most famous aircraft of World War II by their silhouettes. The competition has been completed, and now we are publishing photos of these combat vehicles. We invite you to remember what the winners and losers used to fight in the sky.

Editorial PM

Germany

Messerschmitt Bf.109

In fact, a whole family of German combat vehicles, the total number of which (33,984 units) makes the 109th one of the most popular aircraft of the Second World War. It was used as a fighter, fighter-bomber, fighter-interceptor, and reconnaissance aircraft. It was as a fighter that the Messer earned its notorious reputation among Soviet pilots - at the initial stage of the war, Soviet fighters, such as the I-16 and LaGG, were clearly technically inferior to the Bf.109 and suffered heavy losses. Only the advent of more advanced aircraft, such as the Yak-9, allowed our pilots to fight the Messers almost on an equal footing. The most popular modification of the vehicle was the Bf.109G (“Gustav”).

Messerschmitt Bf.109

Messerschmitt Me.262

The plane was remembered not for its special role in World War II, but for the fact that it turned out to be the first-born of jet aircraft on the battlefield. The Me.262 began to be designed even before the war, but Hitler’s real interest in the project awoke only in 1943, when the Luftwaffe had already lost its combat power. The Me.262 had unique speed (about 850 km/h), altitude and climb rates for its time and therefore had serious advantages over any fighter of that time. In reality, for every 150 Allied aircraft shot down, there were 100 Me.262s lost. The low effectiveness of combat use was explained by the “crude” design, little experience in using jet aircraft and insufficient training of pilots.

Messerschmitt Me.262

Heinkel-111

Heinkel-111

Junkers Ju 87 Stuka

The Ju 87 dive bomber, produced in several modifications, became a kind of forerunner of modern high-precision weapons, since it threw bombs not from a great height, but from a steep dive, which made it possible to more accurately target the ammunition. It was very effective in the fight against tanks. Due to the specific nature of its use in conditions of high overloads, the vehicle was equipped with automatic air brakes to recover from a dive in the event of the pilot losing consciousness. To enhance the psychological effect, during the attack the pilot turned on the “Jericho trumpet” - a device that emitted a terrible howl. One of the most famous ace pilots to fly the Stuka was Hans-Ulrich Rudel, who left some rather boastful memories of the war on the Eastern Front.

Junkers Ju 87 Stuka

Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu

The tactical reconnaissance aircraft Fw 189 Uhu is interesting primarily for its unusual double-boom design, for which soviet soldiers They called him "Rama". And it was on the Eastern Front that this reconnaissance spotter turned out to be most useful to the Nazis. Our fighters knew well that bombers would arrive after the “Rama” and strike the scouted targets. But it was not so easy to shoot down this low-speed aircraft due to its high maneuverability and excellent survivability. When Soviet fighters approached, he could, for example, begin to describe circles of a small radius, into which high-speed vehicles simply could not fit.

Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu

Probably the most recognizable Luftwaffe bomber was developed in the early 1930s under the guise of a civilian transport aircraft (the creation of a German air force was prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles). At the beginning of World War II, the Heinkel-111 was the most popular Luftwaffe bomber. He became one of the main characters in the Battle of Britain - it was the result of Hitler's attempt to break the will to resist the British through massive bombing raids on the cities of Foggy Albion (1940). Even then it became clear that this medium bomber was obsolete, it lacked speed, maneuverability and security. Nevertheless, the aircraft continued to be used and produced until 1944.

Allies

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

The American “flying fortress” constantly increased its security during the war. In addition to excellent survivability (in the form, for example, the ability to return to base with one intact engine out of four), the heavy bomber received thirteen 12.7 mm machine guns in the B-17G modification. A tactic was developed in which “flying fortresses” flew over enemy territory in a checkerboard formation, protecting each other with crossfire. The plane was equipped with a high-tech Norden bomb sight at that time, built on the basis of an analog computer. If the British bombed the Third Reich mainly in the dark, the “flying fortresses” were not afraid to appear over Germany during daylight hours.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

Avro 683 Lancaster

One of the main participants in the Allied bomber raids on Germany, the British heavy bomber of World War II. The Avro 683 Lancaster accounted for ¾ of the total bomb load dropped by the British on the Third Reich. The carrying capacity allowed the four-engine aircraft to take on board “blockbusters” - the Tallboy and Grand Slam super-heavy concrete-piercing bombs. Low security implied the use of Lancasters as night bombers, but night bombing was characterized by low accuracy. During the day, these planes suffered significant losses. Lancasters actively participated in the most destructive bombing raids of World War II - on Hamburg (1943) and Dresden (1945).

Avro 683 Lancaster

North American P-51 Mustang

One of the most iconic fighters of World War II, which played an exceptional role in the events on the Western Front. No matter how well the Allied heavy bombers defended themselves when they went on raids on Germany, these large, low-maneuverability and relatively slow-moving aircraft suffered heavy losses from German fighter aircraft. The North American company, commissioned by the British government, urgently created a fighter that could not only successfully fight against Messers and Fokkers, but also have a sufficient range (due to drop tanks) to accompany bomber raids on the continent. When Mustangs began to be used in this capacity in 1944, it became clear that the Germans had finally lost the air war in the West.

North American P-51 Mustang

Supermarine Spitfire

The main and most popular fighter of the British Air Force during the war, one of the best fighters of the Second World War. Its altitude and speed characteristics made it an equal rival to the German Messerschmitt Bf.109, and the skill of the pilots played a big role in the head-to-head battle between these two machines. The Spitfires performed well, covering the evacuation of the British from Dunkirk after the success of Hitler's blitzkrieg, and then during the Battle of Britain (July-October 1940), when British fighters had to fight both German bombers He-111, Do-17, Ju 87, as well as with Bf fighters. 109 and Bf.110.

Supermarine Spitfire

Japan

Mitsubishi A6M Raisen

At the beginning of World War II, the Japanese carrier-based fighter A6M Raisen was the best in the world in its class, even though its name contained the Japanese word “Rei-sen”, that is, “zero fighter”. Thanks to the drop tanks, the fighter had a high flight range (3105 km), which made it indispensable for participation in raids on the ocean theater. Among the aircraft involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor were 420 A6Ms. The Americans learned lessons from dealing with the nimble, fast-climbing Japanese, and by 1943 their fighter aircraft had surpassed their once dangerous enemy.

Mitsubishi A6M Raisen

The most popular dive bomber of the USSR began production before the war, in 1940, and remained in service until the Victory. The low-wing aircraft with two engines and a double fin was a very progressive machine for its time. In particular, it was equipped with a pressurized cabin and fly-by-wire control (which, due to its novelty, became the source of many problems). In reality, the Pe-2, unlike the Ju 87, was not so often used as a dive bomber. Most often, he launched bombing attacks on areas from horizontal flight or from a flat rather than deep dive.

Pe-2

The most massive combat aircraft in history (36,000 of these “silts” were produced) is considered a true battlefield legend. One of its features is the supporting armored hull, which replaced the frame and skin in most of the fuselage. The attack aircraft operated at altitudes of several hundred meters above the ground, becoming not the most difficult target for ground-based anti-aircraft weapons and the object of hunting by German fighters. The first versions of the Il-2 were built as single-seat aircraft, without a gunner, which led to fairly high combat losses among aircraft of this type. And yet, the IL-2 played its role in all theaters of war where our army fought, becoming a powerful means of supporting ground forces in the fight against enemy armored vehicles.

IL-2

The Yak-3 was a development of the Yak-1M fighter, which had proven itself in combat. During the development process, the wing was shortened and other design changes were made to reduce weight and improve aerodynamics. This lightweight wooden aircraft reached an impressive speed of 650 km/h and had excellent low-altitude flight characteristics. Tests of the Yak-3 started at the beginning of 1943, and already during the battle on Kursk Bulge He entered the battle, where, with the help of a 20-mm ShVAK cannon and two 12.7-mm Berezin machine guns, he successfully resisted the Messerschmitts and Fokkers.

Yak-3

One of the best Soviet fighters, the La-7, which entered service a year before the end of the war, was a development of the LaGG-3 that met the war. All the advantages of the “ancestor” came down to two factors - high survivability and maximum use of wood in the design instead of scarce metal. However, the weak motor and heavy weight turned the LaGG-3 into an unimportant opponent of the all-metal Messerschmitt Bf.109. From LaGG-3, Lavochkin OKB-21 made the La-5, installing a new ASh-82 engine and improving the aerodynamics. The La-5FN modification with a forced engine was already an excellent combat vehicle, surpassing the Bf.109 in a number of parameters. In the La-7, the weight was again reduced, and the armament was also strengthened. The plane became very good, even while remaining wooden.

La-7

The U-2, or Po-2, created in 1928, by the beginning of the war was certainly an example of outdated technology and was not designed as a combat aircraft at all (the combat training version appeared only in 1932). However, to win, this classic biplane had to work as a night bomber. Its undoubted advantages are ease of operation, the ability to land outside airfields and take off from small sites, and low noise.

U-2

At low throttle in the dark, the U-2 approached an enemy target, remaining undetected almost until the moment of bombing. Since the bombing was carried out from low altitudes, its accuracy was very high, and the “corn bombers” inflicted serious damage on the enemy.

The article “Air Parade of Winners and Losers” was published in the magazine “Popular Mechanics” (

Almost 70 years have passed since the Great Patriotic War, and the memories still haunt the residents of Russia to this day. In wartime, Soviet fighters were the main weapon against the enemy. Most often, I-16 fighters hovered in the sky, which was called the donkey among themselves. In the west of the country, this model of aircraft accounted for more than 40 percent. For some time it was the best fighter aircraft developed by the famous aircraft designer Polikarpov, providing for the retraction of the landing gear.

It was in a world with retractable landing gear. Most of The body of the I-16 is made of duralumin, a very light material. Every year the model of this fighter was improved, the hull was strengthened, a more powerful engine was installed, and the steering gear was changed. On the plane, the fuselage consisted entirely of beams and was covered with duralumin plates.

The main enemy of the Soviet WWII fighter I-16 was the Messerschmitt Bf 109. It was made entirely of steel, the landing gear was retractable, the powerful engine was the Fuhrer's iron bird - the best aircraft of the Second World War of the German troops.

The developers of the Soviet and German fighter model tried to develop high speed and active takeoff in the aircraft, but paid little attention to maneuverability and stability, which is why many pilots died after losing control.

Soviet aircraft designer Polikarpov worked to reduce the size of the aircraft and lighten its weight. The car turned out to be short and rounded at the front. Polikarpov was confident that with a lighter weight of the aircraft, its maneuverability would improve. The length of the wing did not change; previously there were no flaps or flaps. The cockpit was small, the pilot had poor visibility, it was inconvenient to aim, and ammunition consumption increased. Of course, such a fighter could no longer win the title of “Best Aircraft of World War II.”

German aircraft designers were the first to use a liquid-cooled engine in the production of a winged aircraft, due to which it retained good maneuverability and speed. The front part remained elongated and well streamlined. It was the best aircraft of the Second World War from the German side. However, the motor has become more vulnerable than before in previous versions.

Of course, the German ones with powerful engines and an aerodynamic shape were superior to their Soviet counterparts in speed, accuracy and flight altitude. The features of German aircraft gave an additional trump card in the hands of the enemy; pilots could attack not only frontally or from behind, but also from above, and then again rise into the clouds, hiding from Soviet pilots. The I-16 pilots had to exclusively defend themselves; an active attack was out of the question - the forces were too unequal.

Another advantage of German technology was communication. All aircraft were equipped with radio stations, which allowed pilots to agree on attack tactics for Soviet fighters and warn of danger. Some domestic models had radio stations installed, but it was almost impossible to use them due to the poor signal and poor quality of the equipment. But nevertheless, for our patriotic pilots the I-16 was the best aircraft of the Second World War.