Su-2

In 1936, a competition was announced in the USSR for the development of the Ivanov multipurpose aircraft ^[3] . TsAGI (chief designer A.N. Tupolev ), Central Design Bureau (chief designer N.N. Polikarpov ), KhAI (chief designer I.G. Neman), as well as D.P. Grigorovich, S.A. Kocherigin took part in the competition and S. V. Ilyushin ^[2] .

On August 25, 1937, Mikhail Gromov was the first to fly a short-range bomber designed by P. Sukhoi. In 1939, an M-88B motor with a capacity of 1000 liters was installed on it. with. and 10 rockets of RS-82 . This aircraft, called the Su-2 (or BB-1 - short-range bomber), has been mass-produced since 1940 .

It was planned to deploy the construction of BB-1 at plants No. 31 ( Taganrog ), No. 135 ( Kharkov ) and No. 207 ( Dolgoprudny ), but the factory in Taganrog, which had almost started production, was reoriented to LaGG-3 and never released a single Su- 2, and 70 almost finished cars were transferred from Taganrog for completion to Dolgoprudny.

In November 1941, the Su-2 was modified and received the name Su-4 . A new modification of the attack bomber began to be produced with the M-82 ( ASH-82 ) engine with a capacity of 1,400 liters. with.; with it, the speed of the aircraft reached 486 km / h. Production of the Su-2 and Su-4 was discontinued at the beginning of 1942 , when the car kits evacuated from Kharkov ended ^[4] .

In total, about 800 Su-2 combat aircraft and its deep modification Su-4 were built ^[4] .

Su-2 M-88B - free -standing single-engine single keel low-wing mixed design. ^[five]

• The semi - monocoque fuselage , solid wood, consisted of 20 frames , interconnected by four spars and several stringers , sewn with plywood-shell lining. The first 19 frames are solid wood, the 20th consisted of the upper plywood and lower duralumin parts. The fuselage sheathing was made of birch veneer with a thickness of 0.5 mm, glued on a special blank in the form of a fuselage. Veneer was glued at an angle of 45 ° to the axis of the aircraft. The joint of the center section of the wing and the fuselage was closed by a zaliz.
• The cockpit was closed by a convex streamlined visor made of plexiglass and a high retractable lantern , providing excellent visibility in all directions. Behind the oblique rear cut of the cockpit lantern, the fairing of the navigator's turret was fixed, which consisted of a motionlessly fixed and folding part. Both cabs were heated.
• The wing center section frame consisted of two side members , six ribs and two longitudinal walls. The frame of each console included two spars, 17 ribs, a back wall, stringers and an additional beam in the machine gun compartment. Sheathing and almost all power elements of the wing are duralumin. To simplify the installation of fuel tanks on the lower surface of each console, a large hatch was made, which was closed by a panel-shaped lid.
• The mechanization of the wing included landing flaps and ailerons. The shields were located both on the consoles and on the center section of the wing (in the shields under the fuselage there were windows for viewing down from the navigator’s cabin). Sheathing is duralumin. The ailerons had a duralumin frame and linen sheathing, were supplied with weight compensators. A controlled trimmer was mounted on the left aileron.
• The keel consisted of a duralumin frame and plywood sheathing. The rudder is equipped with a controlled trimmer.
• The stabilizer is solid. The joints between the plumage and the fuselage are covered by gaps. The elevator was recruited from metal power elements, in the bow part it was sheathed with duralumin and completely covered with a canvas. Had a weight compensation and trimmer in each half.
• The control of the aircraft is double mixed.
• The chassis with a tail wheel, was removed using an electro-hydraulic drive: the main supports - towards each other in the fuselage, the tail - back into the tail coke.
• The power plant is a two-row star-shaped 14-cylinder engine M-88 (M-88B) of air cooling with a rated power of 950 liters at the ground. with. The propeller had a three-blade, variable in flight pitch, VISH-23 with a diameter of 3.25 m. The engine hood had an outer, inner part and a skirt. The exterior consisted of three removable covers. The skirt was divided into 2 lateral and lower sectors. In the right sector there was a cutout for the exhaust pipe. On top of the hoods between the side members, a removable panel was fixed to approach the fuselage fuel tank.
• Small arms - 5 machine guns ShKAS 7.62 mm caliber. Four fixedly mounted in consoles outside the propeller throwing zone. The fifth was equipped with the MV-5 - shielded navigator turret.
• Some units were equipped with freelance cutouts in the bottom under the navigator’s cabin and an MV-2 turret with a ShKAS machine gun to protect the lower hemisphere. ^[2]
• Bomb weapons were located both in the bomb bay and on the external bomb racks.
• As a means of communication, the radio station RSB "Dvina" was used, located in the cockpit of the navigator.

Having made about 5,000 sorties on the Su-2 in 1941, the Soviet Air Force lost 222 of these planes in the battle and went missing ^[2] , that is, one loss accounted for 22.5 sorties. At the same time, the average combat irretrievable losses of Soviet bombers in 1941 amounted to 1 aircraft for 14 sorties, that is, were 1.61 times more.

In the units that were armed with both the Pe-2 and Su-2, there were also significantly lower losses of the latter, despite the formally better performance characteristics of Petlyakov’s vehicles: in the final summary of the 66th air division in 1941, the combat losses of the Pe-2 are defined as 1 loss per 32 sorties, while the Su-2 had 71 sorties per 1 loss ^[2] .

• Su-4
• SB

Su-2 M-82 No. 15116 serial, April 1942 ^[6]

• Crew: 2 people
• Top speed at ground: 430 km / h
• Maximum speed at an altitude of 5850 m: 486 km / h
• Range: 910 km
• Practical ceiling: 8400 m
• Climbing time 5000 m: 9.8 min
• Length: 10.46 m
• Height: 3.94 m
• Wing span: 14.3 m
• Wing area: 29 m²
• Empty weight: 3220 kg
• Curb weight: 4700 kg
• Takeoff run: 380 m
• Mileage: 290 m
• Engines: M-82
• Rated power: 1330 liters. with.
• Small arms: 4 × ShKAS motionless and 1-2 × ShKAS mobile
• Ammunition: 3400 for fixed machine guns and 1500 for moving machine guns
• Bomb load: 400 kg
• Outboard weapons: 8 NURS RS-82 or RS-132

• By June 22, 1941 in the Air Force of the Red Army, only one 135th Air Assault Regiment was fully equipped with these aircraft and seven more regiments received several Su-2s.
• It was the Su-2 from 211 BBAA that turned out to be the first aircraft that shot down (by mistake) on the very first day of the war, June 22, 1941 , the future Soviet ace and aviation marshal Alexander Pokryshkin . Pokryshkin later making excuses, noted that he did not know the silhouette of the Su-2 ^[7] ., Since it was a new and secret aircraft of the USSR Air Force ^{[8] [9]} . The crash was observed by Ivan Pstygo, who was flying in the same Su-2 group (also the future air marshal, and after the war, Pokryshkin's classmate while studying at the Higher Air Force Officer Courses in Lipetsk) ^[9] .

• The only known case of an air ramming committed by a woman was committed on the Su-2 - on September 12, 1941, the pilot, senior lieutenant Yekaterina Zelenko shot down a German Me-109 fighter with her ram, cutting off the wing of the aircraft with its propeller, and then the second Me- 109 shot down her plane, which she tried to land after a battering ram, while the pilot died. The flight navigator, on the orders of the commander, left the plane, parachuting overboard.
• Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi personally ordered the construction of a full-size metal model of the Su-2 according to the original drawings for installation in the museum exhibition " Defense of Stalingrad " in the city of Volgograd. In 2010, this model was restored by Sukhoi specialists. ^[ten]
• Aircraft Su-2 ("Ivanov") is mentioned in the books of Viktor Suvorov (Rezun).

• Su-2 (neopr.) . Corner of the sky . Archived March 1, 2012.
• Dmitry Khazanov, Nikolai Gordyukov. Su-2 on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War (neopr.) . Corner of the sky . Date of treatment March 28, 2008. Archived March 1, 2012.
• Su-2 in the exposition of the panorama museum "Battle of Stalingrad" in Volgograd (photo)
• History of the Su-2

• Dmitry Khazanov, Nikolai Gordyukov. Near bomber Su-2.
• Egenburg L. Defending the native sky // Philately of the USSR. - 1976. - No. 8. - S. 12-13.
• Vladimir Proklov. The close bomber Su-2 and its modifications (Russian) // Aviation and astronautics . - M. , 2010. - No. 3 . - S. 2-19 .