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The Petlyakov Pe-2 (Cyrillic: Петляков Пе-2), nicknamed Peshka (Пешка - "Pawn") was a Soviet dive bomber aircraft used during World War II. It was fast and maneuverable yet durable, and was manufactured in large numbers. Several Communist nations flew the type after the war, when it became known by the NATO reporting name Buck. The Finnish Air Force serial code was PE- and unofficial nickname Pekka-Eemeli.

Contents 1 Design and development 2 Operational service 3 Variants 4 Operators 5 Specifications (Petlyakov Pe-2) 6 External links 7 Related content

The Pe-2 was designed in a sharashka after Vladimir Petlyakov had been arrested and imprisoned in 1937 for allegedly deliberately delaying design work on the Tupolev ANT-42 bomber. In the sharashka, Petlyakov was put in charge of a team to develop a high-altitude fighter escort for the ANT-42 under the designation VI-100. The first of two prototypes flew on December 22, 1939 and was a very sophisticated aircraft for its time, featuring a pressurised cabin, all-metal construction, superchargers and many electrically-actuated systems. The prototypes proved so pleasing that production was ordered almost immediately. It is said that Petlyakov and his team could see the VI-100 prototype from their prison as it was put through its paces for the crowds watching the annual May Day parade in 1940. Some early sources say the Pe-2 is based on the Potez 63. This does not seem to be the case.

Just as production was ready to begin, the air force ordered a re-design of the aircraft. The value of tactical bombing had just been displayed by the Luftwaffe in the Blitzkrieg, and the need for such an aircraft suddenly became much more important than the need for a high-altitude escort fighter. Petlyakov's team was given 45 days to redesign their aircraft as a dive bomber. The cabin pressurisation and superchargers were deleted, and dive brakes and a position for a bombardier were added, among a number of aerodynamic refinements. A fuselage bomb-bay was added, along with smaller bays in each engine nacelle. Initially designated PB-100, Stalin was impressed enough with Petlyakov to free him, and his name was permitted to be used in the aircraft's designation. The first aircraft flew on December 15, 1940, rushed through production without a prototype under severe threats from Stalin if a Pe-2 did not fly by the end of the year. Deliveries to combat units began the following Spring.

While the Pe-2 generally featured favorable flying characteristics when airborne, it took a good amount of force to pull the elevators up to get the plane rotated off the runway during takeoff. Russian night bombing missions often flew with female pilots and some of the women pilots were not strong enough to get the airplane airborne by themselves. When such a situation occurred, the procedure was to have one of the crew get behind the pilot's seat and wrap her arms around the control wheel and help the pilot force the wheel back. Once the aircraft was airborne, the crew returned to her duties and the pilot continued to fly the plane without assistance.

The aircraft did not really show its true potential until the end of the year, after the Soviet Air Force had a chance to regroup after the German onslaught during the Winter. The Pe-2 quickly proved itself to be a highly capable aircraft, capable of eluding the Luftwaffe's interceptors and allowing their crews to develop great accuracy with their bombing. Throughout 1942 the design was steadily refined and improved, in direct consultation with pilots who were actually flying them in combat. The product of this evolutionary development was the Pe-2FT variant, where FT stands for Frontovoe Trebovanie(Frontline Request)

A large number of minor variants were also developed, including a dedicated trainer version (Pe-2UTI), a heavily-armed version (Pe-2M) and a rocket-boosted version (Pe-2K). A fighter version (Pe-2I) and radial-engined version (Pe-2K) were put into limited production as the Pe-3 and Pe-4 respectively. In total, around 11,400 Pe-2s were built.

World War II

•  Finland
•  Soviet Union: Soviet Air Force

Postwar

•  China: People's Liberation Army Air Force
•  Czechoslovakia: Czech Air Force
•  Hungary
•  Poland: Polish Air Force
•  Soviet Union: Soviet Air Force
•  Yugoslavia: SFR Yugoslav Air Force

General characteristics

• Crew: Three - pilot, gunner, bombardier
• Length: 12.66 m (41 ft 6 in)
• Wingspan: 17.16 m (56 ft 3 in)
• Height: 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in)
• Wing area: 40.5 m² (436 ft²)
• Empty weight: 5,875 kg (12,952 lb)
• Loaded weight: 7,563 kg (16,639 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 8,495 kg (18,728 lb)
• Powerplant: 2× Klimov M-105PF liquid-cooled V-12, 903 kW (1,210 hp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 580 km/h (360 mph)
• Range: 1,160 km (721 miles)
• Service ceiling: 8,800 m (28,870 ft)
• Rate of climb: 7.2 m/s (1,410 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 186 kg/m² (38 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 250 W/kg (0.15 hp/lb)

Armament

• 2x 7.62 mm fixed ShKAS machine guns in the nose, one of them being replaced by Berezin UB on later versions.
• 2x rearward firing 7.62 mm ShKAS. From the middle of 1942 defensive armament included 1 Berezin UB machine gun in the upper bombardier's turret, 1 Berezin UB in gunner's ventral hatch and 1 ShKAS, which may be fired by gunner from port, starboard or upper mountings (switch between mountings was performed in-flight in less than a minute). Some planes were also equipped with DAG-10 launcher, firing AG-2 parachute timed grenades.
• 1,600 kg (3,520 lb) of bombs

• Pe-2 variants, by V.M.Petlyakov, V.M.Myasichev, A.M.Izakson and A.I.Putilov
• Photo gallery of Polish Petlyakov Pe-2FT

Related development

Pe-3 - Pe-4

Comparable aircraft

• De Havilland Mosquito
• Junkers Ju 88
• Bf 110
• P-38
• Tupolev Tu-2

Designation sequence

Pe-2 - Pe-3 - Pe-4 - Pe-8

Related lists

List of military aircraft of the Soviet Union and the CIS - List of bomber aircraft