Petlyakov Pe-3
| Pe-3 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| The first prototype of the Pe-3bis | |
| Role | Heavy fighter, Night fighter |
| Manufacturer | Petlyakov |
| Designer | Vladimir Petlyakov |
| First flight | 7 August 1941 |
| Introduction | 1941 |
| Retired | 1945 |
| Primary users |
VVS Naval Aviation Finnish Air Force |
| Produced | 1941–1944 |
| Number built | 360 |
| Developed from | Petlyakov Pe-2 |
The Petlyakov Pe-3 was the long-range, night fighter version of the successful Petlyakov Pe-2 high-speed bomber used by the Soviet Union during World War II.
Its design and use followed a comparable path to those taken by the German Luftwaffe with the Junkers Ju 88 and the British Royal Air Force with the De Havilland Mosquito. The Soviets realized the need for a night fighter after the first night bombing of Moscow during Operation Barbarossa. The Petlyakov Pe-2 was selected for modification as the most suitable aircraft available.
It was initially used for daylight ground attack missions during the Battle of Moscow, but this proved to be costly since the aircraft was unarmored. Armor and additional guns were retrofitted to the existing aircraft to make it more effective, but the evacuation of the sole factory building the Pe-3 in October 1941 limited the number of aircraft available and many units of the Soviet Air Forces flying the Pe-3 were either disbanded or converted to other aircraft. Although production was stopped and restarted several times, the aircraft remained in service throughout World War II. Most of the later production runs were given to reconnaissance units.
A crash-development program began after the July 1941 German night bombing of Moscow to field a night fighter with heavy armament and long endurance. Only an aircraft currently in production could be used to satisfy the extremely tight deadline and the Pe-2 was selected for modification by the State Commissariat for Defence (Russian: Narodnyy Komissariaht Oborony—NKO) as the fastest twin-engined aircraft in service. The order only authorized four days to modify the aircraft's fuel, armament and radio systems, but this deadline was met when the modified aircraft made its first flight on 7 August and it passed its manufacturer's trials the following day.
Three additional fuel tanks, with a capacity of 700 liters (154 imp gal; 185 U.S. gal) were fitted in the prototype, one in the fuselage bomb bay and the other two replaced the ventral gunner's position. The nose armament was reinforced with an additional 12.7-millimeter (0.50 in) Berezin UBK machine gun with 150 rounds and a fixed 7.62-millimeter (0.300 in) ShKAS machine gun with 250 rounds was added in the tail cone. Removal of two of the fuselage bomb racks reduced the maximum bomb load to 700 kilograms (1,543 lb), one 250-kilogram (551 lb) bomb on each of the fuselage racks and one 100-kilogram (220 lb) in each of the engine nacelles. The electric bomb release system was removed and the bombs had to be dropped using the mechanical system, initially designed as the emergency system. The dive brakes under the wings were also removed. The BSBbis radio was exchanged for the RSI-4 model commonly used in single-seat fighters and the radio direction finder was also removed to save weight. The prototype weighed 5,890 kg (12,985 lb) empty and it had a normal take-off weight of 7,800 kg (17,196 lb), slightly heavier than the version of the Pe-2 then in production. During testing it demonstrated a maximum speed of 530 km/h (329 mph) at 5,000 meters (16,404 ft), a service ceiling of 9,000 meters (29,528 ft) and a maximum range of 2,150 km (1,336 mi). This was considered adequate and Factory (Russian: Zavod) Nr. 39 in Moscow was ordered on 14 August to build five pre-production aircraft for delivery by 25 August. This process proved difficult because drawings had not been made for many of the new parts and they had to be fitted by hand, slowing the production rate.
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