The Polikarpov VIT-2 (''Vozdooshny Istrebitel' Tahnkov''—Flying Tank Destroyer) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

twin-engined ground attack aircraft developed before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. A single prototype was built in 1938 for evaluation purposes. Although a promising design it was recommended that it be introduced into production as a high-speed

dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...

with a reduced armament to increase its speed.

Development

The VIT-2 was derived from the VIT-1 prototype, but it was given

Klimov M-105 The Klimov M-105 was a V12 liquid-cooled piston aircraft engine used by Soviet aircraft during World War II.Gunston 1989, p. 90 Development The M-105, designed in 1940, drew heavily on Klimov's experience with the Hispano-Suiza 12Y ( license-bu ...

engines and its structure was revised. It was a low-winged, twin-engined aircraft with a mixed structure. The

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

fuselage was made in halves of 'shpon', molded birch

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

and a large fuel tank was placed between the pilot and rear gunner. The fuel tank was moved to the rear and the canopy was lengthened in consequence. The wing structure was built from a mix of steel tubes and duralumin with a

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

skin. The

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

was redesigned as a

twin tail A twin tail is a specific type of vertical stabilizer arrangement found on the empennage of some aircraft. Two vertical stabilizers—often smaller on their own than a single conventional tail would be—are mounted at the outside of the aircra ...

. The main legs of the

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

retracted aft into the engine

nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...

s and were given fairing to reduce drag when retracted, but the tail-wheel was fixed. The nose was extensively glazed to give the bombardier/navigator good visibility and he was armed with a

ShVAK cannon The ShVAK ( ru , ШВАК: Шпитальный-Владимиров Авиационный Крупнокалиберный, Shpitalnyi-Vladimirov Aviatsionnyi Krupnokalibernyi, "Shpitalny-Vladimirov Aviation Large-calibre") was a 20 mm autocann ...

with 10° of vertical travel. The rear gunner/radio operator sat in a manually operated turret armed with another ShVAK and he was also provided with a retractable pair of

ShKAS machine gun The ShKAS (Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Skorostrelny, Shpitalny-Komaritski rapid fire for aircraft; Russian: ШКАС - Шпитального-Комарицкого Авиационный Скорострельный) is a 7.62 mm calibre ...

s for ventral defense. Two Shpitalnyi Sh-37 cannon and two more ShVAKs were mounted in the wing roots. Up to of bombs could be carried internally in the fuselage or a pair of FAB-500 bombs could be carried under the wings.Gordon, p. 282 The prototype was first flown on 11 May 1938 by the famous pilot

Valery Chkalov Valery Pavlovich Chkalov ( rus, Валерий Павлович Чкалов, p=vɐˈlʲerʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ˈtɕkaləf; – 15 December 1938) was a test pilot awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (1936). Early life Chkalov was bo ...

and had its propellers replaced by constant speed VISh-61 propellers shortly afterwards. It was submitted for its State acceptance trials in October 1938Gunston, p. 306 where it proved to be faster at sea level than the VIT-1, versus , but slightly slower at altitude, at compared to at . It was recommended for production as a high-speed dive bomber provided that some of the armament was removed to increase its speed.

Specifications

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Gordon, Yefim. ''Soviet Airpower in World War 2''. Hinckley, England: Midland Publishing, 2008 * Gunston, Bill. ''The Osprey Encyclopaedia of Russian Aircraft 1875–1995''. London, Osprey, 1995

External links

* http://www.ctrl-c.liu.se/misc/RAM/vit-2.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Polikarpov Vit-2 VIT-2 1930s Soviet attack aircraft Abandoned military aircraft projects of the Soviet Union