Tomashevich Pegas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomashevich_Pegas

The Tomashevich Pegas was a World War II Soviet ground attack prototype aircraft
built before the Battle of Kursk (1943), designed to destroy tanks and German
vehicles.

Dmitri Lyudvigovich Tomashevich was the chief designer on the Polikarpov I-180
fighter before the crash of the prototype, killing test pilot Valery Chkalov,
led to Tomashevich being arrested and sent to a NKVD-run Special Prison in
January 1939, where he assisted Andrei Tupolev in the design of the Tupolev
Tu-2.

In August 1941, Tomashevich was evacuated to Omsk in Siberia where he was put in
charge of his own design bureau. In 1942, inspired by the success of the simple
Polikarpov Po-2 biplane as a night ground-attack aircraft, Tomashyevich was
authorised to design and build a simple ground-attack aircraft that would be
much more capable than the Po-2 but could be built at the same price.

The resulting design was a low-wing monoplane with a fixed tail-wheel
undercarriage, of wooden construction, with pine frames and birch plywood skins.
The pilot sat in an open cockpit which was protected by mild-steel armour
plating designed to withstand 12.7 mm (0.50 in) bullets. It was powered by two
Shvetsov M-11F engines (the same powerplant used by the Po-2) and was armed with
two 23 mm (0.906 in) cannon and a heavy machine gun in the nose, with the option
of replacing the cannon with up to 500 kg (1,102.311 lb) of bombs. An optional
jettisonable upper wing was tested on the Pegas-01 prototype.

The first prototype, Pegas-01, made its maiden flight in late 1942, proving to
be overweight and underpowered, although the aircraft's handling was acceptable.
It was hoped to test one of the prototypes at the Kursk front, but the distance
from Omsk to the front line made that impractical, and development of the type
was abandoned after four prototypes had been built.

Role
Ground attack aircraft

National origin
Soviet Union

Manufacturer
Tomashevich

First flight
1942

Status
Prototypes only

Number built
4

Specifications

General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.72 m (28 ft 7 in)
Wingspan: 16.63 m (54 ft 7 in)
Wing area: 26.6 m2 (286 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,800 kg (3,968 lb)
Gross weight: 2,150 kg (4,740 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 2,820 kg (6,217 lb) including 500 kg (1,100 lb) of bombs
Powerplant: 2 × Shvetsov M-11F 5-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 100 kW (140
hp) each

Performance
Maximum speed: 172 km/h (107 mph, 93 kn) at sea level
Range: 400 km (250 mi, 220 nmi)
Service ceiling: 2,620 m (8,600 ft)
Rate of climb: 2 m/s (390 ft/min)
Time to altitude: 3.5 min to 1,000 m (3,300 ft)

Armament

1x 12.7 mm (0.50 in) Berezin UBS machine gun and
2x 23 mm (0.906 in) Volkov-Yartsev VYa-23 cannon or
500 kg (1,100 lb) of bombs




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