Petlyakov Pe-11 'Fastfin' - Soviet Air Force, 1946
Whilst Vladimir Petlyakov was arrested in 1937 on the totally ficticious charges of aiding the Russian Fascist Party by 1939 he had been moved from prison to Moscow to work alongside many ex-TsAGI people in designing aircraft for the Soviet Air Force. Petlyakov was initially tasked with designing a high-altitude fighter and was progressing well with this design but was then instructed to redesign it as a dive bomber with the result being the outstanding Pe-2 which served in a variety of roles gaining Petlyakov not only his freedom but also the Stalin Prize in 1941.
After surviving an air crash whilst flying a Pe-2 in January 1942, Petlyakov studied a more advanced fighter aircraft during his long convalescence and sketched an unusual configuration featuring a rear wing with forward canards. Designated Pe-11 his design was revised to feature a tapered fuselage with the wings now mounted mid-fuselage but set back to the rear of the aircraft with a widened fuselage designed to accept the Klimov VK-250 engine formed from two Klimov M-125 V24 liquid-cooled piston engines joined side-by-side just aft of the cockpit ahead of which was a nose section designed to carry the heavy armament of four Volkov-Yartsev VYa-23 cannon. The vertical tail was mounted beneath the fuselage and a tricycle landing gear arrangement further added to the revolutionary look of the Pe-11.
As with all things at this time, Petlyakov had to sell the idea to Stalin but the success of the Pe-2 during 1943 and early 1944 saw Petlyakov's radical design given Stalin's blessing and a production contract was awarded on May 1st, 1944 with an instruction to achieve a first flight within one year. Thankfully, development moved swiftly during 1944 and, on April 30th 1945, after some short taxiing 'hops' the prototype Pe-11 took to the air before an 'official' first flight on May 1st, 1945. With Germany defeated it might have been thought that production orders would be cancelled but development continued with the first Pe-11's entering service in early 1946 with the 3rd Aviation Squadron (part of the 73rd GIAP) commanded by Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak.
