Polikarpov Po-2
The Polikarpov Po-2 is a Soviet two-seat biplane that began as a standard military trainer and became one of the most-produced aircraft in history, with about 33,000 built. Designed by Nikolai Polikarpov and first flown in 1927 as the U-2, it served the Soviet Union as a trainer, liaison aircraft, crop duster and air ambulance, and in the Second World War as a night bomber — most famously with the all-women 588th Light Night Bomber Regiment, the "Night Witches". Renamed Po-2 in 1944, it flew combat missions again in Korea and stayed in production, in the Soviet Union and under licence in Poland, into the 1950s.
Why It Mattered
The Po-2 was a two-seat Soviet biplane designed as a basic trainer, yet it became one of the most versatile light aircraft the Soviet Union ever fielded. Some 33,000 were built in all, and the type worked for decades as a trainer, liaison aircraft, crop duster and air ambulance. Its fame, though, comes from the Second World War, when the women crews of the 588th Light Night Bomber Regiment flew it on nightly bombing raids against German troops, who named them the "Night Witches". The aeroplane was slow, lightly built and already out of date, but it was cheap and simple, and those qualities kept it in service long after sleeker types had gone.
Design Notes
Nikolai Polikarpov designed the aircraft to a requirement for one standard Soviet trainer, with a reliable engine, simplicity and cheapness as the priorities. The "U" of its original designation, U-2, stood for uchebny — training. It was a staggered-wing biplane of wood and fabric, powered by an uncowled Shvetsov M-11 five-cylinder radial engine driving a wooden fixed-pitch propeller. The two tandem cockpits had dual controls for instruction, the control surfaces were worked by cables run along the outside of the fuselage, and the design was so spare that it carried no radio at all. Its performance was modest — a top speed of about 93 mph — but it could land at about 40 mph and use very short fields. More than 30 variants followed over the production run, among them a single-seat agricultural sprayer and an ambulance version with room for a stretcher case. Armed versions added a rear-facing machine gun and racks under the wings for six 50 kg bombs or rockets.
Operational History
Test pilot Mikhail Gromov made the first flight on 24 June 1927. Mass production began at Factory No. 23 in Leningrad, and nearly 1,400 aircraft had been built within the first three years, with deliveries to flight schools by 1930. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the trainer went to war in liaison, ambulance and supply roles, and from 1942 it was adapted as a light night bomber. Its best-known operators were the women of the 588th Light Night Bomber Regiment, later the 46th Guards "Taman" Regiment, who flew 24,000 combat missions in roughly 1,100 nights. They attacked by throttling back and gliding over the target with the engine at idle, so the troops below often heard only the wind in the bracing wires before the bombs fell. The material damage was modest, but the raids were flown to deprive German troops of sleep night after night, and that was much of the point. In 1944, after Polikarpov's death, the designation was changed from U-2 to Po-2 in his honour. The type fought again in the Korean War, where North Korean Po-2s raided United Nations positions by night and were nicknamed "Bed-Check Charlies"; their wood and canvas construction made them hard for radar-equipped fighters to track.
Afterlife
Production in the Soviet Union ceased in 1951, and licence production in Poland — more than 550 aircraft as the CSS-13 — ended in 1955, though enough spares remained for the last aircraft of the type to be built in 1959. In its later years it carried the NATO reporting name "Mule". Survivors are preserved in museums in many countries, and a small number remain airworthy with collections and private owners. The Shuttleworth Collection's aircraft, built in 1944, was purchased for the Collection in 2004 and flew again on 10 January 2011 after a comprehensive restoration. In Washington state, the Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum's Po-2 wears the honorary markings of the all-women 46th Guards Regiment, keeping the Night Witches' story in front of museum visitors.