Sukhoi Su-2
The Sukhoi Su-2 was a Soviet reconnaissance and light bomber of the Second World War, and the first aircraft designed by Pavel Sukhoi. Developed inside the Tupolev bureau from the ANT-51, which took a production place in the 1936 Ivanov contest, it entered production as the BB-1 and was renamed Su-2 in 1940. Under-armed and vulnerable in the ground-attack role, it took heavy losses in 1941-42 and was withdrawn from the front line in 1942 as the Ilyushin Il-2 took over, finishing its service in training, reconnaissance and artillery-spotting work before retirement in 1944. Published production totals disagree, at 893 to 910 aircraft.
Why It Mattered
The Su-2 was the first airplane designed by Pavel Sukhoi, drawn up while he was still working inside Andrei Tupolev's design bureau. It emerged from the Ivanov contest begun in 1936, a Soviet competition for one aircraft that would perform reconnaissance and then attack the targets it had found. History of War records that the Tupolev ANT-51 was one of two Ivanov designs to reach production, as the BB-1 short distance bomber, before being redesignated the Su-2. It entered service with the Soviet Air Forces early in 1941, months before the German invasion, and History of War calls it an important aircraft early in the war.
Design Notes
M. M. Gromov took the ANT-51 prototype up for its first flight on 25 August 1937; it was powered by a Shvetsov M-62 radial. Its speed was judged insufficient, so the aircraft was retested with a more powerful Tumansky M-87 and accepted into production as the BB-1. Renamed Su-2 in 1940, it swapped the unreliable M-87 for a Tumansky M-88, and in lightened M-88B form reached 512 km/h in testing. Sukhoi had intended an all-metal aircraft with its bombs carried inside the fuselage for speed, but the Soviet Union's aluminium shortage forced a mixed wood-and-metal structure instead. The fuselage was a semi-monocoque with wood spars under a plywood skin, the wings were duralumin and steel, the two crewmen sat behind 9 mm of armour, and even the tailwheel retracted. Two offshoots went no further: the ShB ground-attack version was dropped because the Ilyushin Il-2 was available, and the improved Su-4 was built and tested as a single prototype but never put into production.
Operational History
When Germany invaded in June 1941 the type was only just entering service: one regiment, the 135th, was fully equipped with Su-2s, and seven more regiments had received a few each. By the start of the Great Patriotic War the design was already obsolete and under-armed, and the ground-attack squadrons flying it suffered heavy losses against the Germans, some 222 aircraft being destroyed. Aviastar's account calls the Su-2 desperately vulnerable, nearly unable to defend itself with the single small-calibre machine-gun in its manually operated dorsal turret. Short of aircraft in the war's first phase, the Soviet Air Forces even used some Su-2s as emergency fighters. On 12 September 1941 Senior Lieutenant Yekaterina Zelenko is reported to have rammed a German Me 109 with her Su-2, described in Russian references as the only known aerial ramming carried out by a woman. Yet a published comparison of Soviet attack types credits the Su-2 with an average of 80 missions flown before an aircraft was lost, more than the Pe-2's 54 or the two-seat Il-2's 26. Efforts to keep the type competitive, including a version with the more powerful M-82 radial, were given up in favour of all-out dependence on the Il-2. During 1942 the Su-2 left front-line service, giving way to the Ilyushin Il-2, Petlyakov Pe-2 and Tupolev Tu-2. Production was discontinued that year; published totals disagree, an English-language history giving 910 aircraft built and a Russian factory-by-factory table 893.
Afterlife
Out of front-line service, the Su-2 was relegated to training and reconnaissance duties. The good view from its cockpit found it a second wartime role: Russian references describe it used successfully as an artillery spotter in the second half of the war. The type was retired in 1944, its service formally ending at the start of that year. No original Su-2 is known to survive; in their place, full-size replicas built from the design bureau's original drawings represent the type in Russia. A full-size replica stands in the Battle of Stalingrad museum exposition in Volgograd, restored in 2010 by specialists from the Sukhoi company. Another full-size mockup is displayed in Victory Park in Moscow.