Crashed Petlyakov TB-7 winter 1941/42
Rear turret with ShkaS machine guns 1940
Pe-8 main gear 1942
Molotov’s Pe-8 42066 at RAF Pealing 20 May 1942
Pe-8 ASh-82
Pe-8 nose turret
Transport plane Pe-8ON 42712, Kazan 1945
Prototype ANT-42 1937
Prototype ANT-42 1937
Maj Simonov with Pe-8 ASh-82 1943
Major Sugak Sergey Savelyevich and Pe-8 42058 M-82 of the 746th Regiment (746-й отдельный авиационный полк дальнего действия) 1943
Soviet heavy bomber Pe-8 ASh-82 on the snow-covered airfield
Pe-8 in USA June 1942
Engine mounted gun turret of TB-7
Pe-8 and FAB-250 bombs 1943
Pe-8 crew
Pe-8 ASh 82
Pe-8 AM-35A 1942
Pe-8 AM-35 and crew of the 25 GAPDD (25-й гвардейский авиационный полк дальнего действия) 26 June 1944
Heavy bomber Pe-8 of the 746 APDD in flight
Pe-8 4214 1945
Pe-8 20mm SzwaK
Pe-8 AM-35A 421806 – 20 mm SzwaK
Pe-8 42066 in Washington 1942
Pe-8 42066 Molotov’s plane arriving at RAF Pealing 20 May 1942
Pilots of Pe-8 AM-35 1942
Crashed Pe-8
Soviet 5 ton bomb FAB-5000 for Pe-8
Pe-8 (other designations 42, ANT-42, TB-7) was a Soviet four-engine long-range heavy bomber (sometimes classified as strategic) of the Second World War.
It was designed as a heavy bomber to replace the TB-3. Work on the ANT-42 began in 1934, and the prototype made its maiden flight on December 27, 1936. The TB-7s in service reached the 14 TBAP at Kiev-Borispol, in September 1939, but reliability was initially limited by spares shortages. The first operating unit was reorganized and re-designated several times, but as the 412th TBAP, attacked Berlin on August 9, 1941. Production of the type was constrained by engine shortages, and the 97 aircraft built were powered by at least 6 different types of engine.
According to its flight performance characteristics, the TB-7 with high-altitude engines AM-35A corresponded to the best world models of aircraft of this class. The German four-engine bomber FW-200C was inferior to the Pe-8 in almost all respects. USAAF heavy bombers, the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Libererator, had a flight range close to the Pe-8 and bomb load – the main indicators of the combat effectiveness of aircraft of this class. With a power load close to the Pe-8, these aircraft had 30–60% higher specific wing load and, as a result, higher flight speed, but also higher take-off and landing speeds, requiring a longer runway with a well-prepared surface and good approaches.
B-17 and B-24 were superior to the Pe-8 in the quality of their engines, more powerful, more high-rise and more economical than the Soviet AM-35A engine. These American engines, equipped with more reliable and more powerful turbochargers, provided the B-17 and B-24 aircraft with superiority in altitude, speed and economy of cruising flight, compared to the Pe-8. At the same time, the Pe-8, thanks to the large absolute and relative dimensions of the wing, even with a larger specific gravity of the AM-35A engines, up to the height limit, developed a speed close to the speeds of B-17 and B-24, which indicates a high aerodynamic perfection Pe-8. In 1943, in connection with the cessation of the production of AM-35A engines, air-cooled engines were installed on the Pe-8, which slightly reduced the speed and altitude indicators of the aircraft, but the effectiveness of its combat use did not change significantly. The bomb load of 5,000 kg for the Petlyakov bomber was not ultimate. In individual flights, experienced crew commanders took a bomb load of up to 6,000 kg – making full use of the carrying capacity of internal and external bomb racks.
Петляков Пе-8 served with great success and distinction throughout the war. It enjoyed a long postwar career as a rugged and dependable transport, being employed in Aeroflot’s Polar Division until the late 1950s.