"1 day - 1 exhibit": Sky slow-mover

The  "Kazan reporter" continues the project "1 day - 1 exhibit". Today we will go to a place where the main values ​​of the collection are hidden from the eyes of visitors - to the funds. The collection of the RT National Museum  contains more than 800 thousand exhibits. Among them there is even an airplane The  U-2 biplane, produced by Kazan aircraft builders, is a real legend, sung in songs and cinematography. Suffice it to say, 60 pilots who fought on this plane, became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

Everyone who finds himself in the funds of RT NM  certainly asks himself how they managed to get the plane here. The circumstances of the transfer of the biplane are not even remembered by museum old-timers, but the fact remains that a legendary plane U-2 stands on the second floor of the former Gostiny Dvor.

The Kazan history of the U-2 began in August 1941, when the Leningrad plant was evacuated to the capital of Tatarstan. Soon here production  of the U-2 machine designed by N.N. Polikarpov was set up.

These planes were far from being military, they were intended for initial training in flight schools and flying clubs. Almost all  the Soviet pilots of that time started on these biplanes. The plane was called the "school desk". Other nicknames: "shelf", "maize", "mule", "Sky  slow-mover", "Russian plywood" will appear later, during the war, when the training aircraft is altered under combat one. Externally, small, unpretentious, it was these airplanes that played an important role in the history of the country's military aviation.

During the Great Patriotic War, the aircraft  was launched into batch production as a light bomber.

The extreme simplicity of this biplane became its main advantage. U-2 "forgave" the pilot a lot of mistakes and for the steering wheel it was possible to put even an inexperienced pilot. Due to the slow speed, the biplane could fly at extremely low altitudes, where among the treetops it was simply invisible to Luftwaffe pilots.

It was on it that the famous "Night Witches" flew, a legendary female 46th Aviation Regiment. The Germans, who at first contemptuously called the Russian airplane "Russian plywood", nicknamed brave pilots "night witches," Hitler established a special award for the destruction of each aircraft.

Among the "Night Witches" there was our countrywoman, Hero of the Soviet Union Maguba Syrtlanova. During the war she carried out 780 combat   flights.

The aircraft, eventually named PO-2 after its designer, Nikolai Polikarpov, became a multi-purpose aircraft, it was also used for reconnaissance, communication with partisan detachments, even as a tanker for the transfer of fuel. Modifications were made to this machine - connected, staff, sanitary and so on.

Until the end of the war, Kazan aircraft manufacturers produced more than 11,000 PO-2 bombers that made a huge contribution to the overall Victory.

In recent decades, museum visitors have not had the opportunity to see this unique machine, and in fact, almost 40 years - from 1951 to 1987 - the aircraft was in the exposition and has always been the object of increased interest of the public. After the fire in 1987, it was stored in an unsuitable room and it needs restoration.

Anton Raikhstad, together with the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan.