Foreign aircraft in Soviet colors

[Micdrow]

Below are pictures of Foreign aircraft in soviet colors from a variety of sources.

[Micdrow]

Part 2 of aircraft that I know of

[Micdrow]

Part 3 of foreign aircraft in soviet colors

[ccheese]

The P-39 and the B-25's were probably lend-lease. Wonder where they got
the P-51, P-47 and P-40 ??

Charles

[Micdrow]

The P-51 and the P-40 I believe came from the british. Below is are some Pby's in soviet markings of which if I remember right got around 45 to 47 off.

[Micdrow]

Below are two documents on the lend lease for Army Air Corp aircraft that where sent overseas to other countries.

Source of Lend Lease documents
http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/englis...ents/index.htm

[Micdrow]

More pictures

[Micdrow]

Some more pictures, again from a variety of sources.

[FLYBOYJ]

[10tweaker]

Micdrow,
Very useful--thanks. Any chance I could talk you into sending me a higher res copy of the P-51? BTW, speaking of that, the Mustang was sent to Russia along with 10 (?) others. I have those serial numbers somewhere--can post that if anyone is interested...


Jim

[Micdrow]

Sent you a private message.

[Njaco]

Looks like the Condor kept the KG 40 badge. Great pics!

[Graeme]

Below is are some Pby's in soviet markings of which if I remember right got around 45 to 47 off.

Consolidated flying boats have a long history with the USSR. I think it all started with the Consolidated Model 28.
One was purchased (NC777) by Amtorg (registered URSS L-2) for the Soviet Government on 18 August 1937 for a search and rescue mission.



They were looking for a DB-A (URSS-H209), which went missing while attempting a non-stop flight from Moscow to the USA via the North Pole.



The DB-A was piloted by Levanevsky and Levchenko and was never found. (The American side of the search was conducted by the famous Australian polar explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins).

Impressed with the Model 28, Amtorg manufactured it with few changes as the GST (gidrosamolet transportnyi, transport seaplane). Surprisingly they were only built for civil use despite being superior to the Beriev MBR-2. Naval authorities apparently showed little interest in the GST.

The final Amtorg ‘version’ of the Catalina was the KM-2 utilising ASh engines.



The search and rescue Model 28 mentioned above, now registered CCCP L-2, was destroyed by a German submarine at Novaya Zemlya in July 1942.

A total of 48 American-built PBY-6A and 137 PBN-1 Catalinas were delivered to the Soviet Union during WWII and some of the reports about the military use of the GST probably refer to these aircraft.

[Micdrow]

Very cool info guys, many thanks.

[antoni]

Model Aircraft Monthly ran a two part article, Feb & March 2007, on Soviet Catalinas. The USSR started licence production before the war. These were for civil use. I doubt if the US Government would have allowed Consolidated to help them build military versions. During the war they received later versions of the Catalina under lend lease.

The search Catalina was a PBY-1 that American scientists had been preparing for an expedition to New Guinea. At the time it was the only civil version of the Catalina in the US. It was called Guba but has been confused with another Catalina named Cuba. They wanted it becuase it had the most advanced instruments, radio and additional fuel tanks. Dr. Archbold, the owner, was reluctant to sell it but great pressure was put on him to do so. The US Navy lifted the embargo on exporting PBY-1s to allow Archbold to receive a replacement out of turn. He was also given a $20,000 discount. During the search Guba was flown by Canadian pilots. (Since the DB-A was likely to have crashed on the northern coast of Alaska or Canada the search was lauchned from that side of the ocean.)It then returned to the US because the US Navy insisted that it could not be delivered to the USSR before 1st November 1937. In December it went back to Consolidated for minor repairs and upgrades. Finally in June 1938 it arrived, unassembled, in sixteen boxes at the Leningrad port Grebnoy.

Guba was lost in late July 1942 of the south-western coast of Novaya Zemlya. U-601 surfaced unexpectedly in the bay and opened fire on two flying boats moored there. Guba was set on fire and sank drowning one of the flight mechanics. The pilot, Kozlov, swam 1,640 feet to the shore in ice cold water.

The lasted edition of Model Aircraft Montly, Jan 2008, has an article on Soviet B-25s.