Special purpose transport aircraft First flight: 1945 Yermolaev

Yer-2 ON is a special-purpose transport aircraft. It is reliably known only about one flight of I.V. Stalin by plane, in 1943 to the Tehran conference to meet with F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill. The twin-engine Li-2, specially prepared for this flight, turned out to be the most suitable for this.

However, Li-2 did not meet the requirements of the time in terms of speed, range and flight comfort. Even alterations could not eliminate its shortcomings. And then it was decided to create a special aircraft for the flights of the country's top leadership. By order of NKAP No. 351 dated May 23, 1944, the development of a "special purpose" aircraft was entrusted to the design bureau of V.G. Ermolaev. For the fastest execution of the mission, the aircraft was decided to be built on the basis of the Yer-2 bomber under the designation Yer-2ON. In addition to excellent flight characteristics, there was another important condition - the aircraft engines ran on heavy diesel fuel, which is much safer in terms of fire safety. Particular attention was paid to the comfort of the passenger compartment, its interior, the convenience of communication between important persons in flight, the aisle for warm-ups, etc. All this was worked out on special full-scale models and was carefully adopted by the commission.

At the same time, similar orders were issued for the alteration of Pe-8 (Pe-8 ON) and B-25C. Despite the "extraordinary" instructions, the construction of the machines was delayed, since in August 1944 they had to go through a mock-up commission, and dangerous defects of the serial ACh-30B diesel engines manufactured at plant No. 500 were revealed, which required unconditional elimination.

N.V. Sinelnikov was appointed the lead engineer for EP-2 ON. All weapons were removed from the plane, and in place of the bomb bay and fuselage tanks, a passenger compartment of increased comfort with nine seats plus a place for a steward was equipped. The crew of the aircraft for special flights was increased: it consisted of the commander, co-pilot, navigator, radio operator and two flight attendants.

Factory tests of the vehicle began in February, and on April 16, 1945, the first Yer-2 ON under the control of Alekseev made a successful non-stop flight from Irkutsk to Moscow, in 15 hours 30 minutes. The second such machine was flight tested at the end of April.

Flight tests found that the plane could fly at a speed of 435 kilometers per hour for a range of 5,200 km at an altitude of 6,000 m. The plane was to be built in small series in Irkutsk, but the death of Ermolaev on the eve of the new 1945 violated these plans.

After the death of Ermolaev, his design bureau was merged with the P.O. Sukhoi, where further work was carried out on the special-purpose aircraft. Several machines have been built and tested successfully. It was only required to bring its highly economical diesel engines to the calculated resource. However, the OKB P.O. Sukhoi, engaged in the development of fighters, was not interested in the subject inherited "by inheritance." Gradually, the work was curtailed.

Photo	Description
	Drawing Yer-2
	Yermolaev Yer-2 ON

Bibliography

• "The history of designs of planes in USSR 1938-1950" /Vadim Shavrov/
• "Avia Master # 2 1999 " /Al. Medved, Dm. Khazanov/
• "Planes of Stalin falcons" /Konstantin Kosminkov and Dmitriy Grinyuk/