Russia's Forgotten WW2 Heavy Bomber, and Why It Failed | Petlyakov Pe-8

Today we're looking at the Petlyakov Pe-8, a sometimes overlooked heavy bomber that was developed by the Soviet Union. It saw service in WW2, but its limited production run meant that it never achieved the fame of its western counterparts.

0:00 Intro & Design Origins
2:35 Prototype Design Proposal
3:53 Prototype Construction (Spoiler: it gets complicated)
8:16 Design & Construction Problems
12:34 Second Prototype
14:35 War Thunder Promo
16:31 Things Get Even Worse For the Design Team...
19:06 Redesign and Engine Changes
21:02 WW2 Service (and more engine changes...)
25:17 Flying Molotov To The Allies
26:15 The Engine Saga Continues...
28:12 Postwar Life
29:56 The Pe-8s Legacy

Sources:
Gordon.Y. & Rigmant.V. (2005), OKB Yupolev: A History of The Design Bureau and It's Aircraft.
Duffy.P. & Kandalov.A. (1996), Tupolev: The Man and His Aircraft.
Gunston.B. (1995), Tupolev Aircraft Since 1922.
Unger.U (1993), Petljakow PE-8: Der Sowjetische Fernbomber.

[RexsHangar]

F.A.Q Section

Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)

Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.

Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)

Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.

[zdor]

Not forgotten but despised in a certain military online combat game.

[MenwithHill]

Actually, its most effective role was arguably revenge CAS

[CWHistory]

The PE-8 isnt forgotten, it still terrorizes War Thunder players to this day

[coisinho]

One of my favorite activities in il2 was shooting these down when they were carrying the 5000 bomb, the explosion effect when they went down looked like a nuke

[jameslawrie]

It's commonly assumed that the B-24 factory was left running and no one managed to get it turned off before there was 18, 000 airframes piled up outside.

[meitynajoan]

T'was said that for every single enemy vehicle taken out by it's bomb, 3 allied vehicles taken out by the same bomb of this aircraft

[AnakinSkyobiliviator]

>PE-8
>Forgotten
>Shudders in War Thunder ground battles

[vantuz]

One major reason why Pe-8 couldn't be built in numbers was... *TORPEDO BOATS* .
And i'm not even joking.
Marshall Tukhachevsky (later "unfairly" executed during the purge) was so impressed by the UK raid on Krondshtadt harbour 18 aug 1919 that he assigned a lot of funds to development and major production of Sh-4 and G-5 classes of hydroplaning torpedo boats to... ambush enemy fleet when it comes very close to soviet ports. Sounds dumb already?

*Tupolev* was the head designer of these boats. Not the best use of his time if you ask me.

UK torpedo boats were made out of durable red wood, which wasn't available in USSR. Instead *duraluminium* was used to make them.
UK torpedo boats had displacement of 4 tons. G-5 had 15 tons, which required significantly more powerful engines. Each G-5 torpedo boats was powered by *2 GAM-34 engines* (a version of the engine used in Pe-8)

The boats were total garbage. They required a completely calm water to operate because any waves badly affected movement and torpedo use. In addition salt water is corrosive for duraluminium so the boats had to be stored ashore preferably in heated and well-vented hangars.

And now, drumrolls... Despite all that 84 of Sh-4 and 333 of G-5 boats were built. That's 166 sets of engines for Pe-8 and hundreds of tons of precious duraluminium. These boats without a doubt torpedoed the whole soviet aviation both bombers and fighters for a decade.

[mirthenary]

Rex- "The entire bomber program encountered a problem...
Me- "Stalin"
Rex- ..."The great purge"
Me "yep"

[Dr_Jebus]

Absolutely love the new 3D animations. Pity about not being able to include more in this one, but look forward to more in future videos.

[jiroproduction]

TB-3: WW1 version of the Pe-8

Pe-8: WW2 version of the TB-3

_Now there's two of them_

[pancharder]

Youre a real one for covering soviet aircraft that almost no other channels talk about

[Vinemaple]

Seems to me that Soviet WW2 aircraft all have fascinating, "Development Hell" origin stories... thanks for this, I had a great half hour!

[LB]

Speaking of bombers. Would love to see some Soviet workhorses of the war: the Tupolev Tu-2 and Petlyakov Pe-2

[stevetournay]

Had no idea there'd been a radial Pe8. That could have been an excellent patrol bomber in the manner of the Liberator...and those late war and postwar test models are wild!

[ShokkuKyushu]

It's interesting that a variant of those diesel engines powered the is7 prototype. Probably the largest tank engine by displacement (?).

[jimgordon]

Hi from Dundee, Scotland. The photo of the PE8 in Scotland, was taken about 5 miles from here at Tealing aerodrome. Some people still remember its visit! The aerodrome later became a farm. There are still remains of it.

[John.McMillan]

I certainly cannot say it is forgotton on ANY forum, but by all means it's role and use greatly over looked.

Games like War Thunder may have popularised it's existance but the actual use and role are generally forgotton as there were bombers the Soviet Union had along side this that performed what most people would think roles the PE-8 filled.

In reality the PE-8 for a short while was actually a quite impressive heavy long range bomber.

Granted, the Soviets could be described by "Advanced for their time, outdated for their war."


Fun fact: Much like the TB-3, for a short time the PE-8 also had a consideration of carrying I-16's under it's wings. Though I cannot find if this was actually ever done.

[kevinmello]

This is why I thoroughly enjoy your channel. Until today I didn't realize the soviets had any strategic bombers beyond the TB-3.