Bartini

Order of Battle · Aircraft manufacturers · Soviet Union

Bartini

Robert Ludvigovich Bartini · Roberto Oros di Bartini · OKB-86

The mysterious Red Baron of Soviet aviation: an Italian communist of uncertain birth who built record-breaking steel aircraft, designed in a prison bureau, and ended with the vertical-take-off VVA-14 ekranoplan.

DefunctStatus
6Aircraft on record
Photo: User:Jno / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)
CountrySoviet UnionFoundersRobert BartiniHeadquartersMoscow, later Omsk, Taganrog and NovosibirskStatusDefunct
The story

Bartini: the company and the aircraft that made its name

A man with many origins

Even Bartini’s birth is a puzzle. Born in Fiume in 1897, he gave widely varying accounts of his parents, hinting at Hungarian nobility. After capture on the Eastern Front and years in a Siberian camp, he joined the Italian Communist Party, studied at the Politecnico di Milano, and after the Fascist takeover of 1922 was sent to the Soviet Union, where he was nicknamed the Red Baron. Bartini had studied aeronautics at Milan and attended flying school in 1921.

Steel aeroplanes and a prison bureau

In the 1930s Bartini designed the Stal (steel) series. The Stal-6 fighter set a Soviet speed record in 1933, and the twin-engined Stal-7 airliner later flew 5,068 km non-stop at an average 405 km/h. In 1938 he was arrested as a supposed Italian spy and sentenced to ten years. He kept working in prison design bureaux, alongside Andrei Tupolev on the Tu-2, then led his own bureau, OKB-86, in Omsk. Meanwhile his Stal-7 became the Yermolayev Yer-2 bomber.

Ground-effect dreams

Released in 1946 and rehabilitated in 1956, Bartini turned to ekranoplans, craft that fly in ground effect. His last project, the VVA-14, was meant to hunt Polaris submarines; its first prototype flew on 4 September 1972. Bartini died in Moscow in 1974, and the project faded. Sergei Korolev called him his teacher, and asteroid 4982 Bartini bears his name. The Bartini effect, a drag-reducing tandem propeller arrangement first used on his DAR flying boat, is also named after him.

The mysterious Red Baron of Soviet aviation: an Italian communist of uncertain birth who built record-breaking steel aircraft, designed in a prison bureau, and ended with the vertical-take-off VVA-14 ekranoplan.Bartini · verified 2026-10-03
At a glance

Bartini in numbers

The company

In short
Bartini design bureaux

  • Robert Bartini, 1897–1974
  • Led OKB-86 in Omsk until 1943
  • Later at Taganrog and Novosibirsk

Production

Best known for
Stal-7 and VVA-14

  • Stal-6 and Stal-7 record aircraft
  • Stal-7 developed into the Yer-2 bomber
  • VVA-14 vertical take-off ekranoplan

Today

Now
Work ended 1974

  • VVA-14 abandoned after his death

The numbers

Stal-7 non-stop flight
5,068 km at 405 km/h average1939
Yer-2 bombers built
about 360–370
VVA-14 prototypes
2
The aircraft

Every notable Bartini aircraft

Aircraft Role First flight Built Status Note
Bartini Stal-6 Experimental fighter 1933 1 Retired Set a Soviet speed record in 1933
Bartini Stal-7 Twin-engine transport 1935 1 Retired Stainless steel; long-distance record flight 1939
Bartini DAR Arctic reconnaissance flying boat 1936 1 Retired Stainless steel; gave its name to the Bartini effect
Yermolayev Yer-2 Long-range bomber 1940 about 360–370 Retired Developed by Yermolayev from the Stal-7
Beriev Be-1 Ground-effect research craft Retired Light amphibious ekranoplan
Bartini Beriev VVA-14 Vertical take-off amphibious ekranoplan 1972 2 Retired Anti-submarine concept; cancelled after Bartini’s death
Places, people, records

Where Bartini built, who led it, what it achieved

People

  • Robert Bartini · designer — Born Fiume 1897, died Moscow 1974; Order of Lenin 1967
  • Nikolai Shebanov · test pilot — Flew the Stal-7 from spring 1935
  • Vladimir Yermolayev · designer — Repaired the Stal-7 and developed it into the Yer-2

Records and firsts

  • Stal-6 set a Soviet speed record, 1933
  • Stal-7 flew 5,068 km non-stop Moscow–Sverdlovsk–Sevastopol–Moscow at 405 km/h average, 28 August 1939
Timeline

Bartini, year by year

1897

Robert Bartini born in Fiume

1933

Stal-6 fighter flies and sets a Soviet speed record

1935

Stal-7 transport first flies

1938

Arrested and sentenced to ten years

1939

Stal-7 completes its 5,068 km non-stop flight

1940

Yer-2, derived from the Stal-7, first flies

1946

Released from prison

1956

Officially rehabilitated

1967

Awarded the Order of Lenin

1972

VVA-14 first flight

1974

Bartini dies in Moscow

The family tree

Before and after Bartini

Came afterYermolayevDeveloped the Stal-7 into the Yer-2 from 1939Read the Yermolayev pageCame afterBerievBuilt the Be-1 and VVA-14 at TaganrogRead the Beriev page
Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about Bartini

Who was Robert Bartini?
An Italian-born Soviet aircraft designer, 1897–1974, known for steel aircraft and ekranoplans.
What was the VVA-14?
An experimental vertical take-off amphibious ekranoplan designed for anti-submarine warfare; it first flew in 1972.
Why was Bartini called the Red Baron?
Because of his rumoured noble Italian ancestry.
What became of the Stal-7?
It was developed by Yermolayev into the Yer-2 long-range bomber.

Continue the tour

Around Bartini

RussiaMilA Siberian railwayman’s son who started with autogyros built the design bureau behind the most-produced helicopter in history and the heaviest-lifting rotorcraft…Read the Mil pageRussiaMikoyanTwo engineers handed a disgraced rival’s fighter in 1939 built the bureau whose initials became the West’s word for any Soviet jet — more than 11,000…Read the Mikoyan pageThe indexAll aircraft manufacturersEvery company that built an aircraft flown by the air forces in the Order of Battle, current and historic.Open the list
Sources & Further Reading

Every fact, checked

Verified 2026-10-03.