Inheriting Bartini’s bureau

Vladimir Yermolayev, a 1931 graduate of Moscow State University, worked under the Italian-born designer Roberto Bartini on the Stal-7, a fast twin-engined airliner. When Bartini was arrested in Stalin’s purges, Yermolayev took over his design bureau at Plant No. 89 of the civil air fleet and finished turning the Stal-7 into a long-range bomber, the DB-240. The airframe was almost entirely redesigned, with the pilot’s cockpit offset to port for a better view. It first flew on 14 May 1940 and entered production as the Yer-2 in March 1941.

The Yer-2 over Berlin

The Yer-2 was underpowered, slower than promised and short on defensive guns, but it carried a heavy load a long way. On the evening of 10 August 1941 Yer-2s of the 420th Long-Range Bomber Regiment, with Pe-8s, set out from Pushkino near Leningrad to bomb Berlin; the runway was so short that only three fully loaded Yer-2s got off. Production was halted that month after 128 aircraft, to free the factory for the Il-2, and the survivors were thrown into costly ground-attack missions in the Battle of Moscow.

Diesels, typhus and Sukhoi

The bureau was evacuated to Irkutsk, and in 1942 Yermolayev took over experimental Plant No. 134 in Moscow. Work on fuel-efficient Charomskiy diesel engines produced the Yer-2/ACh-30B, which re-entered production at the end of 1943 and flew combat missions again in April 1945, staying with Long-Range Aviation until the Tu-4 arrived. Yermolayev, by then a major general of the engineering service, died of typhus on 31 December 1944, aged 36. His bureau passed to Pavel Sukhoi.

Заводы

• Plant No. 89 · Moscow — Bartini’s former civil air fleet bureau
• Plant No. 39 · Irkutsk — Wartime evacuation and Yer-2 production
• Plant No. 134 · Moscow — Experimental plant led by Yermolayev from 1942

Люди

• Vladimir Yermolayev · chief designer (1908–1944) — Major general of the engineering-aviation service from August 1944
• Roberto Bartini · mentor — Designer of the Stal-7; arrested before the DB-240 was completed