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Chapter 11
At the Beginning of the War
In the spring of 1941, there was no more hope for the series production of DB-
A bombers.A sixteen-aircraft series was set up at the Kazan aircraft factory, but the
DB-A did not survive the competition with the Tupolev TB-7 in terms of flight
performance. Tupolev’s “enemy of the people” status notwithstanding, the TB-7
(Pe-8) was still allowed into series production. By late 1940, after twelve aircraft
had been released, work on our Annushka had been halted.
In spite of a series of modifications that experienced designers Zalman Itskovich
and Ilya Flerov had made, the “S” aircraft did not stand up to competition with
Petlyakov’s Pe-2. After the Pe-2 multi-purpose dive-bomber was accepted as a
standard armament, there was no more hope of series production for the “S.”
The subsequent development of the two tandem engines led to the design of
the “I” aircraft—a two-beam configuration dive-bomber with paired pushing
engines. Isayev, who was selected by Bolkhovitinov to head this work along with
Itskovich and Air Force Academy professor Dzyuba, introduced a multitude of
innovations to the design, including the development of the first pilot ejection seat.
I invented many unusual electric drive circuits for the remote control of weapons.
After Isayev and Bereznyak got caught up in work with the rocket-powered interceptor,
work on the “I” slowed down; after 22 June it was halted altogether.
Having restored the joint work with the Air Force Academy professoriate that
was disrupted in 1937 by his transfer to Kazan, Bolkhovitinov revived his idea for
a fast, high-altitude, long-range bomber. Provisionally, in place of “B,” he assigned
it the new designation “D.” This design would be a four-engine, high-speed
bomber with two paired engines with tractor and pusher propellers. The crew
would be located in pressurized cockpits.The aircraft was to be controlled using
electric drives.
It was for this aircraft that I worked on an AC electric equipment system;
devised remote control circuits for the control surfaces, flaps, guns, and machine
guns; and hoped to resuscitate the electronic bomb release.
By the summer of 1941, everything to do with the design of the “D” bomber
was still on the drawing board only, except for my work on alternating current.
Generators using permanent magnets, every imaginable type of AC electric drive,
reduction gears, and voltage and frequency stabilizers gradually filled up every bit
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