Yakovlev Yak-2

The Yakovlev Yak-2 was a short-range Soviet light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft of the Second World War, first known as the Ya-22 and redesignated in 1941. It was a twin-engined aircraft of mixed construction with the pilot in the nose and a navigator-gunner behind the wing, and the unarmed prototype reached 567 km/h at 9,900 metres, making it the fastest multi-engined aircraft in the Soviet Union. Stalin ordered it into production as the BB-22 in March 1939 before evaluation, and tests then found inadequate engine cooling, troublesome brakes and an unreliable fuel system. Few were built and most were lost in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa.