Tupolev MTB-2

The Tupolev MTB-2 (Morskoi Tyazhely Bombardirovshchik, heavy naval bomber), also known as the ANT-44, was a Soviet four-engine flying boat built in the late 1930s. Soviet Naval Aviation issued the requirement in March 1935 for an aircraft able to attack land and naval targets and also carry 35 to 40 people and cargo. Tupolev answered with an all-metal design with a shoulder-mounted gull wing and a two-step hull divided into seven watertight compartments. Two prototypes were built; the first flew on 19 April 1937 and sank after a heavy landing in February 1939. The second, the ANT-44bis, set a series of world records for flying boats in 1940, including an altitude of 7,595 m without payload. Production was cancelled in January 1940, but after June 1941 the surviving aircraft bombed Romanian targets and evacuated wounded from Sevastopol until it was shot down in 1942.