Antonov A-7

The Antonov A-7 was a light troop glider built in the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Oleg Antonov developed it from an earlier sports glider design after the German attack of 1941 showed that the Red Army needed transport gliders, and it was first known as the RF-8 before taking the A-7 designation, the seven standing for the persons it carried. It was an all-wooden high-wing monoplane with a retractable undercarriage and could carry about seven troops or up to 900 kilograms of cargo. Roughly four hundred were built. Towed mostly by SB and Ilyushin DB-3 bombers, the A-7 was used to supply partisans in Belarus and elsewhere with weapons, equipment and trained men, and to move sabotage groups behind enemy lines. Together with the Gribovsky G-11 it made up the bulk of Soviet transport gliders.