Beriev Be-4

The Beriev Be-4, first designated KOR-2, was a reconnaissance flying boat built to operate from Soviet warships during World War II. Beriev was ordered in 1939 to develop a successor to the troublesome KOR-1, and the new parasol-winged monoplane, with a slight inverse-gull wing and a large radial engine in a nacelle above the fuselage, first flew on 21 October 1940 at Taganrog. Series production was ordered in January 1941, but the war left only two aircraft finished before the factory was dismantled and evacuated to Omsk and then Krasnoyarsk, where production resumed in May 1943 and ran to the end of 1945. In all about 47 were completed. The Black Sea Fleet used the Be-4 from 1942 for coastal reconnaissance, anti-submarine and transport duties, and it also flew from the cruisers Maxim Gorki and Kirov.