Beriev MBR-7

The Beriev MBR-7, sometimes called the Beriev MS-8, was a Soviet short-range reconnaissance and bomber flying boat developed by the Beriev design bureau at Taganrog as a successor to the MBR-2. Its designation abbreviates the Russian for naval short-range reconnaissance aircraft. It was a more advanced design of similar layout to the MBR-2: a mainly wooden cantilever shoulder-wing monoplane flying boat with a Klimov M-103 inline piston engine mounted on struts above the wing, driving a pusher propeller. The pilot sat in an enclosed cockpit in the nose with access to a fixed forward-firing machine gun, while the observer and gunner sat under a glazed canopy that slid forward to expose a pintle-mounted ShKAS machine gun. Performance was excellent, with a listed top speed of 376 km/h and a range of 1,215 km, but because Klimov engines were in short supply it was decided to keep building the MBR-2, and the MBR-7 did not go into production.