Tupolev ANT-9

The Tupolev ANT-9 was a Soviet passenger aircraft of the 1930s, developed to give the country a domestic airliner at a time when Deruluft, one of the forerunners of Aeroflot, flew only foreign models, mostly German or Dutch. Design work began in December 1927, and the first prototype, named Krylia Sovietov (Wings of the Soviets), used three French Gnome-Rhone Titan radial engines and was presented on Red Square on 1 May 1929. In July and August 1929 Mikhail Gromov flew it on a European tour of 9,037 km with eight passengers, which brought considerable publicity. Series aircraft first replaced the Titan engines with unreliable M-26 engines and then with imported Wright Whirlwind engines, and from 1933 the PS-9 with two Mikulin M-17 engines was built in about 70 examples. The type served Aeroflot, Deruluft, the Soviet Air Force and Turkish operators, and was used as transport and medical aircraft until 1943.