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Aircraft Designators - Inter-War

All lists are lies. Long lists bury the important amid the trivial, and short lists are without texture or nuance. The challenge at hand is to triage these aircraft and include enough prototype and designs to give a flavor of the times, without burying the important aircraft in an avalance of doodles on napkins. For those seeking completeness, consult "History of aircraft design in the USSR until 1938" V.B.Shavrov, ed., [Moscow "Engineering" in 1978, 576 pp., with a circulation of 25,000 copies] describes about 800 serial, experimental and original types of domestic aircraft entered the history of the period.

From 1925 to 1940, many different designation systems were used for Soviet aircraft. Matters are further complicated by the fact that from 1925 to 1940, several different designation systems were used for Soviet aircraft. The People's Commissariat of Defense (NKO Narodny Komissariat Oborony) had a system for specific military operation for which the aircraft was designed, similar to the American systems. But even this "system" was very un-American [that is, in exact numerical sequence]. This designation system, while similar to the long standing US Air Force Mission Designation System taxonomy [F = fighter, B = bomber, etc], is noteworthy in several regards. In contrast to the American system, the Soviet system was far more granular, with over three dozen designators, compared to about a dozen American designators. Some of the designators had consecutive numerical sequences, notably Long-range Heavy Bombers, while others were little more than a grab-bag of random alpha-numeric designators [eg, despite the existence of the PS-124 / ANT-20 bis, fewer than a dozen other identifiable aircraft had the PS Passenger Aircraft designator, and none were in discernable sequence].

This Soviet designator system was prevalent at a time when the actual mission distinctions between some classes of aircraft were quite hazy - designers would fabricate prototype airframes that were potentially applicable to a variety of missions. Commonly, a single airframe would be put forward to do service as a bomber, a mail plane, and a passenger plane. This taxonomic ambiguity was not uniquely Soviet, but was particularly pronounced in the land of the Soviets. Prototypes did not receive mission designators until accepted for service by the People's Commissariat, so most aircraft of the period only received design bureau designators. And there were many, many design bureaux. And many many prototypes.

And, as seen in Germany, each designer had another designator, usually based on the initials of the designer or organisation. This could get confusing - for example, A.N.Tupolev's ANT-6 was also known as the TB-3, etc. Of note, unlike the Cold War system of designators based on production organisation, these designators were personal to the designer himself. This could get confusing - for example, A.N.Tupolev's ANT-52 [aka SZ and BB-1] was also known as the Su-2.

One-off prototypes, which were seemingly without number in this time before computer simulation, would receive a design bureau designator but not an Air Force designator. Soon after the formation of the People's Commissariat of Aviation Industry [NKAP Narodny Komissariat Aviatsionnoy Promyshlennosti] in 1939, only design bureau designators were used. By the end of 1940, when the aircraft designation system was introduced in the USSR, the names of the heads of the design teams [not bureaux] were used.

Further enriching [complicating??] matters is the existence of yet a third designator series, derived from the TsKB - Central Design Bureau - Projects. This alphanumeric series was in use during the 1930s to reference either designs deriving from one or the other design bureaux of the secret police, or the "super" design bureau that was associated with TsAGI. The details of all this a a bit hazy.

There were also many local designation systems. Thuss it should also be noted that the projects of a number of I-153 modifications, made in a special design bureau of Plant No. 1, had their own system for designating new developments from I-153 to I-171. Of the modifications created in this group, the I-153 without braces with improved aerodynamics (the so-called I-153 uncracked or I-153B), I-154 with M-63, I-157 are mentioned in the documents. More detailed information about these projects from I-154 on I-16 8 was not preserved, since the documentation of the design bureau of plant No. 1 was destroyed during its evacuation to Kuibyshev during the Great Patriotic War.

Systems for the designation

Pre-revolutionary Russia Imperial (until 1917) did not have a single national unified system, but instead relied on aircraft backed by manufacturers like Sikorsky Ilya Muromets or Anetra Anasal.

The pre-war Soviet power

Soviet power, used from shortly after the revolution in 1923 and, until gradually replaced after 1940, was divided into function with numbers assigned to the government's order. common as there were multiple values for individual emails. Designers and manufacturers also had their own internal designations, which could be confused for official government designations. For example, Tupolev's projects used MURAVYa pointer for A.N. Tupolev, and Yakovlev's projects used Air for A.I. Rykov, the communist leader to whom he reported. Not all designations were raised, some numbers were assigned to projects that were subsequently canceled, often at a very early stage of development.

Print prefixes

(Cyrillic signs in round bracket)

• A-4 -
TsAGI
• A-7 - Kamov
• Arctic Research Aircraft)
  • ARK 3 - Chietverikov
  ARK 5 - Polikarpov R-5
  • B (B) - Bombardishchik (bomber) (Universal designation - not used for