2-2020 BERIJEW BE-4 RADZIECKA ROZPOZNAWCZA ŁÓDZ LATAJĄCA

The KOR-1 flying boat was designed in the period 1934-35 by the Beriev design office. The machine was to replace the Heinkel HD55 taking off from the catapult, carried by Soviet warships. The prototype first flew around April 1936. In the following year, although its usefulness was limited by problems with buoyancy, as well as insufficient stiffness of the structure on the water and during catapult launch, the plane entered service and was produced (300 aircraft were built) until 1940. While Beriew was trying to improve the structure KOR-1, the operations of most earlier aircraft were confined to the coast. In 1939, under the changed designation of KOR-2, the machine was approved for offshore operations, even without weapons and with a limited launch from the water surface instead of a catapult. Before the Beriev plant in Taganrog was captured by Nemtsov in the fall of 1941, a small number of these aircraft had been built and small series production of the Be-4 started in Krasnoyarsk. Technical data: Maximum speed: 356 km / h, maximum ceiling 8100 m, maximum range: 1150 km, armament: fixed - two 7.62mm ShKAS machine guns, suspended - up to 400 kg of bombs.