Working under the threat of execution, Petlyakov’s team met the impossible deadline. They stripped the VI-100 of its pressurized cabin, added dive brakes, and modified the fuselage to hold a bomb bay. Stalin was so impressed with the result that he granted Petlyakov his freedom.
In 1937, legendary engineer was arrested during Stalin’s Great Purge for allegedly delaying design work. While imprisoned in a sharashka (a secret laboratory within the Gulag system), he was ordered to design a high-altitude heavy fighter called the VI-100 .
: It was so fast that it could often outrun German Messerschmitts, a rare feat for a bomber.
Working under the threat of execution, Petlyakov’s team met the impossible deadline. They stripped the VI-100 of its pressurized cabin, added dive brakes, and modified the fuselage to hold a bomb bay. Stalin was so impressed with the result that he granted Petlyakov his freedom.
In 1937, legendary engineer was arrested during Stalin’s Great Purge for allegedly delaying design work. While imprisoned in a sharashka (a secret laboratory within the Gulag system), he was ordered to design a high-altitude heavy fighter called the VI-100 . Working under the threat of execution, Petlyakov’s team
: It was so fast that it could often outrun German Messerschmitts, a rare feat for a bomber. Working under the threat of execution