An exhibition on the Po-2 biplane: flying-club training, the night bomber regiments and half a century of civil service.
The Polikarpov Po-2 was built from 1928 and became the most-produced biplane in history: hundreds of thousands of flying-club cadets learned on it. The museum’s example is presented as a night bomber of the 46th Guards Regiment — the famous Night Witches.
The exhibition explains why slowness became a combat advantage: with a stall speed of about 65 km/h the aircraft could approach a target with its engine throttled back. Nearby stand the Yak-3 and La-7 fighters, nearly all of whose pilots began on the Po-2.
A separate case covers the aircraft’s postwar civil career and its successor, the An-2, which continued the line of rugged utility biplanes.
