2/3- Secret Russian Aircraft of WWII

History has overlooked the unimaginable hardships Russian designers faced under the paranoid rule of Josef Stalin. Frequent purges represented a constant threat. Yet, in spite of the ever-present danger, Soviet aircraft designers mastered technical hurdles astonishing even by today's standards. This hour features extensive archive images of never-before-seen aircraft and the designers who brought them to life. The innovative aircraft profiled include a swept-wing Delta aircraft design; a rocket-powered fighter; a long distance fixed-wing aircraft with features later incorporated in the U-2 spyplane; a flying tank prototype; a submarine-bomber combination; and a canard-wing aircraft. And we highlight remarkable aircraft launched after Stalin's death in 1953, like the delta-winged supersonic Concordski and the world's largest plane, the Antonov 124 Ruslan.