The sound of that little Shvetsov once Kermit is airborne...It's just contentedly rattling along, doing it's job steadily and reliably, if slowly. Lovely.

Спасибо вам большое, что вы помните наших девочек, летавших на этих самолётах.

Came here after reading about the Night Witches WW2. Can't believe it. They had nerves of steel!

History of soviet aviation! It's hard to imagine that young girl-pilots often made up to 11-12(!) combat sorties per night. They were real heroes!

For anyone who is interested there's a great book by Bruce Myles called "Night Witches" that tells the incredible stories of these women that included flying in -40C, navigating at night using a stopwatch and a compass and being shot down and finding their way back to friendly lines (one poor aviatrix ended up in a concentration camp). Highly recommended.

Going out at night to drop bombs on Germans in the middle of a Russian winter ..........I've flown open cockpit bipes at around 2 -4 C and it was unpleasant enough with the air off the top wing spilling all over you. I have to think that doing the same at -30 must have been a freezing hell from start to finish.

Guys, you did a great job restoring that plane! Policarpov U-2 (designated Po-2 after 1944) has a great history ) It was created as a training aircraft (U-2 means Uchebniy-2, Training Aircraft, Model 2. Policarpov's goal was to replace model one - a copy of british Avro-504, captured by the red army in 1919. U-2, with it's basic wood and fabric frame, simple and interchargable wings (upper and lower wing are actually the same part) had unique flying charachteristics (100 hp engine, cruise speed of about 100 km/h) - it was near impossible to enter spinning, and if you did - you just had to leave the controls and plane would restore it's stability. If you shut down the engine and leave controls during flight, airplane would enter a little stall but then restore it's horizontal position and descend smoothly like a sailplane. Yep, guys, in theory you can land this plane with engine shut down and without touching the stick :-) Basically, it's was the same thing for Soviet Union as a legendary Piper Cub for USA. Po-2 was one of the most produced aircraft in history. It served as a training aircraft, postmail airplane, medical, night bomber, agricultural, had mods with closed canopy and seats for 2-3 passengers, and many others. During the Korean war (!!!) the pilot (i don't know if he was a North Korean or Russian guy) was able to crash US jet airplane - because of the differences in speed and manouvers in mountains. Ironically, it was some kind of "Stealth" - due to it's wood-and-fabric construction, it was very hard to catch Po-2 on early radars. In civilian transport, especially as a bush plane (it doesn't need concrete airstrip and complicated maintainance), it was used up to the early 60-s. Yep, designed in 1927, it was still in the sky when the first man was sent to space ))))

My grandmother from mother's side used to fy one like that - but not in the war - in a aeroclub in the 1930's in Podolsk. So in the USSR you couldn't buy a plane but culd fly one - even in the bloody 30's )

I'm beginning to see why the Germans called it a sewing machine.

What brave and courageous women!

I just finished 2 books and 1 doc on Night Witches.. They did much much more then harrassment. They would fly anywhere from 8 to 15 missions a nite. 2 bombs strapped to there wings.. much more then throwing hand grenades and bombs out of there cockpits. The women always flew at nite, sometimes in Temp down to 20 below zero.. Amazing women.. Read the book Night Witches if you get a chance.. There was also all female fighter squadron flew the Yak 3 and the 3 crew bomber PE 2 squadron. All 3 were highly decorated and amazing pilots and crews... The mechanics were also all female..

Courageous women! You read the story, but after see how slow is that plane, only true heroes can flight it to go and throw bombs at the enemy.

Stalin authorized the all women squadrons to fly the P02. One of their favorite tactic was to gain altitude, cut the engine off and float down to drop the bombs on the German lines then restart and fly out of the area. The women after made several flights a night because of the small bomb load they could carry. The squadrons were very close to the battle lines. Depending on the ground situation and German attack plans at times the returning pilots had to be concerned their fields were still in Soviet control. You are one switched on guy Kermit. You have some super connections and knowledge to be able to obtain these war birds. Much respect for you and your fine ground staff. Well done as always. I hope to visit your field and facilities one day. I’m in Georgia and began to fly in 1973 but had to stop in 1981 because of money. When I started I paid $35.00 and hour wet in a Cessna 150 out of Macintyre air national guard just outside of Columbia SC. My flight instructor was C. V. Huffstettler. He was air national guard at the same field. Back then it was the Fort Jackson Aero Club for active duty army which I was. I’m also a history buff. My dad fought in the Pacific during WW II. Thanks for what you are doing. 👍🇺🇸

В Радянському Союзі ПО-2 був знятий з льотної експлуатації в 1971=72 роках. А вперше цей літак піднявся у повітря в 1927 році. Дякую тим, хто зміг зберегти цей літак в такому гарному стані.

Wonderful to see this in the air and first person perspective through the lens.

Such an awesome bird. Those girls were having a blast!

Thanks for sharing footage of this piece of history in action. It would be magnificent to see granddaughters of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment arm and fly one of these.

j' Ai eu un vol Sur Polikarpov Po-2 c' est un avion vraiment extraordinaire et agréable à piloté! Merci pour cette marque de nostalgie volante...

Beautiful aircraft. Kudos to the brave Russian women fighters.

2 OP

Wow! Really beautiful old machine and nicely flown by Kermit Weeks. Love the sound of the old five-cylinder radial engine. I met Kermit once back in the 80s when he was flying at an airshow and competition in my home town in Ballarat, Australia.

Absolutly wonderful !!!! Thankyou for sharing that clip.

I love the sound of the PO-2! Thanks for the video!

Thank for posting this video of the legendary PO-2! Another amazing feature of the PO-2 engine is that it was also used during WWII for Russian combat snowplanes (or aerosleds), like NKL-26. I have compiled video about it and uploaded to my channel for all aviation history fans.

What a beautiful airplane...

Always a pleasure to watch and listen.

Thank you so much for keeping history alive! Beautiful plane, +1 from France!

One of my favorite aircraft in your collection!

The Germans also called this the "kaffeemuhle," literally "coffee grinder", which is also German slang meaning whirlybird, or helicopter. The Russians called it "kerosinka," or kerosene lantern, because it caught fire so easily when hit by tracer rounds.

When they used to attack, approach a few thousand feet up, put engine on idle a few miles away, and glided in to attack and drop their bombs, to avoid as much ground fire as possible, and then full throttle band away.

Many people learned about the Night Witches from that awesome song by Sabaton.

for the Russians,the night witches were angels!!.

What a story and airplane.

Great! THE NIGHT WICHES PLANE

The Russian women pilots were brave!

Thanks a lot, I do love this plane as well so full of History !!!

Dive, dive, pull, cut throttle, "Woooohoooooooooooo" at the crowd, awesome! :)

beautifull piece of history

Brilliant video. There is a book entitled Night Witches which I have in my collection and read cover to cover at least three times. Lovely video here. Thanks for sharing this unique and important aircraft. Cheers. Merry Christmas to all by the way. ❤love

Very beautiful.

Very Nice this respect with the history of this airplane and the woman who flew it.

That Connie was beautiful. The Po is cool.

Wow! Way cool. I remember reading a story about Marina Raskova and the night witches. Too bad I'm not a pilot.

It sounds like an old school V8. Love it.

Bring the biplanes back!

Being so slow the Russians found a combat use for them by getting a squadron of women pilots to harass the Germans by gliding silently over their positions at night to drop small bombs on their camps.Hence the term 'night witches'.I imagine this affected troop morale & nerves in the same way snipers did.

Harry Turtledove wrote a series of science fiction novels, called "Worldwar", being the battle to defend Earth from invasion by reptilian aliens (from Tau Ceti), at around the middle of WWII. One of the main characters was a Russian woman who flew a Po-2.

Sounds like a VW. BEETLE OF THE SKYYY

Amazing

Great, nice memory

Can you imagine the pilots who climbed into their Po-2s on cold, snowy or foggy Russian nights to make runs at the mighty German army and Luftwaffe? That they were mostly women doesn't make their feat any more remarkable than it already was.

The Germans also said it sounded like a sewing machine. (More almost like a diesel-powered sounding one!) Probably a lot more in various conditions in the former Soviet Union no outsider knows about.

(distant hardbass coming from the cockpit)

The germans nicknamed it "sewing machine" in WW2 because of the sound. It actually sounds like one.

and now try at minus 40 Celsius. My grandfather took the same plane of a wounded man from near Rzhev in 1942

VERY GOOD VÍDEO, BRASIL OK.

I've seen the Curtis. It has no fuselage to conceal the cables. On the PoliKarpov, there's no excuse for not running the lines inside the plane as much as possible.

The pucker factor for the targets when these were used for combat missions? You knew it was coming because you could hear it. Because it was so slow you just didn't know when it would arrive.

this is what i like to Russian planes,Loose panels simple design flies and do the job 100%

POLISH VERSION OF PO - 2 WAS CSS 13 AND I WAS FLYING THEM FOR ABOUT 50 HOURS BEING A MEMBER OF LODZ AND WARSAW AEROCLUBS IN NAVIGATION, FORMATION FLIGHT OF 3 PLANES , TOWING GLIDERS ,SOMETIMES TWO OF THEM AND IN BASIC ACROBATICS, IT WAS GREAT AIRPLANE AND VERY DEMANDING OF PILOTING SKILS ESPECIALLY DURING LANDING. IN MY TIME I WAS NOT FLYING WITH SKY DIVERS WHEN CSS13 WAS REPLACED BY PZL 101, PZL104, AND AN 2.

I'll have my Gliders and TMG License soon, and PPL will follow shortly afterwards. The Po-2 is probably the one Aircraft in the world I would love to restore the most. I only need the basic Airframe and an engine. Would love to know how many of the 30.000 survive in pieces in some Barn somewhere. There have to be Survivors.

At 0:48 -- I like the look of the guy on the running board who seems to be saying, "Oh yeah, that's right... prop wash."

Unexpected, Undetected!

Красавчик! Вы где его взяли? Тоже такой хочу.

Cool aircraft. PIC sits in front??

Chris Fowler! This plane was handy from first screw and bolt on plant to flight. You say - sort of constructive shame is to do not hide cables in fuselage if we have enough place/ But in night , when lights are extra in war, real war, better change or repare staff this MO. You see it , you can change it without acrobatics and twisting workers hands as hynecologist, blind and nervouse. The speed had not hot value for this aircraft​​. Look, it is even shaped rude and unpolished. Plane is cheap and easy to manufacture, and it is crucial for the production of wartime, when people strain every nerve.

Amazing little known true story, the Nightwitches.

Молодцы, что чтут ПАМЯТЬ...... Но черт меня побери, как же классно звучит Швецовский М11.!!!!!!!!! песня!!!!!

5 cylinder engines always sound good.. My car has a 2.5 litre 5 cylinder turbo engine, & it always sounds growly & with lots of pops & bangs!

Tractor of the sky!

Old,good PO 2...

Does anyone get the wiles watching some one working that close to a prop driven plane with a running engine?

Is it easy to fly, or are stick forces high?

With this plane the Night Witches drove the germans crazy in Russia...

@ Chris Fowler, It's not THAT unusual, many aircraft have that to a degree. The same was true on the Ford Trimotor, Tiger Moth and even the Piper Cub to varying and limited degrees.

What kind of starter is on that Po-2 ?

LOUD !!

My great great or how ever many, actual was the chief designer of this plane

crawling down there to tighten that panel while the engine is running, very ballsy man

I kinda wanted the plane glide with its engines shut off longer, just to hear the legendary rumors of them sounding like eerie witches flying through the sky in their brooms as the Nazi soldiers described, hehe.

It is U2 (1927-1944) ,Po2 1944-1951

The Po-2 was used by the North Koreans for the same purpose, harassing the US troops at night. I knew a Korean war vet, who was a mechanic at an US Army airbase. which had small helicopters and Canadian Beavers. One of these little planes would fly over at night and drop little bombs(?). The guys would take cover behind a wall and when he passed over, they would run around to the other side of the wall., and everyone would have a big laugh. But, one night the plane killed a couple of guys, so they shot him down a few nights later. The US guys named him "washing machine charlie" , because of the put-put sound the Po-2 made. In rural America in the 1940s, before electric lines were everywhere, washing machines were run by a little 2 cylinder gas engine, which made a put-put sound. (Gas engine washing machines can be seen on KZfaq.)

sounds also likes truck or lorry

"Никто не обращает внимание на небо, пока не влюбится." (Алессандро Д’Авения- итальянский писатель и сценарист, доктор филологических наук.)

CZ Mlada Boleslaw, Airmuseum 19.05.2023: Mit etwas Glück fliege ich morgen mit einer der 7 noch vorhandenen "Po2" ("Podwa") mit. Als ehem. (Privat-) Pilot einer PA 28 für mich im höheren Alter ein besonderes Erlebnis, welches mir meine tschechische Familie zum Jubileum geschenkt hat. Ich freue mich! Gerhard K.

a real Harley Davidson of the sky 😆

missing Me-109

She may look rugged but she was a dependable o'l gal .

Canvas wings of death Prepare to meet your fate Night Bomber Regiment Five Hundred Eighty Eight

Undetected❤✊🏽 unexpected❤✊🏽 Wings of glory❤✊🏽 Tell their story❤✊🏽 Aviation❤✊🏽 Deviation❤✊🏽 Undetected❤✊🏽 Stealth perfected❤✊🏽 Sabaton - Night Wichtes❤❤❤❤❤❤

"Небесный тихоход"- машина " Ночных ведьм"!

fun fact this is the only biplane with 1 confirmed jet kill, Apparentlly the American fighter had to slowed a lil bit to much and ended up getting manuverd killed in weird way as it stalled to the ground

fastest plane ever built

if that was my PO-2 id at least put a handheld aircomm radio in like a icom

I talked with a former SS soldier and he told me about the night harassment tactics initiated by the Russians. He also told me about when they shot down an Il-2 with a direct hit. The plane blew up.

Belo,super conservado,este biplano Russo voa suave como um pássaro.É um espécime raro que deveria estar protegido em um museu,para ser apreciado. desde Pará de Minas,MG .Brazil.

Кто-нибудь знает где это?🙄

a Hartley Davidson of the sky 😆

Самолет-труженик войны, по результатам бомбардаровок один из самых результативных, а как связной, разведчик, санитарный, для заброски диверсантов и поддержки партизан - вообще не было замены.

I read the history of night wishes … amazing! We gotta honor those Russian girls