Before the dawn of ‘helicopter era’ over the ‘bush country’ across the span of the Soviet Union (see the previous post), aviation engaged into exploration, transport, and communication in the country’s remote areas went through more or less the same lot of problems, and was learning the same kind of lessons the bush aviation in North America did. It may sound incredible, but there were far more aircraft types flown across the country than it is now.
Since the mid-late 20s the newly created aircraft manufacturing industry began developing and building airplanes of their own design. Multiple ‘Design Bureaus‘ were competing for a ‘most coveted prize’ - the chance to be noticed and recognized by the higher power, and their formal ‘go-ahead’ for the mass serial production of the chosen examples. It doesn’t mean though that there was no ‘actual, true competition’ in which the most promising units of the experimental aircraft supposed to be most successful, and, - win. Often that was the case. And a review of the political part of the whole business is not what I’m after now.
But it was an absolutely fair thing, I believe, that happened with respect to this particular design - whether it had a final ‘OK’ from Stalin himself, or not. Mr. Polikarpov’s ‘U-2‘ (renamed ‘Po-2‘ after Mr. Polikarpov’s death) was a tremendous success, proven by decades of service in multiple applications, of course - ‘bush operation’ included. And it was an outstanding plane to fly in bush. Potential for versatility was remarkable, and it seemed the operational units involved into bush flying were always able to find some new ways of what else they could do with this plane. I’ll be further exploring the Po-2 theme on this site.
The plane was in service from late 20s, and to - as they say - late 60s. They have a few flying Po-2s now in Russia. And there’s a few more flying in other countries, - I heard there’s at least one in the US. Po-2 pictured above was shown on “Ferte Alais airshow” in France. Mario, a Flickr fellow photographer, kindly allowed me to post this picture.
In 2002 I had a chance to ‘touch to this glorious history’. They had one Po-2 on a display during the ‘Domodedovo Airshow‘. My friend Oleg Liakishev, alive then, had his own Li-2 in the line of vintage planes, and I remember he loved to walk down than line, watch what’s going on, have a word of chat with the fellow ‘amateur pilots’. He knew guys who owned this Po-2 very well, and asked them a favor: “Please, let an Aeroflot pilot to get in for a shot‘ 
I appreciated it a lot!
Actually, it was exactly the plane that was featured as a precise ‘ENTOURAGE detail of the time’ in the 2001 movie ‘Ехали два шофера‘ (’There two drivers drove..‘)
Po-2 was brilliant in the movie!
Flying in the film was not quite ‘bush’, but it was actual flying by the real Po-2! It’s been a common thing for ages when the aviation enthusiasts in Russia would go really upset watching a sort of not ‘very authentic substitution’ for the specific time aircraft that would show up in ’so-and-so’ movie. In terms of aircraft authenticity this one was just great
I hope, it is possible to find this movie with English subtitles, or even the dubbed version.
Good luck!
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