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The Russian aircraft designers were a radical bunch, and which you can easily tell from this plane right above. It was intended to fly over the submarine traps such as mines, and then submerge to attack the unsuspecting ships in the harbour. It could operate at 150 knots in the air and 3 knots underwater. When submerged, metal plates would protect the engines from the water. However, it never got off the drawing board due to the number of obstacles facing the Russian designers.



A flying tank, Antonov A-40, was designed by Oleg Antonov. Its idea was to be released from a plane, most likely a TB-3 bomber, and glide down right into the battlefield. Upon landing, the flying wing for the tank would immediately be detached. The A-40, however, was not ever used in battle, although the one-third scale prototype worked very well.



The MiG-8, a top secret Russian experimental aircraft which led to the development of the MiG-15, was claimed to be a trainer aircraft.