The Yakovlev Yak-2 was a Soviet light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft from the Second World War. The machine was made in the low wing configuration with the landing gear retracted in flight in the classic configuration. The flight of the prototype took place in 1939, and a year later, a short serial production began, which led to the creation of about 110 aircraft of this type. The length of this aircraft was 9.34 meters with a wingspan of 14 meters. The drive was provided by two Klimow M-103 engines with a capacity of 960 HP each. The deck armament consisted of two 7.62 mm SzKAS machine guns. The machine could carry a load of bombs weighing up to 600 kilograms.
The Yakovlev Yak-2 was developed as a relatively light machine with a mixed structure, and its designers put special emphasis on the highest maximum speed. In the course of the first tests, the machine was able to accelerate to a staggering, for those times, speed of 567 km / h, which made it the fastest multi-engine aircraft in the then USSR. Another thing is that in the course of these tests, the plane did not have any weapons installed, it did not carry bombs or most of the navigation equipment! However, this result made a great impression on Joseph Stalin, who ordered - without further attempts - to put the Yak-2 into production. It turned out to be a wrong decision, because the machine was underdeveloped, had many shortcomings (for example, the engine cooling system failed), and in field conditions its speed dropped significantly. Ultimately, only a small production batch was released. Yak-2 planes took part only in the first weeks of the German-Soviet war, and the vast majority of them were lost in the summer of 1941.