Special Hobby 72125 Bsh-1/PS-43

The BSH-1 / PS-43 was a Soviet low-wing attack and communication aircraft from the interwar period and World War II. The prototype flight took place in 1936 or 1937. The length of the aircraft was approximately 11.3 meters with a wingspan of approximately 15.2 meters. The deck armament consisted of four 7.62 mm machine guns. The BSH-1 / PS-43 was developed as a license version of the American Vultee V-11GB aircraft. The license, along with four ready-made copies, was purchased by the USSR in 1936. Originally, the machine was primarily used by Aeroflot as a fast mail and communication machine (designation PS-43), but it was relatively quickly decided to adapt the plane to military tasks and make it an assault machine (designation BSH-1). On-board weapons and armor have been added. However, this made the machine much heavier, which significantly worsened its performance. For this reason, only about 30 such modernized aircraft were built.