IAR 81 dive bombings

Speaking of Dive Bombers,.. which were some of the most successfull pilots that flew dive bombing missions in the IAR-81 ?

Could you be more specific about your question ? What do you mean most succesfull ? By number of bomber missions, by nr. of targets destroyed ?. Anyway the Bo-Pi missions were not so succesfull like other bomber missions ( He 111 ).

Dan.

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on February 01, 2005 10:01 am

Anyway the IAR-81 Bo-Pi was a vulnerable plane: like fighter ant also like dive bomber. When do you want to do two things in the same time the action don't turn out well.

Actually they did not do 2 things at the same time first they were dive bombers (if the mission required it) and only after they droped the bombs they became fighters.Anyway, as far as I noticed from Dan Antoniu's book (and Cicos) IAR-81 was not quite successfull as a dive bomber.

PS: if you meant by 2 things at same time that it was designed both as a fighter and bomber, just think of Fw190 - it was great in both roles.

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on February 01, 2005 10:26 am

Do not forget one thing: after ejecting the bomb, IAR 81 retained his launcher (some like an articulated arm "brat articulat") who give to projectile a traiectory out of the propeller arc. With this launcher under the fusselage, plane had some more weight and another aerodynamic shape, and this conduct to another flight characteristics and minuses in aerobatics - and 81 was not Fw 190 "F", unfortunatelly.
If 81 was not so succesfull to "BoPi" missions, this was not a problem because when 81 variant appeared, we don't had Stukas, and 81 was a surrogate, a derivative, not a dedicated plane. 190 F was more capable assault plane, and even it was a derivate from original fighter plane, in final result was an excelent tool for air-to-ground missions.
Anyway, 81 was an excelent result for romanian specialists from Brasov. Too bad after the war we don't had the possibility to continue tradition in aircraft industry..

Iama

D13-th Mztyu
It was an expression with "to do 2 things at the same time", so I meant that IAR-81 BoPi was designed both as a fighter and dive bomber, but in facts BoPi wasn't neither of them indeed.

Iamandi so did the Fw190 although the launch-pod was not for dive bombing.The problem is that IAR-80/81 series were unable to upgrade to a more powerfull engine and a better airframe like the germans did with their 109's and 190's.IAR-80 was a very good plane when it first saw light and even in the first ARR campaign, but without further development it became obsolite.

I guess IAR-81 Bopi was a first line assault plane that in 1941 romanian military airforce did not have - so far I have no record of a romanian Emil or 112 to carry bombs.So IAR-81 was the gap that had to be filled in a way, unfortunatelly with not so good results.

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on February 01, 2005 02:22 pm

The He 112 did carry small calibre bombs and was used by ARR in ground attack role.
Another type that was used as makeshift assault plane in 1941 was the... I.A.R. 37 biplane.

Gen. Dénes

Did romanian 112 use bombs ? Emil also carried bombs but no romanain Emil had bombs.

You can hardly consider IAR-39 an assault plane

Yes, it did. I have published a photo of a Rumanian He 112 being armed with bombs in my 'In Action' book, published by Squadron/Signal.

Yes, true, but nevertheless the type was used as such [actually, I am referring here to the I.A.R. 37]. Escadrila 18 bombardament did employ the '37 for this role in the ARR's first campaign of 1941. As the proverb says: "if you don't have a horse, a mule would also do."

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on February 01, 2005 06:52 pm

It also employed the IAR-37 in the 1942 campaign.

On 6 October 1941 the first six IAR-81s were entered active duty with the 8th Fighter Group, but their first mission was on 15 October, when 5 of them, under the command of lt. cdor. av. Gheorghe Bordeanu, dive bombed the Odessa harbor area without many results. The next day, Bordeanu led his dive bombers again against the harbor and claimed to have hit two ships.

On 3 October 1942 10 IAR-81s (six in the first mission and four in the second) of the 6th Fighter Group hit targets in Stalingrad, while other two flew a free hunting mission. In the morning of 4 October seven IAR-81s struck Soviet positions north of the city. Three hours later another six dive-bombers attacked the same area, with good results. One aircraft was damaged by Soviet AAA. The next day, at 0700, four IAR-81s took off with the mission to bomb the Stalingrad Tractor Factory. The AA defence was very strong and two of the airplanes were damaged, but they all scored direct hits.

In Stalingrad, half the AA guns has Women crews.
Also the Tractor Factory Red October (or the ruins of it) was to be the last point of resistance which the Germans held before they were overun by tanks in February 1943, and from which they send the last radio message home.

This post has been edited by Der Maresal on February 02, 2005 04:34 am

At this link i found this picture, and this comment:

"IAR 81C no. 426. This aircraft carries changed national insignia introduced in August 1944 when Romania entered the war against Germany. This aircraft was shot down by German flak with Lt. av. Gheorghe Mocionita on April 18th, 1945. The remains of this aircraft are possessed today by the National Military Museum in Bucharest."

From what i know yet, "C" variant had removed bomb launcher. In this profile, the plane had a bomb launcher. My question is - 81 C had, or not the launcher?

Thanks,

Iama


Attached Image

What link? That is similar to the profile on our site made by Bogdan Patrascu.

I did not see any photo of '426' in the anti-Axis campaign, but I presonally doubt that the bomb fork was mounted on.

As I noted earlier, everyone can draw pretty colour airplane profiles, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the information represented on them is correct. These artworks should not be regarded as historical sources.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on March 14, 2005 04:36 pm