The Soviet Air Force, officially known in Russian as Военно-воздушные силы or (in the Latin alphabet) Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily (literally, "Military Air Forces") and often abbreviated VVS (BBC in Cyrillic) was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces.
The VVS was founded as the "Workers' and Peasants' Air Fleet", with the status of a Main Directorate, on May 24, 1918, succeed...
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The Soviet Air Force, officially known in Russian as Военно-воздушные силы or (in the Latin alphabet) Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily (literally, "Military Air Forces") and often abbreviated VVS (BBC in Cyrillic) was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces.
The VVS was founded as the "Workers' and Peasants' Air Fleet", with the status of a Main Directorate, on May 24, 1918, succeeding the Imperial Russian Air Force. It became the Directorate of the USSR Air Forces on March 28, 1924, and then the Directorate of the Workers-Peasants Red Army Air Forces on January 1, 1925. Gradually its influence on aircraft design became greater. From its earliest days, the force mimicked ground forces' organisation, being made up of Air armies, Aviation Divisions, and aviation regiments.
After the creation of the Soviet state many efforts were made in order to modernize and expand aircraft production, led by its charismatic and energetic...
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