| abstract | - The Tupolev ANT-9 (Russian: Туполев АНТ-9) was a Soviet passenger aircraft of the 1930s. It was developed as a reaction to the demand for a domestic airliner. At this time Deruluft, one of the forerunners of Aeroflot, only flew with foreign models, which were mainly German or Dutch. Design work began in December 1927. The first prototype, named Krylia Sovietov (wing of the Soviets) used three French Gnome-Rhone Titan radial engines. It was presented to the public on 1 May 1929 at Red Square and it went to the national flight testing, which was completed in June. In the first series 12 aircraft were built. Two of these airplanes were used with Deruluft starting from 1933 on the Berlin-Moscow service. Mikhail Gromow accomplished a European round flight on the route Moscow – Travemünde – Berlin – Paris – Rome – Marseille – London – Paris – Berlin – Warsaw – Moscow with the Krylia Sovietov, which lasted from 10 July to 8 August 1929 and generated considerable publicity. It carried eight passengers over a distance of 9.037 km (5.615 mi), in 53 flying hours with an average speed of 177 km/h (110 mph). In September 1930 testing was finally completed, and series production was continued with only two M-17-engines of Soviet design, which provided for a higher topspeed. The official name for this model was PS-9 (пассажирский самолёт, passazhirskij samoljot = passenger airplane). The number of built aircraft amounted to about 70 machines. Up to the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union they served as passenger or staff airplanes mainly on routes in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Afterwards they were used until 1943 as transportation and medical airplanes.
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