Manufacturer: Boulton Paul

Model: P.94B

Name: Kestrel

Type: Fighter

Date:

Status: Operational

Country: Soviet Union

Service: Soviet Air Force

Designation: Pustelga

It is not a well-known fact, but alongside the famous Bell Airacobras and Kingcobras, the Soviet Union also used a British fighter in combat, the Boulton Paul P.94B, a relative of the Defiant.

The Wolverhampton-based company had christened the type the Kestrel, and quite naturally, the type became known as the пустельга (Pustelga), the Russian word for kestrel.

200 Kestrels were used by the Soviet Union but they didn't perform as well as the American "Cobras" and therefore fell into relative oblivion. The example seen here was christened"Сталина пустельга" (Stalin's Kestrel).

There actually was a P.94 proposal which was a derivative of the Defiant (very different from my own) but since I wanted to invent a company designation I had to reuse the same slot, hence the "B" suffix!

• Nice Soviet fighter.  (ONI-Defense)
• "Don't believe everything you read!" I don`t belive anything you have written ! (popoff)
• This plane looks so right, I had to ask Google what are the 'Real' Defiants looking like, and... I prefer the Pustelga, congratulations! (Tophe)

I like it. Very imaginative and could have been.... (David R. Townend)