In the late 1930s, a young engineer named Boris Ushakov was completing his studies at the Dzerzhinsky naval engineers academy in Saint Petersburg. By 1936, Ushakov had completed a design for a truly radical aircraft: a submersible seaplane capable of attacking underwater using torpedoes. The utility of such an aircraft was obvious – it could conduct patrols while in flight and, if it spotted enemy ships, it could land on the sea, submerge and lie in wait to conduct a torpedo attack. It could also enter enemy harbours protected by anti-submarine nets and mines at night, conduct a submerged attack and then surface and take off to return to base. Ushakov seems to have presented the first outline proposal for the LPL as early as 1934, but it wasn’t until 1936 that his ideas were formally adopted by the Military Commission for Scientific Research (NIVK) and he moved to detailed design work.

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