Interesting enough the designer was an Italian communist named Bartini. Bartini moved to Russia before WWII, and worked for Yermayalev or maybe Ermayalev where he designed an inverted gull, twin engined diesel motors designated YER-2 or ER-2 bomber. The YER-2 was supposedly the first to drop bombs on Berlin in WWII, but a very small raid that didn't cause much damage. And then the Yermayalev factories were overrun by the Germans and production was stopped. Bartini was the victim of Stalin's paranoia and was arrested and spent time in Siberia.