Ilyushin DB-3

Ilyushin DB-3
Ilyushin DB-3M in the Monino Museum
Type:	Medium bomber
Design country:	Soviet Union
Manufacturer:	OKB Ilyushin , Plant No. 18 Kuibyshev , Plant No. 39 Irkutsk , Plant No. 126 Komsomolsk
First flight:	July 1, 1935
Commissioning:	1936
Production time:	1936 to 1939
Number of pieces:	1,528

The Ilyushin DB-3 ( Russian Ильюшин ДБ-3 ) was a twin-engined bomber aircraft and, together with its further development Il-4 and the Pe-8 by Vladimir Petlyakov, the most important model of the Soviet long-distance air force in World War II . With this type, the Soviet air forces flew a bomb attack on Berlin for the first time on the night of August 8, 1941 . The abbreviation DB stands for Dalni Bombardirowschtschik ( Russian Дальний бомбардировщик ), long-range bomber.

development

Development began in 1934 in Sergei Ilyushin's design office as a competitor to the Tupolev ANT-37 . On July 1, 1935, the first prototype ZKB-26 , still manufactured in composite construction, flew , equipped with two Gnome-Rhône -14k engines, controlled by test pilot Wladimir Kokkinaki . On August 28, 1935, Ilyushin presented the prototype to government representatives who demanded a test aircraft in all-metal construction and with full armament for 1936.

A second machine with two M-85 engines, the licensed French 14k engine but with less durability and higher consumption, and the designation ZKB-30 "Moskwa" began with Vladimir Kokkinaki at the controls on March 31, 1936 flight tests. Stalin had the machine demonstrated to him on May 1, 1936 and requested series production from the middle of the year. When Kokkinaki set five different payload world records with the new type between July and September 1936 and was able to demonstrate the performance of the ZKB-26 to the public on August 24, 1936 at the Tuschino Air Parade - it flew several loops - series production began that same year under the designation DB-3B .

In 1937, the air force took over the first machines in the troop trials, whereby the pilots criticized the unreliable engines and the weak landing gear, which led to several accidents.

commitment

Captured DB-3

Float version DB-3TP

The DB-3 was built until 1941 and appeared in various versions, including the bomber version as a torpedo bomber for the Soviet naval aviation forces .

In July 1938 W. Kokkinaki and the navigator A. M. Brijandinski managed a long-distance flight over 7850 km to the Far East with the ZKB-30. After his return he presented the aircraft on August 18, 1938 at the air parade in Tuschino. The flight of Kokkinaki and the navigator Gordijenko in 1939, also with the Moskva, caused an international stir . On April 29th they started in Moscow with destination New York. After 8,000 kilometers, the most adverse weather conditions over Labrador, the consumption of all fuel and the oxygen supply, Kokkinaki landed with retracted landing gear next to the lighthouse on the island of Miscou in New Brunswick, Canada. The DB-3 was in the air for 22 hours and 56 minutes, which corresponds to an average speed of 348 km / h.

In mid-1939, the Soviet Union sent 24 DB-3s and their crews to China, where these attacks flew on the Japanese-occupied Hankou airfield, with at least 140 Japanese planes being destroyed. Three DB-3s were lost. From the summer of 1940, Chinese crews flew the machines, so the Soviet crews returned.

In the Soviet-Finnish winter war , the DB-3 was used with four squadrons from day one. However, the first mission on Finnish coastal defense ships ended unsuccessfully due to lack of preparation and poorly trained pilots and with the shooting down of three machines. The war revealed great deficiencies in the preparation of commanders and crews. More than 50 machines were lost in the three months. The experience of the missions led to an improvement in the defensive armament and a fourth shooter for the lower machine gun. The Finns were able to capture five aircraft in the course of the fighting, which were used by the Finnish air forces until 1945, along with six later captured by the Germans .

By being stationed in the west of the country, the machines largely escaped the first German attacks on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and began their first attacks on German columns a few hours later. As a rule, there were massed missions with up to 100 bombers.

The initial bombing of Berlin by Soviet aircraft took place on the night of the 7th of August 8, 1941. 15 DB-3 of the 1st MTAP (mine and torpedo Aviation Regiment) of the Baltic Red Banner Fleet launched under the leadership of Colonel Preobrazhensky from on the Estonian island of Saaremaa located Kagul Airfield in the direction of Berlin with a direct approach over the Baltic Sea. Because of the great distance, each aircraft could only carry 500 kilograms of bombs. The attack took place at 11:45 p.m., followed by the return flight on the same route.

The lack of success of these attacks and the declining availability due to a lack of air control, the strong air defense (the 1st mine and torpedo pilot regiment alone lost half of its machines) and the insufficient supply of spare parts led to a change in tactics from 1942 onwards, in which the machines were in small groups or used individually at night.

After the end of the Second World War in Europe, the machines were still used in the war against Japan in Korea, Japan and in the Pacific against Japanese warships.

A total of 1,528 copies of the DB-3 existed.

construction

The DB-3 was a mid-wing aircraft with a medium aspect ratio wing, thin profile and a landing flap. She had a retractable landing gear, a smooth outer skin and a narrow fuselage. These features were chosen to achieve high speed. The ZKB-26 prototype was constructed in a composite construction. The fuselage and the vertical stabilizer were made of wood, the wings and the horizontal stabilizer made of Dural. The production variant was an all-metal aircraft.

Versions

Versions	features
ZKB-26 / ZKB-30	first or second prototype
DB-3b	first series version, equipped with two M-85 motors (starting power each 563 kW)
DB-3M	Version with more powerful M-86 engines delivered to the Air Force in 1938 (take-off power 699 kW each)
DB-3T	Naval aviator variant , equipped with a 45-12-AN torpedo or sea mine MAW-1 . Development from 1938, series production from autumn 1939.
DB-3TP	Version of the DB-3T equipped with reinforced surfaces and floats. Development began in 1937, flight tests in spring 1938. However, the machine was not put into production due to production delays. Instead, only the DB-3T was built.
DB-4 (ZKB-56)	Prototype of a somewhat larger version, tested in 1940, no series production. A further development was the Il-6
Remarks	all versions of the DB-3 were equipped with more powerful M-87A (same take-off performance as M-86, but better performance at high altitudes) or M-88 motors in later production series . Only these engines, manufactured from 1939, achieved a service life of 150 hours.

Technical specifications

Three-sided tear

Parameter	ZKB-26 (1st prototype)	ZKB-30 (2nd prototype)	DB-3b
span	21.40 m	21.44 m
length	13.70 m	14.22 m
height	4.35 m	k. A.	4.35 m
Wing area	65.60 m²
Empty mass	4,100 kg	4,200 kg	5,030 kg
Takeoff mass	6,000 kg	6,250 kg	7,442 kg
drive	two air-cooled 14-cylinder double radial engines
Type	Gnome-Rhône 14K	M-85	M-88B
power	765 PS (563 kW) each	850 HP (625 kW) each	950 PS (699 kW) each
Top speed	330 km / h near the ground, 390 km / h at an altitude of 3,250 m	335 km / h near the ground 409 km / h at an altitude of 4,000 m	354 km / h near the ground, 439 km / h at an altitude of 4,900 m
Rise time	15.6 min at 5,000 m	k. A.	25.2 min at 7,000 m
Summit height	13,100 m	10,000 m	9,600 m
Range	4,000 km		3,800 km
Armament	two 7.62 mm MG SchKAS (planned)	no	three movable 7,62 mm MG SchKAS one movable 12,7 mm MG UBT
Bomb load	1,000 kg	no	2,500 kg

See also

• Ilyushin DB-4
• List of aircraft types

literature

• P. T. Astashenko: Ilyushin and his planes . Transpress, Berlin 1976 (VLN is 162-925 / 77/76).
• Rudolf Höfling: Ilyushin. Aircraft since 1933 . Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-613-03604-8 .
• Wilfried Copenhagen : Soviet bomb planes . Transpress, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-344-00391-7 .
• Václav Němeček: Soviet aircraft . Luftfahrt-Verlag Walter Zuerl, Steinebach-Wörthsee 1970.
• Jean Alexander: Russian Aircraft since 1940 . Putnam, London 1975, ISBN 0-370-10025-5 .

Web links

Commons : Ilyushin DB-3  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Ulf Gerber: The great book of Soviet aviation 1920–1990. Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza 2019, ISBN 978-3-95966-403-5 , pp. 606, 612 and 618
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} FliegerRevue February 2015, pp. 52–55, long-range bomber and torpedo aircraft Ilyushin DB-3
3. ^ Karl-Heinz Eyermann , Wolfgang Sellenthin: The air parades of the USSR. Central Board of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship, 1967. p. 33