Tupolev R-3

Tupolev R-3 (ANT-3)
R-3 "Proletari"
Type:	Military multipurpose aircraft
Design country:	Soviet Union
Manufacturer:	Tupolev (ZAGI)
First flight:	July 1925
Commissioning:	May 1926
Production time:	1926-1929
Number of pieces:	103

The Soviet Tupolev R-3 ( Russian Туполев Р-3 ) was built in the mid-1920s and was designed as a one - and-a -half-decker . It was the first mass-produced all-metal aircraft by Andrei Tupolew , whose development team was still subordinate to the ZAGI at the time . The factory name was ANT-3 .

history

Tupolev had already gained his first experience with aircraft made of metal with his ANT-2 , which was manufactured in a mixed wood-aluminum construction. He used it as a guide when building the R-3, the development contract for which was awarded in 1924. The first prototype received an American Liberty L-12 engine; its factory testing was carried out in July / August 1925 by the test pilot W. N. Filippow. The subsequent state testing was in the hands of M. M. Gromow and revealed some shortcomings. Therefore, some minor changes were made for the planned series production . The most obvious was the use of K- instead of N-braces to connect the upper and lower wings.

From May 1926 the machine was put into service as R-3 (" R aswedtschik", reconnaissance aircraft) with the air forces in two versions. 30 of the first were produced and equipped with the M-5 engine, a license for the Liberty engine. The second received a much more powerful French Lorraine-Dietrich engine and the designation R-3LD . 79 of this series were built.

Except in their original use as a light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft that R-3 was not as attack aircraft with a 400 kg armor, as well as to their suitability for dive bomber tested. The experiments carried out with her for this purpose were the first of their kind in the USSR . Another test machine was tried out with a BMW VI drive, but could not prevail.

In total, only about 110 aircraft were built, because the precarious engine situation in the Soviet Union (at that time the company was dependent on foreign deliveries because its own engines were too inefficient) significantly hampered series production.

R-3 "Proletari"

For propaganda reasons, some series copies were fitted with the English Napier Lion engine in December 1925 . Michael Gromow and his on-board mechanic J. Rodsewitsch made a tour of Europe from August 31 to September 2, 1926 with the stations Moscow-Königsberg-Berlin-Paris– Rome – Vienna – Warsaw – Moscow. He used the compass alone and covered 7150 km at an average speed of 202.8 km / h in 34.15 hours.

Another long-distance flight was completed by the R-3 "Наш ответ" (Nasch otwet, German: "Our answer") with M-5 propulsion from August 20 to September 1, 1927. It led from Moscow east through the Soviet Union to Korea and Japan . The pilot Semyon A. Shestakov and his on-board mechanic Dima Fufayev covered 22,000 km and were in the air for a total of 153 hours. The return flight was completed in ten days.

technical description

The R-3 was made entirely of duralumin . The fuselage had an oval cross-section in the front area and tapered off in a rectangular manner towards the rear. The two braced wings were clad with corrugated iron, consisted of dural ribs and had two main spars. The upper wing was placed on the fuselage. The tail unit was planned in the normal construction and had a strutted horizontal tail unit. The axis of the rigid main landing gear was split, and there was a grinding spur at the stern. In winter it was possible to replace the wheels and the spur with ski plates.

Technical specifications

Parameter	R-3 with M-5	R-3LD
crew	2 (pilot + gunner)
length	9.50 m	9.40 m
span	Upper wing 13.02 m / lower wing 9.89 m
Wing area	37.0 m² (upper wing 24.5 m² / lower wing 12.5 m²)
Empty mass	1377 kg	1340 kg
Max. Takeoff mass	2188 kg	2090 kg
Engines	a liquid-cooled 12-cylinder V-engine M-5	a liquid-cooled 12-cylinder V-engine Lorraine-Dietrich
power	294 kW (400 hp)	331 kW (450 hp)
Top speed	194 km / h near the ground 181 km / h at 3000 m altitude	204 km / h near the ground 193 km / h at 3000 m altitude
Landing speed	85 km / h
Summit height	5000 m	4920 m
Rise time	8.6 min at 1000 m altitude 24.7 min at 3000 m altitude	4.2 min at 1000 m altitude 16.6 min at 3000 m altitude
Range	750 km	920 km
Armament	one 7.62 mm Vickers MG (later PW-1 ) two 7.62 mm Lewis MG (later DA-2 ) 200 kg bombs

literature

• Vadim B. Schawrow : On the history of Soviet aircraft construction. Aircraft constructions in the years of socialist industrialization (1) . In: Flyer calendar of the GDR 1979 . Military Publishing House , Berlin 1978, p. 178-180 .
• Wilfried Copenhagen : Soviet bomb planes . Transpress, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-344-00391-7 , pp. 111-113 .

Web links

Commons : Tupolev R-3  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Туполев АНТ-3 Пролетарий. Retrieved October 2, 2016 (Russian, history, dates, and pictures). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On the history of the aircraft on the manufacturer's website (Russian)