DB-3
| Ilyushin DB-3 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| A DB-3M at the Central Air Force Museum near Moscow, Russia. | |
| Role | Bomber / torpedo-bomber |
| Manufacturer | Ilyushin |
| First flight | 1935 |
| Primary users |
Soviet Air Forces (VVS) Republic of China Air Force Finnish Air Force |
| Produced | 1936–1939 |
| Number built | 1,528 |
| Variants | Ilyushin Il-4 |
The Ilyushin DB-3, where "DB" stands for Dalniy Bombardirovschik (Russian: Дальний бомбардировщик) meaning "long-range bomber", was a Soviet bomber aircraft of World War II. It was a twin-engined, low-wing monoplane that first flew in 1935. It was the precursor of the Ilyushin Il-4 (originally designated DB-3F). 1,528 were built.
The genesis of the DB-3 lay in the BB-2, Sergey Ilyushin's failed competitor to the Tupolev SB. Ilyushin was able to salvage the work and time invested in the BB-2's design by recasting it as a long-range bomber, again competing against a Tupolev design, the DB-2, to meet the stringent requirements of an aircraft capable of delivering a 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bombload to a range of 3,000 km (1,900 mi) at a maximum speed no less than 350 km/h (220 mph). He had redesigned the BB-2 to take advantage of the radial Gnome-Rhône Mistral Major 14Kdrs engine, for which the Soviets had purchased a license in 1934 as the M-85, and had begun construction of the prototype of the BB-2 2K-14 as the TsKB-26 that same year.
The TsKB-26 was more of a proof-of-concept vehicle to validate Ilyushin's ideas on how to obtain long range than an actual bomber prototype. To speed the construction process, it had a wooden fuselage and fin with metal wings and tail surfaces. It made its first flight in the summer of 1935 and proved to be stable, easily controllable and highly maneuverable; it performed the first loop made by a twin-engined aircraft in the Soviet Union. It went on to set six world records in its class, generally in payloads to height and speed over a 5,000 km (3,100 mi) closed circuit.
The real prototype of the DB-3 was called the TsKB-30 and it was completed in March 1936. It had a number of improvements over the TsKB-26, notably an all-metal structure, an extended nose, an aft-sliding canopy with a fixed windscreen and improved engine cowlings. It successfully passed the State acceptance trials and was ordered into production in August 1936 as the DB-3, although some sources refer to this initial series as the DB-3S for seriynyy (series-built).
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