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AN-2A / An-3 Anti-Balloon Aircraft

The main purpose of the work conducted by the OKB in accordance with the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of June 4, 1958 for aircraft for fighting automatic reconnaissance balloons was the creation of experimental aircraft to test the effectiveness of the selected set of means for combating high-altitude automatic drifting balloons (ADA) and developing tactics for their detection and destruction.

AN-2A

The An-2A modification of the An-2 "Meteo" was designed to detect and destroy ADA at altitudes of up to 10,000 m at any time of day in the absence of clouds and fog. The AN-2A was different from the base aircraft by setting in the cockpit of an automated searcher-sight (AIS), an electric-tower tower DB-57 with an AM-23 gun reduced in half the rate of fire (500 rounds per minute) and a searchlight for nightly search for targets. The tower is located behind the cockpit of the pilot in the upper part of the fuselage. The cabin of the meteorologist in the tail section of the aircraft is missing.

To search for a target, the AIS works in automatic mode, providing a preview of the front hemisphere for a given program. Targeting, escorting the target and conducting the fire are made by the shooter manually through the AIS from his workplace, located near the pilot's place.

Calculated data: maximum speed at an altitude of 8000 m -285 km / h; lifting time to a height of 8000 m - 55 min at a rate of climb near the ground of 2.8 m / s; practical ceiling - 10 000 m; flight duration - 3 hours.

In 1961, the model of the An-2A airplane was tested in the SibNIA wind tunnel in Novosibirsk. In 1962, one aircraft under the An-2A was converted in the Design Bureau, but in connection with the termination of the development of the target detection and destruction complex and the decision to use fighter planes to solve these problems, the work on the An-2A was stopped.

AN-3

An-3 (the first with this name) was a two-piece monoplane with an all-metal construction with a wing of a large elongation (wing span 27.5 m), developed on the basis of the serial An-2 with the AH-62IR engine with the TK-19 turbocharger. The aircraft was designed to deal with ADS at altitudes of up to 12,000 m at any time of day. Flight duration up to 4 hours.

The crew consists of a pilot and an observer-gunner. An-3 was equipped with the same complex of search and destruction of targets, as An-2A. In December 1958, a preliminary design was completed.