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ANT-10 (R-7) Scout Bomber

The project ANT-10 (R-7) was a continuation of the work of the Tupolev design team to improve light scouts. When designing, the ANT-3 scheme was used, and it was planned to install more powerful BMW-VI engines.

Work on the machine began in 1928. The designers laid a number of advantages that the ANT-10 should have had in front of its predecessors: improved pilot landing, placed inside the fuselage in the nose 2 machine guns, internal suspension of bombs, fuel tanks in the wing. The layout of the aircraft was extremely simplified and easy-folding, which made it possible to quickly replace any damaged part of the vehicle, including in the field. In addition to the version of the reconnaissance aircraft, the possibility of retrofitting the ANT-10 for the mail message and for long-haul flights, as well as the float version of the machine, were considered.

In March 1929, after the approval of the ANT-10 model by the leadership of the Air Force, the construction of the aircraft began. At the beginning of 1930, a prototype was ready, which after factory testing was handed over to the state commission of the Scientific-Research Institute of the Air Force. Factory and state tests were carried out by pilots M.M. Gromov, A. B. Yumashev, V. O. Pisarenko. Having passed the first stage of the test, the aircraft was refined in accordance with the recommendations of the commission and set off for the second tests, during which it received a good mark for its flight characteristics.

Despite the results of the tests, the ANT-10 was not recommended for mass production, since the mass production of the R-5 reconnaissance N.N.Polikarpov was already carried out. Experimental ANT-10 was transported to Central Asia, where for some time it was used to transport people and goods.