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ANT-36 (DB-1)

In the early 30s of the twentieth century, the command of the French and British Air Forces was tasked with creating an intermediate class bomber plane, which was supposed to fulfill the role of a “long arm,” delivering pinpoint powerful bomb strikes against targets at a great distance from their bases. Unlike heavy bombers, which were in service in the early 1930s, such combat vehicles had to have a much lower flight mass, carry a lower bomb load and have a several times larger radius of action.

A project was developed to turn the ANT-25 (another name for the RD) into a special, diversionary long-range bomber ANT-36. It is clear that ANT-25 could not pose any real threat as a normal bomber by the USA or England. What purpose would there be to strike such powerful countries with a ton of bombs at a snail's speed and a clearly insufficient height (both were sacrificed for distance)? But as a saboteur, going to a single night raid with a ton of bombs, the stuffing of which is not an explosive, but anthrax spores, bubonic plague and other delights - a version of the Doolittle raid.

In Western countries, the development of the concept of such machines was brought to the level of entry into service (Vickers "Wellesley"). In the USSR, the design of aircraft of this class, ranked as long-bomber by national classification, was limited to the creation of two types of aircraft, developed in the ANTupolev Design Bureau: ANT-36 (DB-1) and ANT-37 (DB-2) - "DB" stood for "Dalniy Bombarovschik (Long-Range Bomber)". They were built, tested, but not accepted by the Air Force because of low flight speeds and weak defensive weapons. Their place in the battle formation before the Second World War was firmly occupied by more high-speed, better protected aircraft of the “medium bomber” class (He-111, DB-3, Wellington).

At the beginning of the design of the ANT-25 (RD) it was planned to create its military version for the Air Force as a long-range bomber and long-range reconnaissance aircraft. According to the TTT Air Force with a bomb load of 1000 kg, the long-range bomber should have a radius of 2,000 km at a cruising speed of 200 km / h. Priority was given to the flight range, then there was a bomb load and, finally, speed. By August 1933, the design bureau prepared the project and built a mock-up of a long-range bomber, which received the internal designation ANT-36 and the official designation DB-1. The project and the layout were accepted by the customer, and it was immediately decided to launch the DB-1 aircraft in a series at Plant No. 18, having built the first batch of aircraft in the amount of 24 aircraft. The total release was scheduled for 50 aircraft.

In the military version, the design of the airframe, the power plant, the layout of the cabin of the ANT-25 was mainly preserved. In the center-section, a bomb bay was made with a vertical suspension of ten 100 kg of bombs, machine gun installations were installed in the cabins of the second pilot and navigator, one of them for firing back and down, and the AFA-14 aerial camera. Since 1934, the serial construction of DB-1 began. In the series, the airframe trim was carried out smoothly, a full set of bomber and machine gun weapons was installed.

In the fall of 1935, the first serial DB-1 was tested, but because of poor workmanship, the customer refused to accept it. In total, Plant No. 18 produced 18 DB-1 machines, 10 of which were nevertheless handed over to operation at the Air Force combat base based near Voronezh. In 1937, all aircraft handed over to the Air Force were mothballed.

In the summer of 1936, one of the serial ANT-36 was remade for the installation of the AN-1 diesel engine. The work was carried out under the direction of A.S. Moskalev and proceeded along the lines of the creation of a record RD-D. Unlike the serial DB-1, it was equipped with a non-retractable chassis in the fairing. From June 1936 the aircraft was tested, showing the reliable operation of the diesel engine and the possibility of a significant increase in flight range.