ANT-40 SB
The ANT-40 (SB - skorostnogo bombardirovshchika = high speed bomber, not Samolet Bombardirovshhik = bomber airplane, nor Strategicheskie Bombardirovshchiki = strategic bomber) was a high-speed front bomber. The first domestic aircraft of this class, it was the most mass production aircraft developed by the Design Bureau of A.N.Tupolev.
Consideration of the creation of a specialized high-speed front-line bomber, the speed of which would be comparable to the speeds of fighters of potential enemies, began in the early 1930s. By the end of 1933. a sufficient experimental design and scientific and technical reserve has been accumulated that is capable of ensuring the practical implementation of the concept of such an aircraft, and the design bureau has begun to design a high-speed bomber, which received the internal designation ANT-40 and the official SB. A.A.Arkhangelsky was appointed the project leader, who became the head of the specialized brigade N 5 created in January 1934.
In March 1934, the Air Force [UVVS] supplied its specifications [TTTs] to the new aircraft: the maximum speed at an altitude of 4000 m was 330 km / h, the ceiling was 8000 m, the range was 700 km, the bomb load was 500 kg, defensive armament was a nose installation 2 x ShKAS, the upper turret and lower hatch installation on one ShKAS.
Other brigades of design bureaus and TsAGI units also participated in the work on the ANT-40. Thus, the wing and control of the aileron was developed by a team of V. M. Petlyakova. In the field of aerodynamics, the leader was A. Martynov. A.I. Makarevsky, S. N. Shishkin, and G. A. Ozerov dealt with strength problems. As a result of hard work, three months later, on March 8, 1934, the draft design of the new bomber was submitted to the Department of Air Forces for approval.
On 10 March 1934 the layout of the aircraft was approved. At the same time, a decision was made to build two prototypes of the ANT-40: the first of which was powered by Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines with 730 hp each, the second with Hispano-Suiza 12Yrbs, 780 hp each. The construction of the aircraft began on April 25, and on October 7, 1934, test pilot KK Popov lifts the ANT -40 with the Cyclones in the first flight. On the ninth flight, the first aircraft crashed and was sent to the factory for recovery. Later it was used for experimental work.
The basis for the series was the second experimental ANT-40 with Hispano-Suiza engines. It began to build May 15, 1934. On December 30, the “doubler” was ready and on the same day its first flight took place (pilot I. S. Zhurov). Factory testing continued until January 21, 1935. A maximum speed of 430 km / h was recorded at an altitude of 4,000 m, which was significantly higher than that specified in the tactical and technical requirements.
State joint tests of the second ANT-40 were conducted from February 8 to March 3, 1935 and were interrupted due to aileron wing flutter, which was eliminated several days by setting weight compensation on ailerons (the work was led by future academician M. V. Keldysh). In the summer of 1935, the tests were continued and ended in April 1936, after which the “doubler” was transferred to the serial plant No. 22 as a benchmark for the series.
The question of launching a new bomber into mass production was decided much earlier, back in March 1934. The Soviet Air Force urgently needed this type, so even before the end of state testing from March 1935 (according to some documents - from December 5, 1934), the transfer of documentation to Plant No. 22 began. By decision of the government, A.A.Arkhangelsky was sent to the serial plant as an independent experimental design bureau for the implementation and improvement of the ANT-40 (SB) aircraft.
The SB lead production aircraft was released in the spring of 1936, but with domestic M-100 engines (750 hp), hence the name of the first production aircraft, the SB-2M100. From March 25 to July 31, 1936, military tests of five serial SB-2M100 of the first experimental series were conducted. Based on these tests, the aircraft was accepted for service.
A number of world and national records were set on the SB airplanes of various modifications. On November 1, 1936, the second experimental ANT-40 aircraft, test pilot M. Yu. Alekseev, with a commercial cargo of 1000 kg, reached an altitude of 12695 m, the achievement was recorded only as a national record. On September 2, 1937, test pilot M. Yu. Alekseev, on an experimental SB bis-2, managed to set an international flight record to a height with a load of 1000 kg, an altitude of 12,246 m was reached.
The first SB began to arrive in the Air Force combat units in 1936. Already on November 7, 1936, the Air Force formations on the SB flew over Red Square. And even earlier, in September, the Soviet crews of international pilots on the SB-2M100 took part in battles on the side of Republican Spain. SB aircraft in Spain showed themselves from the best side, for a long time they were almost invulnerable to German and Italian biplane fighters, whose speeds were lower than the speed of this bomber. This position lasted until the appearance of Me-109 in the sky of Spain. Since the autumn of 1937, the Security Council with Soviet and Chinese crews participated in the battles against Japan. Then the Security Council were used in military conflicts on Lake Hassan and the Khalkhin Gol River, in the war with Finland.
By the beginning of World War II, the SB aircraft were considered obsolete. The main drawback of these vehicles during wartime was the weak defensive armament and the almost complete lack of armor protection for the crew and vital parts of the aircraft, which led to large losses of these vehicles under enemy domination in the air and often the lack of fighter cover during combat missions. After 1943, the SS continued to be used as transport, cargo glider towers and targets, as training and as connected.
Currently, only a single copy of the SB has been preserved, restored by the KB and the pilot plant and presented in the exposition of the Air Force Museum in Monino.
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