Ilyushin Il-30

Il-30

Picture - Three-quarters view of the Il-30

Role: Bomber
National origin: Soviet Union
Manufacturer: Ilyushin
First flight: 1951
Number built: 1
Developed from: Ilyushin Il-28

The Ilyushin Il-30 was a Soviet turbojet-powered tactical bomber designed as a higher-performance version of the Il-28 in the late 1940s. It was apparently canceled before the prototype made its first flight, although sources disagree on this.

Development

The Il-30 was a follow-on to the Il-28, although design began on 21 June 1948, before the Il-28 had flown. It was designed to meet a requirement for a jet bomber that could carry 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) to a range of 3,500 km (2,200 mi) with a maximum speed no less than 1,000 km/h (620 mph). The design took that of the Il-28 as a starting point, but had thin, mid-mounted swept wings with a 35° sweep angle chosen to allow the aircraft to reach its required speed. It was intended to be powered by two new Lyul'ka TR-3 axial-flow turbojet engines with 45.1 kN (10,140 lbf) thrust each in wing-mounted nacelles. Both the fuselage and nacelles were area ruled.

The thin wing and the 2° anhedral necessary to cure the excessive lateral stability meant limited the amount of fuel that could be carried and tip tanks were required to meet the range requirement. The slim engine nacelles did not allow the main landing gear to be stowed there as was done in the Il-28. The solution was to house them within the fuselage - the first bicycle landing gear on a Soviet aircraft - with small, twin-wheeled, outriggers mounted underneath the nacelles to stabilize the aircraft on the ground. The aircraft had a crew of four, the pilot, a bombardier, and two gunners. The pilot, bombardier and the dorsal gunner shared one pressurized compartment that was subdivided into the cockpit and the bombardier's position in the extensively glazed nose. The dorsal gunner was placed back-to-back with the pilot underneath the canopy and the tail gunner had his own separate pressurized compartment at the rear of the aircraft. Defensive armament was six 23 mm (0.91 in) Nudelman-Rikhter NR-23 cannon, two fixed forward and one pair each in the Il-V-12 dorsal turret immediately behind the cockpit and the Il-K6 tail turret. Maximum bomb load was 4,000 kg (8,800 lb)

The initial results were favorable, and a full-scale mockup was formally reviewed in March 1949. The prototype was completed by August 1949, but an incident involving the rival swept-wing Tupolev Tu-82 led to delays as additional tests were demanded to determine the strength of the wings before the first flight was made. By the following year, the Il-30 program had lost momentum as the Ilyushin OKB was ordered to concentrate on facilitating the service introduction of the Il-28. It was formally terminated by government order on 20 August 1950, and the prototype was eventually scrapped at the beginning of the 1960s.

Although the Il-30 never actually flew, it was the subject of much (misinformed) speculation in the West. Some of the common misconceptions were that it had a ventral gun mount and that it was the first Soviet bomber to attain the speed of 1,000 km/h (620 mph).

Specifications (estimated)

Data from Gordon, OKB Ilyushin: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft

General characteristics

Crew: Four
Length: 18.0 m (59.1 ft)
Wingspan: 16.5 m (54.2 ft)
Height: ()
Wing area: 100 m² (1,076 ft²)
Empty weight: 22,967 kg (50,634 lb)
Loaded weight: 32,552 kg (71,765 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 37,552 kg (82,787 lb)
Powerplant: 2x— Lyul'ka TR-3 turbojet engines, 45 kN (10,140 lbf) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 1,000 km/h (540 kn, 622 mph) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft)
Cruise speed: 850 km/h (528 mph)
Range: 3,500 km (1,890 nmi, 2,175 mi)
Service ceiling: 13,000 m (42,650 ft)
Wing loading: 375.5 kg/m² (76.9 lb/ft²)
Thrust/weight: 0.24:1

Armament

6 x— 23 mm Nudelman-Rikhter NR-23 cannon, two fixed forward, two each in dorsal and tail turrets
4,000 kg (8,820 lb) free-fall bombs

Related development

Ilyushin Il-28
Ilyushin Il-46
Hong H-5

Comparable aircraft

Tupolev Tu-28
Sud-Ouest Vautour

Bibliography

Gordon, Yefim; Komissarov, Dmitriy and Sergey (2004). OKB Ilyushin: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 1-85780-187-3.
Nemecek, Vaclav (1986). The History of Soviet Aircraft from 1918. London: Willow Books. ISBN 0-00-218033-2.

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Source: WikiPedia