Neman R-10
The R-10 was the Soviet reconnaissance and light bomber aircraft, designed in the mid-1930s in the Kharkov Aviation Institute (KhAI, HAI - in Russian: ХАИ), under direction of Iosif Neman.
Development
The first prototype of the plane, with a factory designation KhAI-5 (ХАИ-5), flew in June 1936. Despite a lower performance, the aircraft won a contest against other reconnaissance plane design, Kotcherigin R-9, and was accepted for a production, with a military designation R-10 ('R' meant a purpose - razvyedchik - reconnaissance). There were produced 490 of R-10 in Kharkov and Saratov aviation plants (528, according to other data). In 1938, a variant KhAI-5bis was tested - fitted with M-25E engine, it developed a speed of 425 km/h. In 1938 there was also developed a ground attack aircraft KhAI-52 basing on the R-10. It was fited with an engine М-63 900 hp (670 kW) and armed with 7 machineguns and 400 kg bombs. A production of the experimental series of 10 aircraft was prepared, but it was canceled due to arresting of I. Neman by the communist government. Some serial produced R-10 were fitted with stronger engines М-88, М-62 and М-63. Some aircraft, withdrawn from the Air Force, were used from 1940 in Aeroflot airline, under a designation PS-5 (Russian: ПС-5), as a mail carriers, with 3 passenger seats.
Combat use
R-10s were first used in combat in the Soviet-Japanese Battle of Halhin-Gol in 1939. Then, they were used in the initial stage of the World War II, starting with the use in the Winter War with Finland (1939-1940). R-10s were next used in the first period of the German-Soviet war, following the German attack on June 22, 1941. They were not much modern by then, and suffered big losses, just like the rest of the Soviet Air Force. Many planes were destroyed on airfields. The remaining R-10s were withdrawn in 1943.
Technical design
The aircraft was conventional in layout, with low wings, of wooden construction. An undercarriage was retracted into the wings. The crew consisted of two: pilot and an observer-rear gunner, the later was sitting in a turret with one machinegun. In the observer cab's floor there was a camera for reconnaissance duties. Between the crew cabs there were fuel tanks and a vertical bomb bay. The maximum bomb load was 300 kg (6 x 50 kg or 10 x 25 kg). The plane was powered initially by M-25A, later M-25B radial engine power: 730 hp (540 kW). A propeller was metal, two-blade.
|
|
