Ilyushin IL-28

1949


BOMBER	Virtual Aircraft Museum / USSR / Russia / Ilyushin

The first of three prototypes of the llyushin Il-28 tactical bomber (NATO reporting name 'Beagle') flew on 8 August 1948. Just over a year earlier the Il-2 with four Lyulka TR-1 jets had begun flight testing but proved unsuccessful.

The II-28 is an all-metal shoulder-wing monoplane with a straight wing and swept tail surfaces, and retractable tricycle landing gear, and is powered by two 2270kg thrust Klimov RD-45F turbojets (derived from the Rolls-Royce Nene). The pilot is located under a raised, carefully faired canopy, the navigator's nose station is fully glazed and the rear gunner (who doubles as radio operator) operates a twin cannon II-K6 turret in the tail.

A formation of 25 pre-production Il-28s took part in the 1950 May Day Moscow fly-past, by which time large-scale production had been initiated at several factories. Series aircraft, which entered service with a large number of V-VS bomber regiments, incorporated aerodynamic refinements, Klimov VK-1 provision for detachable wingtip fuel tanks.

The II-28 proved reliable and adaptable and in the early 1950s was supplied to China (which received over 500 and licence-built others), Czechoslovakia and Poland, it was eventually exported to more than 20 countries and remained in first line Soviet service for many years.

llyushin's bureau produced several other bomber prototypes during this period, but none was accepted for production These included two twin-jet swept-wing tactical bombers, the Il-30 of 1951 and the Il-54 of 1954, and the considerably larger Il-46 of 1952 which had a maximum take off weight of 42000kg.

Specification

CREW	3
ENGINE	2 x turbo-jet VK-1, 27kN
WEIGHTS
Take-off weight	17700-21200 kg	39022 - 46738 lb
Empty weight	12890 kg	28418 lb
DIMENSIONS
Wingspan	21.5 m	71 ft 6 in
Length	17.7 m	58 ft 1 in
Height	6.7 m	22 ft 0 in
Wing area	60.8 m²	654.45 sq ft
PERFORMANCE
Max. speed	935 km/h	581 mph
Cruise speed	800 km/h	497 mph
Ceiling	12500 m	41000 ft
Range	2260 km	1404 miles
ARMAMENT	4 x 23mm machine-guns, 3000kg of bombs

Comments

Trevor Webb, e-mail, 01.02.2021 06:55

The tail turret on the Il-28 could have two 12.7mm machine guns or two 23mm cannons.

Trevor Webb, e-mail, 01.02.2021 06:52

The Il-20 which was also designated Il-28P was also to carry newspaper printing plates around the country to enable the same newspaper to the printed in the same time frame. It was also used to train civil pilots to the fly jets.
The Il-28UTI was also designated Il-28U.

lxbfYeaa, e-mail, 14.03.2024

Trevor Webb

Trevor Webb, e-mail, 01.02.2021 06:15
There are two variants not mentioned above. One is the trainer version, the Il-28UTI. In this the bomb aimers position was replaced by the student pilots cockpit. The rear gunners position was retained by no gun was fitted. In an extreme situation a bomb aimer could sit in the nose with only a bomb release but no bombsight and poor downward vision and a gun fitted in the rear. No forward guns were fitted.
The other variation was the Il-20 (another multi-used designation) which was a mail carrier. The bomb-bay was modified for mail and the rear turret was faired over. It was used by Aeroflot for jet training. The navigator /radio operator sat in the bomb aimer's position. This version carried no weapons.

The guns fitted to the standard Il-28 were usually two 23mm in the nose and two 12.7mm in the rear turret.
reply

lxbfYeaa, e-mail, 14.03.2024

Trevor Webb

Nikos J. Farsaris, e-mail, 25.07.2010 02:48
As far as I know Albania had the Chinese (H-5) version and not the original (Soviet) one. I have seen its photo on �� (Flight) magazine taken in-situ by a very reliable reporter for an Albanian Air Force report article in 2008
reply

T.francet, e-mail, 17.10.2007 17:26
One is on display in complete original state at Tirana (AL) Airbase.
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