Of course, all versed in aviation they know perfectly well that this plane was not a bomber. And he is famous, of course, for his record flights under the control of the crews of Gromov and Chkalov. And that is why it was also referred to as RD airplane - a range record.
All right, but it was created ANT-25 with an eye as a long-range bomber.
7 December 1931, the Commission at the USSR Revolutionary Military Council decided to build an aircraft and organize a flight in the summer of 1932 to the maximum range of 13 000 km. The aircraft project was completed in July 1932. Developed at TsAGI by the team of P. O. Sukhoi under the direction of A. N. Tupolev.
The construction of the aircraft began 1 June 1932 g. The first flight with an M-34 engine without a gearbox took place 22 June 1933, under the control of MM Gromov. The construction of a backup aircraft with an M-34P engine equipped with a gearbox began in August 1932 g. The first backup flight took place on September 10 1933, also under the control of MM Gromov.
However, one interesting document was preserved in the archives of the Ministry of Defense. Report to Alksnis, the head of the Red Army Air Force.
23.04.1933.
Chief of the Red Army Air Force
G. Alksnis
By 1 May 1933 a record aircraft of the RD brand (distance record) will be manufactured. The aircraft is designed for 45 flight hours and has in its wings large containers (for 6 tons) for gasoline. This aircraft can be used for airborne chemical attack. To do this, it is necessary to leave the storage for gasoline 1 — 2 tons, and the remaining storages to accommodate the liquid poisonous substance (4 — 5 tons) in them.
Head of the Military Chemical Directorate and Chemical Forces of the Red Army (Fishman)
Head of the 7 sector of the Air Force Scientific Research Institute (Pearls)
Resolution: t. Goroshchenko. At the same time, work out the task I have already given to Comrade Petrov about the possibility of adapting the RD as a long-range bomber. Alksnis.
It is difficult to say what the military expected. ANT-25 really was an aircraft capable of long-haul flights. But its speed (244 km / h near the ground and 256 km / h at the height of 4000 m) did not allow it to look at least competitively against the LTH of the fighters of that time.
The practical ceiling in 7500 m, however, made it possible to consider the aircraft almost invulnerable from both fighters and anti-aircraft artillery. The 30's fighters did not climb above 4 thousands of meters, although the same British Hawker Fury (333 km / h) and Polish PZL Р-7 (315 km / h) were considerably better than ANT-25.
Nevertheless, ANT-25 was still considered as a potential bomber, which was given the name ANT-36.
ANT-36, or DB-1, was finally designed in August 1933. And, as we often have in stories, was adopted by the military and immediately launched into a series. It was planned to create 50 bombers.
The differences between ANT-36 and ANT-25 were that a bomb bay was placed in the center section, in which ten 100-kilogram bombs were placed. The capacity of the fuel tanks was reduced to 4900 liters, and the flight weight did not exceed 7806 kg.
In addition to the bombing, defensive weapons were also planned - two machine guns for firing up and one at a time - for firing back and forth with a common 1500 ammunition ammunition. In the summer of 1935, the Air Force Institute was tested onboard portable pivot under the machine gun YES.
The navigator’s cabin where one of the machine guns was installed
In the autumn, the first serial RD flew around, but the military commission refused to accept it as clearly unsuitable for use in the Air Force. The same fate awaited the following seven aircraft, requiring, at best, a lengthy refinement.
18 built 2 aircraft rejected, not allowing to operate, 3 remained at the plant (TsAGI brigade), 1 - in Leningrad, 2 in the Air Force Institute, and only 10 machines were transferred to Voronezh, stationed under Voronezh.
Between 1936 and 1937, the average annual flight time of the aircraft was only 25 — 30 hours, although some of them flew up to 60 hours.
Basic data of the ANT-36 aircraft (DB-1):
aircraft length - 13,4 m;
wing span - 34,0 m;
wing area - 88,2 m2;
normal take-off weight - 7806 kg;
bomb load - 1000 kg;
maximum flight speed - 200 km / h;
practical ceiling - 3000 m;
flight range - 4000 km;
machine gun armament - machine gun 4 YES caliber 7,62-mm;
crew - 3-4 people.
In general, the car turned out to be unsuccessful, in 1937, all aircraft transferred to the Air Force were mothballed.
And the progenitor, ANT-25, nevertheless realized the goal for which it was built.
20 July 1936 launched a flight from Moscow to the Far East (crew commander - V. P. Chkalov, co-pilot - G. F. Baidukov, navigator - A. V. Belyakov). The 9 flight 375 km continued 56 hours before landing on the sand spit of the island Udd (today - Chkalov Island) in the Sea of Okhotsk.
18 June 1937, the ANT-25 aircraft took off from the Schelkovo airfield and flew from Moscow to the North Pole to the United States of America, landing on the Pearson airfield in Vancouver, WA (crew commander V. Chkalov, co-pilot G F. Baidukov, navigator - A. V. Belyakov).
12 July 1937, the second (more precisely, the first version of the ANT-25) aircraft ANT-25 took off from Schelkovsky airfield and flew the route Moscow - North Pole - United States of America, landing on a pasture near San Jasinto, California (crew commander - M. M. Gromov, co-pilot - A. B. Yumashev, navigator - S. A. Danilin). When performing this flight, the world record for a distance in a straight line (10 148 km) and the world record for a distance on a broken line (11 500 km) were set.
And here an interesting thing happened.
Without exaggeration, the whole world was shocked by the flights of Chkalov and Gromov. And even the skeptics had to believe that the Russians were able to create a plane, to which there is no equal.
And then reconnaissance worked, which “allowed” to remove to representatives of foreign countries (simply, spies), as at plant # XXUMX, which was located in Voronezh, airplanes similar to ANT-18 went out into the sky.
And when it turned out that the ANT-36 "did not go in," a leak of "secret information" about the aircraft’s somewhat inflated LTX was organized.
But everyone in the world believed, in the wake of Chkalov and Gromov’s success, that the USSR had such weapon. And it played a certain role.
So right at the beginning I called this plane “a political bomber” for a reason.
And one moment. The only surviving ANT-25 aircraft, the one on which Chkalov made his flight, is located in the Valery Chkalov Museum in the city of Chkalovsk. And the one that I shot as an example, which is in the exposition of the aviation museum in Monino, was built in 1989 year and is its prototype copy.
The plane on which Gromov flew to America was used as a target at the bombing range.
This is the fate.
Sources:
Shavrov V.B. The history of aircraft structures in the USSR to 1938
http://www.airwar.ru/enc/cw1/ant25.html
http://www.tupolev.ru/ant-36-db-1