Chengdu Yanhun III

[lucamax]

Hi, I found the chinese bomber Chengdu Yanhun III, built in the 1944. I don't know a lot of this aircraft, but I understood that the plane has a wooden structure ad at least one prototype was built. Does anyone know the history of this plane?

In this link you can find a small picture of the plane and a very short description:
http://crimso.msk.ru/Site/Crafts/Craft31101.htm

 

[Apophenia]

Chengdu seems to have devised its wooden SB derivative in reaction to the longevity of that aircraft in Chinese service (compared with the DB-3). The SB M-103 (or SB-III as the Chinese called it) served on in operational units in 1943 when the few remaining DBs had already been passed on to training units.

The site listed by lucamax lists the engines and wings as "native", suggesting components 'recycled' from Soviet-built SBs. Certainly the engine cowling look like units from an SB M-103. But the claim of metal wings was reputiated by Anatolii Demin in Soviet Fighters in the Sky of China VI (1937-1940) in Aviatsiia i Kosmonavtika 2.2001 (translated on j.aircraft.com by George M. Mellinger).

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/George_Mellinger/soviet_fighters_in_thesky_of_vi.htm [Dead link]

-- https://web.archive.org/web/2010112...Mellinger/soviet_fighters_in_thesky_of_vi.htm

"At the aircraft factory in Chengdu they undertook an attempt to copy the SB. Despite the contrary opinion that only the fuselage was original and everything else was taken from a Soviet supplied pattern machine, in fact the wings of the new aircraft were also wooden, of Chinese manufacture. ... Flight testing of the Chinese "SB" began in 1944, but after several successful flights, the aircraft was entrusted to a different Chinese pilot who "pramged" it during a landing, and it was not restored."

The following is from http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/sino-japanese-1944.htm [Dead link]

https://web.archive.org/web/20130423104635/http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/sino-japanese-1944.htm
"During 1944 flight testing of the Chinese-built SB bomber began. After several successful flights the aircraft was tested to by different pilot, who crashed with it during a landing, and it was not repaired.

The aircraft factory in Chengdu had undertaken this attempt to copy the Soviet SB bomber in wood. It seems that they might have used documentation from the Soviet wooden SB project, which had been assigned to A. S. Moskolev in the end of the 1930s."

 

[lucamax]

Thanks for the nice description and links! Do you know if there are also some pics in the web?

 

[Apophenia]

... Do you know if there are also some pics in the web?

Just a smidge late responding ... and a crappy-quality pic to boot!

From: Авиация и Космонавтика 1999-02 / В. Котельников, А. Демин - Авиация великого соседа (2)

or Aviatsiya I Kosmonavtika 1999-02 / Vladimir Kotelnikov, Anatolii Demin - Aviatsiya velikogo soseda (2)
-- ie: 'Aviation of the Great Neighbour - Book 2'.

 

[fortrena]

By the looks of it, the bomber the Chinese air force tried to develop was known as the Hongyan-3.

Only one prototype was completed, using the Klimov M-103 engines from a SB-2M-103. Its fuselage was apparently made of Sichuan fir, with a bamboo and silk covering. Its wing might have come from one or more SB-2s.

Construction began around September 1942 and was completed around January 1944. The test flights of that prototype were conducted at Chengdu's Taipingsi airport, in central China, where many Soviet aircraft of the Chinese air force had operated in earlier years.

As the Hongyan-3 landed on its third test flight, a leg of the main landing gear failed. The damage was deemed such that it was scapped.