Tupolev SB

what is it?

The Tupolev ANT-40, also known by its service name Tupolev SB (Russian: Скоростной бомбардировщик – Skorostnoi Bombardirovschik – high speed bomber) and development co-name TsAGI-40, was a high speed twin-engined three-seat monoplane bomber, first flown in 1934. The Tupolev design was advanced but lacked refinement, much to the dismay of crews, maintenance personnel, and Stalin, who pointed out that "there are no trivialities in aviation". Numerically the most important bomber in the world in the late 1930s, the SB was the first modern stressed skin aircraft produced in quantity in the Soviet Union and probably the most formidable bomber of the mid-1930s.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 piston engines with propellers · 20.3 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 450 km/htop speed
• range 2,300 kmwithout refuelling
• size 7,880 kgmax take-off weight
• built 6,656made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 92 years ago, in 1934.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 20.3 m: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🌍Range of 2,300 km: 13× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.1× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1934-10-07

introduced

1936

retired

1951

status

retired

number built

6,656

role

fast bomber

makers

Irkutsk Aviation Plant, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center

engines

2× Klimov M-103

crew

3

length

12.6 m

wingspan

20.3 m

height

3.6 m

max take-off weight

7,880 kg

top speed

450 km/h

range

2,300 km

ceiling

9,300 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.