Hello, fellow Pilots, today I bring to you the ANBO-VIII, Lithuanian light domestic bomber
ANBO-VIII was a two-seater single-engine light bomber designed by constructor Antanas Gustaitis. Manufacturer – Military Aviation Supply Division. Construction began on May 5, 1938, and tested on September 5, 1939. The name ANBO is an abbreviation of ,Antanas Nori Būti Ore" or ,Antanas wants to be in the air" in English.
The Lithuanian pilot and aircraft constructor Antanas Gustaitis began working on the first plane of the ANBO series in early 1925. Even thou the first few planes of the series were light trainer aircraft, Gustaitis didn’t limit himself with only trainers. In 1932 Gustaitis released his first fighter/reconnaissance aircraft - ANBO-IV. The ANBO-IV was very advanced for its time and earned Gustaitis a strong reputation, it even served on both German and Soviet sides in the second world war. Gustaitis last and most technically speaking advanced design came in the form of the ANBO-VIII. After seeing the German Ju-87 in the Spanish civil war and being inspired by it, Gustaitis began working and finally perfected the aircraft in 1939. It was planned to build 60 aircraft of this model, but this plan was thwarted by the onset of the Second World War (only one aircraft of this model was produced). Some countries were considering buying this model for their own use, but as mentioned before Soviet authorities removed the aircraft for testing in Moscow. It is unknown what became of it.
All ANBO series aircraft were built by ,Karo aviacijos tekimo skyrius" or Army Aviation workshop of Lithuania in English. The Workshop was modernized by the same Antanas Gustaitis to build aircraft of his design. Gustaitis tested, designed and helped manufactured all of the ANBO aircraft himself.
I know that stating your opinion is not advised by the forum moderators, but I think the plane would fit perfectly in the 1.0~1.3 bracket as a ground support vehicle/strike aircraft. The ANBO-VII has an the same or at times better bomb load and flight performance of the planes at that BR range. The plane could also carry up to 48 bombs of 12,5kgs giving it some nice meme potential in lower BRs.
General characteristics
- Crew: 2
- Length: 9.5 m (31 ft 2 in)
- Wingspan: 13.5 m (44 ft 3 in)
- Wing area: 30 m2 (320 sq ft)
- Empty weight: 2,300 kg (5,071 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 3,700 kg (8,157 lb)
- Powerplant: 1 × Bristol Pegasus XVIII radial piston engine, 690 kW (930 hp)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 411 km/h (255 mph, 222 kn) at 5,000 m (16,000 ft) altitude
- Minimum control speed : 113 km/h (70 mph, 61 kn)
- Service ceiling: 9,000 m (30,000 ft)
- Time to altitude: 2 minutes to 1,000 m (3,300 ft), 15 minutes to 5,000 m (16,000 ft)
Armament
- Guns: 4 × 7.7 mm (0.303 in) fixed forward-firing M1919 Browning machine guns with 500 rpg
1 × 7.7 mm (0.303 in) manually aimed M1919 Browning machine gun in the rear cockpit with 5 x 100 round boxes
Bombs: up to 600 kg (1,300 lb) on a fuselage bomb rack and/or 400 kg (880 lb) under the wings. Its worth mentioning that the bomb racks under the wings were also test flown with 48 bombs all of them of 12,5kgs. (sources for that below)
Source 1: ANBO-VIII – Vikipedija (Lithuanian Wikipedia page)
Source 2: ANBO VIII - Wikipedia (English Wikipedia page)
Source 3: ANBO-VIII - Lietuvos Aviacijos Istorija 1919 - 1940 m. (plienosparnai.lt) (Official Aviation Museum of Lithuania page on inter-war aviation)
Source 4: ANBO VIII - Coletti’s Combat Aircraft (colettiscombataircraft.com) (photo album of ANBO-VIII colored and black/white photos)
Source 5: https://youtu.be/QFPDlhhSwSg (Archive historical footage of ANBO-VIII maiden flight)
Source 6: ANBO-VIII - Lietuvos Aviacijos Istorija 1919 - 1940 m. (plienosparnai.lt) (Extensive report on ANBO-VIII performance in the air) (includes bomb testing and weapon systems)[poll type=regular results=always chartType=bar]
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