Ilyushin Il-28

Il-28
Il-28 in Polish Air Force colours, with a man for scale.
General information
TypeMedium bomber
National originSoviet Union
ManufacturerIlyushin
Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (H-5)
StatusIn limited service with the Korean People's Air Force
Primary usersSoviet Air Force
Number builtover 6,635
History
Introduction date1950
First flight8 July 1948
Retired1980s (Soviet Union)
Developed intoIlyushin Il-30

The Ilyushin Il-28 (Russian: Илью́шин Ил-28; NATO reporting name: Beagle) is a jet bomber of the immediate postwar period that was originally manufactured for the Soviet Air Forces. It was the Soviet Union's first such aircraft to enter large-scale production. It was also licence-built in China as the Harbin H-5. Total production in the USSR was 6,316 aircraft, and over 319 H-5s were built. Only 187 examples of the HJ-5 training variant were manufactured. In the 1990s hundreds remained in service with various air forces over 50 years after the Il-28 first appeared. The only H-5s in service currently are approximately 80 aircraft which operate with the Korean People's Air Force.[1] The Il-28 has the USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 27"[2] and ASCC reporting name "Beagle",[3] while the Il-28U trainer variant has the USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 30"[2] and NATO reporting name Mascot.[4][5]

  1. ^ "Derailing a Nuclear Program by Force". Stratfor. Archived from the original on 2017-04-23. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
  2. ^ a b Parsch, Andreas and Aleksey V. Martynov. "Designations of Soviet and Russian Military Aircraft and Missiles." Archived 2017-10-11 at the Wayback Machine designation-systems.net, 2008. Retrieved: 22 August 2011.
  3. ^ Parsch, Andreas and Aleksey V. Martynov. "Bomber designations." Archived 2017-10-11 at the Wayback Machine designation-systems.net, 2008. Retrieved: 22 August 2011.
  4. ^ Parsch, Andreas and Aleksey V. Martynov. "Listings: Miscellaneous." Archived 2017-10-11 at the Wayback Machine designation-systems.net, 2008. Retrieved: 22 August 2011.
  5. ^ Gunston 1995, pp. XXX–XXXI.