By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 13:07
This is supposedly picture of the only Ik-3 captured by germans and taken later for testing.Can anyone proove this in some archives or any info?Thanks!
By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 11:37
paint scheme
By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 11:36
2
By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 11:35
a
By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 11:34
Yes it does indeed look similar to Ms 406 and i think because they also used the same engine.
No,there are no examples of Ik-3 in existance today because all were destroyed before the germans occupied yugoslavia in 1941 but there are some stories that one got captured and there was even a picture.I think i had it but i cannot find it now.If i do i will post it.Germans had a whole secret operation to get Ik3 design before the war but their spies got arrested.
Here are some nice pictures of ik-3 models by Avusk from USA and my Nenad Miklusev’s who makes resin models.
By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 11:29
Ik 3 before the war
By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 11:27
IK 3 cockpit
By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 11:25
Ik 3
By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 11:24
Ik 3 1st prototype
By: djnik - 8th February 2004 at 11:23
In 1926 it was becoming obvious that the hayday of the biplane and high- wing monoplane configurations for single –seat high-speed fighters was passing, and all major aircraft manufacturing nations were turning their attentionton low-wing monoplane with a fully-retractable undercarriage. Influenced by this trend, the designers of IK-1 and IK-2 Ljubomir Ilic and Kosta Sivcev, were joined by Ing. Zrnic and initiated work on a new fighter project, the low-wing IK-3 of mixed construction and featuring a retractable undercarriage. All preparatory work was undertaken in strict secrecy, model was tested in Eiffel wind tunnel in Paris before the design was submitted to the Yugoslav Air Ministry. The Rogozarski A.D. at Belgrade was instructed to proceed with the construction of a prototype that flew for the first time in the spring of 1938 with Captain M. Bjelanovic at the controls.
The prototype IK-3 was powered by Hispano-Suiza 12Y-29 liquid-cooled engine rated at 890 h. p. for take-off and 920 h.p. at 11,810 ft., and carried an armament of one 20 mm. Hispano-Suiza HS-404 cannon between the cylinder banks and two 7.92 mm. FN Browning machine guns over the engine. The fuselage was a steel –tube structure with ply wood and fabric covering, the wings were of wooden construction with plywood skinning, metal-framed, fabric-covered ailerons and dural flaps, and the fully-retractable under-carriage was of Messerschmitt design. Initial flight trials were extremely successful, demanding only minor modifications to the undercarriage and engine installation. Five other pilots flight –tested the IK-3 before, on January 19,1939, the machine was destroyed. The pilot Captain Pokorni, took-off from Zemun airfield performed a series of acrobatics and then put a prototype into a terminal velocity dive from which he failed to recover. A Subsequent investigation of the accident completely exonerated the aircraft, and the Yugoslav Air Ministry placed an order with the Rogozarski Company for an initial batch of twelve IK-3 fighters.
The production IK-3 different in few respects from prototype. Additional frames were added to the sliding cockpit canopy, a bulletproof Windscreen was fitted, and the engine was a Czech –built version of the Hispano-Suiza, the Avia H.S. 12Ycrs. The first IK-3 were delivered in summer of 1940 to the experimental unit, the 52nd Fighter Squadron, whose pilots preferred the indigenous design to both Bf-109 E-3 and the Hurricane I. The IK-3 was appreciably more maneuverable then the German fighter and could turn inside the Hurricane with ease. Its controls were exceptionally well co-ordinate and maintenance proved simple despite the fighter’s experimental status, a factor of extreme importance in view of the poor equipment of most Yugoslav service airfields.
Negotiations were conducted with the Turkish government who were considering the license manufacture of the IK-3, and plans were made by Rogozarski to accelerate production of the fighter despite the fact that, together with the Zmaj concern, the company was engaged in the license manufacture of one hundred Hurricanes. Rogozarski`s part in the Hurricane program was forty machines, and with the completion of these the Belgrade factory was to build a further twenty-five IK-3s for the Yugoslav Air Force. In the event the second batch of IK-3s had only just been started when, on the April 6, 1941, German forces invaded Yugoslavia.
In the mean time, the design team had been working on improved versions of the IK-3. It had originally been planed to power later IK-3s with new 1,100 h.p. Hispano-Suiza 12Y-51 engine, the German occupation of France had frustrated this plan, and it therefore become necessary to consider a British or German engine. The Air Ministry favored the DB 601 A, and as part of IK-3 development program, the Daimler-Benz engine was installed experimentally in a Hurricane airframe in 1940. The conversion was extremely successful, and experimental aircraft displayed better take-off performance and climb rate than either the standard Hurricane or the Bf 109 E-3 and was only slightly slower than the latter. At the same time, a 1,030 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin III was installed in one of the IK-3 airframes, but this machine had only just been completed at the time of the German attack, and as enemy forces neared Belgrade it was destroyed by the factory workers, together with four other IK-3s undergoing overhaul or modification.
One IK-3 was destroyed when it dived under full power into the Danube, subsequent investigations indicating that the pilot had black out, and the remaining six were being operated by the 52nd Squadron which, together with ten Bf 109 E-3s of the 32nd Squadron, formed the 6th Fighter Regiment for the aerial defense of Belegrade.Based at Zemun, the IK-3s put up a valiant resistance against the Luftwaffe, scoring a number of “kills” before they were finally destroyed in combat.
It is of interest to note that Rogozarski were working on the further fighter design at the time that German forces occupied Belgrade. This, the IK-5, was to be powered by two Hispano-Suiza 12Y engines and was projected in two versions: a single-seat interceptor and a two-seat long-range “destroyer” with exceptionally heavy nose-mounted armament. Wind tunnel test with models of the IK-5 had been completed, and prototype construction had commenced.
By: Tbirdman - 8th February 2004 at 05:51
Must have been a lot of drag from that radiator?
Reminds me a bit of a Morane-Saulnier MS 406.
T
By: SerbPVO - 8th February 2004 at 04:49
Can an IK-3 be seen in the Belgrade Aeronautical Museum?
By: Arabella-Cox - 8th February 2004 at 00:36
Originally posted by djnik
Ik 3 was the most sucessful fighter aircraft developed by the Ikarus factory in Serbia before ww2.Unfortenutely only limited series was produced before the invasion.If there are those of you who would like me to post here more pictures of this aircraft,models of it and text just say so i know to do it!
Go for it! That’s one of the strengths of this forum – it’s a place where we can all learn about historic aviation, and it sounds to me as though the IK-3 fits right in. Tell us more! 😀
By: djnik - 7th February 2004 at 23:39
Ik 3 was the most sucessful fighter aircraft developed by the Ikarus factory in Serbia before ww2.Unfortenutely only limited series was produced before the invasion.
If there are those of you who would like me to post here more pictures of this aircraft,models of it and text just say so i know to do it!
By: Arabella-Cox - 7th February 2004 at 23:30
Nice picture. But what on Earth’s an IK-3? Never heard of one of those…?
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February 7, 2004 at 10:06 pm