Il-4 (DB-3F) Long-Range Bomber

The Il-4 is a twin-engine long-range bomber developed by Sergei Ilyushin's design bureau. This aircraft is a genuine combat machine built at Plant No. 126 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur; the museum catalogue dates it to 1944. Its factory number is 17404, and these figures are also painted on the tail fin next to a red star.

The bomber served with the 10th Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 9th Air Army. During the Soviet–Japanese War of 1945, after engine damage, it made a forced landing near the village of Muravyeyka in the Anuchinsky District of Primorsky Krai. Many years later fragments of the aircraft were found by searchers from the military sports club "Poisk", restorers rebuilt the plane, and on 18 August 2004 it was ceremonially handed over to the museum.

The modernised DB-3F entered service in the autumn of 1939, and from March 1942 it was called the Il-4. Between 1940 and 1946 four plants built 6877 of these aircraft. In August 1941 DB-3F bombers, taking off from Kagul airfield on the island of Saaremaa, carried out raids on Berlin.