Tairov Ta-3

Ta-3
Role	Heavy fighter; Escort fighter;
National origin	Soviet Union
Manufacturer	OKO (Kiev)
Design group	Vsevolod Konstantinovich Tairov (ru)
First flight	31 December 1939 (OKO-6)
Number built	4

The Tairov Ta-3 was a twin-engined single-seat

Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union from 1939. The Ta-3 was envisioned to serve primarily as an escort fighter. Competing contemporaneous designs in the USSR included the Grushin Gr-1, Mikoyan-Gurevich DIS and Polikarpov TIS

.

Development

Tairov designed and built the OKO-6 to a

Grushin Gr-1, MiG DIS and Polikarpov TIS

.

The aircraft was a single-seat monoplane of mixed construction; with wing spars of 30KhGSA (30ХГСА) steel,

counter-rotating propellers

to eliminate torque effect with throttle movement.

First flown by Yu. K. Stankevich on 31 December 1939, the first aircraft was also tested by LII until the summer of 1940 when one of the engines threw a connecting-rod. The directional stability was found to be unsatisfactory so the second prototype (OKO-6bis) was built with a much longer rear fuselage, twin fins on the tips of a longer span tailplane as well as more powerful engines with LH rotation.

The third prototype was initially called OKO-6bis, changed to Ta-3, was flown by Stankevich in May 1941 with M-89 engines, one AM-37 37mm cannon and two ShVAK 20mm cannons. The fourth airframe which was to be the Ta-3bis with M-82 engines was abandoned due to the

Kuybyshev

, in December 1941.

Variants

OKO-6 – initial prototype with 950 / 1,000 hp (710 / 750 kW)
ShVAK
cannon in the forward fuselage.
OKO-6bis – second prototype with lengthened fuselage, twin fins and M-88R engines. Armament:- 2 x 7.62mm
ShKAS
machine-guns and 4 x 20mm ShVAK cannon in the forward fuselage.
Ta-3 – third prototype renamed from OKO-6bis, with M-89 engines and increased span wings. Armament:- 1x 37mm AM-37 cannon and 2 x 20mm ShVAK cannon in the forward fuselage.
Ta-3bis – uncompleted fourth prototype, with 1,250 hp (930 kW)
Shvetsov M-82
engines, abandoned with the German invasion of Ukraine. Armament:- 1x 37mm AM-37 cannon and 2 x 20mm ShVAK cannon in the forward fuselage.