Boris Senior's Beechcraft Bonanza model 35, Israel's Po-2

[yoyolast 1,708]

 

Introduction

The Beechcraft Bonanza Model 35 was a civilian liaison aircraft produced by the American aviation company Beechcraft during 1947-1948. During the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 a pair of these aircraft became some of the first aircraft in the Israeli Air Force and one of them was also one of the first to be armed and used with conventional armaments during the war. The aircraft were smuggled into Israel by Boris Senior who was one of the Israeli Air Force's primary commanders during the war and one of them was primally flown by him on many of the more significant sorties carried out by Israeli model 35 Bonanzas, hence his affiliation for this suggestion.

 

 - Boris Senior's Bonanza B-42 in the 1948 war. The British bomb racks it was equipped with can clearly be seen under the fuselage.

 

Acquisition

In February of 1948 Boris Senior was sent by "Sherut Avir" (The predecessor of the Israeli Air Force operated by the Haganah militia) to Johannesburg in South Africa to recruit foreign pilots and acquire aircraft for it's ranks in preparation for the imminent war that was about to break. In terms of Aircraft the initial plan was to purchase 50 P-40 Kittyhawks that Boris managed to locate and ship them to mandatory Palestine, however this plan was soon abandoned as Boris did not manage to find a suitable way to smuggle the aircraft past the Middle East arms embargo. Instead Boris opted to purchase several civilian aircraft including 3 Beechcraft model 35 Bonanzas registered as ZS-BWR, ZS-BWS and ZS-BTE. Boris Senior flew the aircraft himself with the help of some of the newly recruited foreign pilots through the entire African continent. The journey was harsh a required an improvised installation of additional fuel tanks to minimize landings which could cause issues in completing the delivery. Boris Senior managed to get 2 of the Aircraft to Palestine, ZS-BWR and ZS-BWS with the former arriving on the 5th of May 1948 and the latter arriving the next day. They were renamed as B-41 and B-42 accordingly and became the first of the new equipment that made it to the Israeli force's ranks, making it to the Israelis just a few days before the war started. Much later in the war a 3rd Bonanza registered as G-AJVG was donated to the war effort by the Van Leer Foundation and was delivered in November, receiving the designation B-43. Bonanza ZS-BTE that Boris Senior didn't manage to get all the way to Palestine due to an accident that immobilized the aircraft at the time was finally delivered post war in 1949.

 

 - Boris Senior's Bonanza B-42 during the 1948 war, clearly seen mounting a German 50 or 70 kg bomb on it's right bomb rack.

 

1948 Arab-Israeli war

On May 15th of 1948 the Egyptian Air Force conducted it's first air raid on Israeli Air Force targets located in Sdeh Dov Air Base in Tel Aviv. One of the aircraft present in the air base at the time was one of Boris' Bonanzas - B-41 - which was badly damaged in the bombardments conducted by Egyptian C-47 Dacotas and Spitfires. While one Bonanza was damaged Boris Senior used the functioning one, B-42, to conduct reconnaissance missions to located Egyptian aircraft that were downed by Israeli AA fire and some of the first S-199s that made it into service. He flew the missions with another crew member acting as a gunner laying prone and using a machine gun installed in the baggage compartment to fire out of the open baggage door. This was a desperate measure taken due to the inherent lack of Israeli fighter aircraft to defend Israeli skies and the plan was to use the Bonanza in an emergency to attempt to shoot down the unarmed Egyptian C-47 Dacotas that were used as makeshift bombers.

 

The first major operation an Israeli Bonanza took part in is the bombardment of the Jordanian capital - Amman on the 1st of June. The Bonanza B-42 piloted by Boris Senior as well as some Dragon Rapides and F-24 Fairchilds went to bomb Amman using "chuck bombing", a method used by the Israeli Air Force in it's early years to bomb without conventional electric bomb racks using an additional crew member to throw the bombs out the aircraft's door or window. The Bonanza led the attack dropping incendiary bombs to light up the target area for the trailing aircraft. The bombardment itself caused very minimal damage to the city center and airport but created a pretty significant panic in the city. The following day Britain formally declared a defense pact with the Kingdom of Jordan according to which any further attacks on Jordan would be countered by the RAF, due to which the Israeli Air Force refrained from attacking Jordan for the rest of the War.

 

 - Boris Senior's Bonanza B-42 in Sdeh Dov air base during the 1948 war.

 

The next major incident involving a Beechcraft Bonanza was once again with Bonanza B-42 piloted by Boris. Before this next sortie had happened a former Soviet Air Force engineer that had joined the Israeli war effort installed a pair of electrically powered bomb racks on Bonanza B-42. The racks used were British universal bomb carriers designated for bombs in weights of 50-100kg and their installation was possible due to the removal of the passenger seats in the back and installation of reinforcements for the aircraft's floor. The same engineer also offered to install a mechanism that would allow the installation of a machinegun that would fire through the aircraft's propeller but Boris refused this offer pleased enough by the added capability introduced with the new bomb racks. The Bonanza was used in the same attack on the flagship of the Egyptian fleet, the RENS Emir Farouq, which I had previously mentioned in my suggestion for the Israeli Beaufighter. It was one of the first aircraft to respond to the threat which was closing in on Tel Aviv and was used to dive bomb the incoming vessels. While there is no specific proof of this claim beyond his own personal experience, Boris Senior himself claims it was probably one of his bombs dropped during his 2nd sortie on the Emir Farouq that damaged it's steering mechanism and forced it to fall back to the shores of Ashqelon where it was later sunk by Israeli frogmen.

 

By the end of the war the Israeli Air Force was already equipped with far more capable aircraft such as S-199s, P-51s, Spitfires, Beaufighters, Harvards and B-17s, however Boris Senior's Bonanza B-42 continued to be used as a makeshift dive bomber throughout it on various missions and proved to be fairly effective despite it's lacking performance compared to conventional combat aircraft.

 

 - Bonanza B-42, now renamed as 0602, during the 50's used as liaison and training aircraft in Ramat David air base. Note that it's still euipped with bomb racks.

 

The later years and retirement

After the 1948 war the Bonanzas received new designations with B-41, B-42 and B-43 being renamed to 0601, 0602 and 0603 respectively while the last Bonanza to arrive post war received the designation 0604. The aircraft themselves only had the suffix of the number written on them, for example 0602 had the number 02 written on it.  3 of the Bonanzas were retained in the Air Forces inventory up until 1953 and were relegated to liaison, reconnaissance and training purposes. After their retirement 2 of the Bonanzas were sold to civilian owners abroad while the fate of the 3rd remaining Bonanza remain unknown.

 

 - Another photo of Bonanza 0602 in Ramat David air base, once again showing it's bomb racks.

 

Technical information about the aircraft

The Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanzas used by the Israeli Air Force were all of the later batch of production. This means that they were equipped with a more powerful (though still unimpressive for War Thunder) 185 hp engine not found on the earlier batch. Another detail worth mentioning about the Model 35 Bonanzas was that they were the first variant of the Bonanza to feature a V shaped tail, a design used to increase flight stability. As mentioned in the history section there are claims that the armed aircraft in the Israeli Air Force, B-42, had a rear facing machinegun operated from the baggage compartment with the rear door open by a gunner in a prone position, however there are no photos available of this installation nor mentions of the specific type of machinegun used. It is likely the machinegun was a 7.62mm BeSa machinegun as it would have been among the easier ones to fit in the aircraft of the machineguns in Israeli inventory but that is unfortunately only speculative. The pair of bomb racks that were installed on Bonanza B-42 were British Universal bomb carriers designated for bomb weights of 50-100kg. Despite them being British racks according to all sources on the matter and photographic proof they were used to carry German 50kg and 70kg bombs (the same types found on the S-199).

 

Use in War Thunder

As mentioned in the title of my suggestion, the Bonanza in many ways parallels the infamous Po-2 aircraft in terms of overall usefulness, the difference being a lighter bomb load but a better engine and much better overall top speed. The key point to make about this aircraft is that it is likely the only aircraft that could realistically be added to the Israeli air tree at BR 1.0, and as such if an idea such as the expansion of Israeli ground forces all the way down to rank 1 were to be implemented it would be invaluable for providing CAS at the reserve tier with no other viable option.

 

 

 

Specifications

 

Type: liaison aircraft, converted into a dive bomber

 

Country of origin: USA (through South Africa, modified in Israel)

 

Wing span: 10 meters

 

Length: 7.67 meters

 

Height: 2 meters

 

Powerplant: Continental E-185-1 rated at 185 hp

 

Max speed: 296 km/h

 

Max altitude:  5,334 meters

 

Range: 1,207 km

 

Weight: Empty - 699 kg, Fully loaded 1,202 kg

 

Armaments: Rear facing machinegun of unknown type (likely 7.62mm BeSa) fired from the baggage compartment with an open baggage door, 2x50kg (SC50 or SD50) or 2x70kg (SD70) bombs carried under the fuselage.

 

 

Sources:

Spoiler

New Heavens by Boris Senior (Hebrew)

Israeli Air Force Aircraft from the Tiger Moth to the Sufa by Danny Shalom (Hebrew)

Colors & Markings of the Israeli Air Force by Yoav Efrati

Encyclopedia Yifat - 100 Years of Aviation and Space in Israel by Danny Shalom (Hebrew)

Air War on the Edge by Bill Norton

 

Edited November 28, 2022 by yoyolast
slight correction

[ItssLuBu 1,798]

Approved and open for discussion. 

[DMYEugen 688]

+1 A weapon to rival the PO-2. Seriously though, I do hope to see this aircraft along with a Rank I-III Israeli expansion.

[Milocat 4,848]

+1 to add to Israel as a tier 1 vehicle.  

[ofekk213 250]

Finally, a weapon to surpass Po-2

 

This, with the 2 variants of the AT-6, could possibly make a rank I for the Israeli aviation tree.

 

+1

[mytipcreamin 35]

"Rear facing machinegun of unknown type (likely 7.62mm BeSa) fired from the baggage compartment with an open baggage door"

this is the toyota technical of the sky 

+1

[LightningFerret 4]

I love little civilian planes modified into "air technicals"! This being a V-tail Beechcraft Bonanza makes it infinitely even more awesome, not to mention Israel would need it to fill out lower ranks. +1 for sure

[csla1972 849]

If I-III rank will be added so then yes.

But I have to say it would be pretty weird tech tree.

Edited September 26, 2022 by csla1972

[yoyolast 1,708]

On 26/09/2022 at 15:21, csla1972 said:

If I-III rank will be added so then yes.

But I have to say it would be pretty weird tech tree.

The Dragon Rapide supposedly had conventional bomb racks installed at some point but that was never photographed so I'm not sure it's even possible to model and implement properly. The C-47 was used by dumping bombs out of an open cargo bay by hand so I struggle to see how that could possibly work. The Yak-11 didn't even get an Israeli livery so it would be weird to have but I guess if you really stretch it it's possible.

 

Overall as an idea it's possible. I plan on continuing bringing up potential rank I-IV material aircraft whenever I can to bolster such an idea but frankly it's pretty difficult to find actual viable stuff.

Edited September 27, 2022 by yoyolast

[Batwingsix 721]

Oh god the doctor killer lmao. The next thunder show: PO-2 vs Bonanza

[panzerknoef 695]

Absolutely +1, looks like a great meme addition 

[csla1972 849]

15 hours ago, yoyolast said:

Overall as an idea it's possible. I plan on continuing bringing up potential rank I-IV material aircraft whenever I can to bolster such an idea but frankly it's pretty difficult to find actual viable stuff.

Yep I know. I tried it too

[G1label 143]

Co pilot:"It appears we have an enemy fighter on our tail!

 

Pilot: "no worries my friend, just open up the baggage compartment and shoot out of there"

 

+1

[Tunagraph 223]

An excellent comparison to the Po-2 and would be a very welcome addition.

+1

[CokeSpray 7,272]

Suggestion passed to the developers for consideration.