{"id":1200531,"date":"2026-05-27T18:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=1200531"},"modified":"2026-09-04T09:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T07:32:23","slug":"belyayev-db-lk-soviet-twin-fuselage-bomber-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/belyayev-db-lk-soviet-twin-fuselage-bomber-chicken\/","title":{"rendered":"The Soviet Bomber Test Pilots Called &#8220;The Chicken&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color 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The Belyayev DB-LK. Two fuselages, no central cockpit, forward-swept outer wings, glazed bombardier stations grafted to the tail ends of each engine nacelle. It looked less like an aeroplane than like something a child had built from the spare parts of three other models.<\/p>\r\n<p>The test pilots had a less polite name for it. They called it \u041a\u0443\u0440\u0438\u0446\u0430. The Chicken. They did not mean it kindly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f5f7fa; padding: 18px 22px; margin: 24px 0; border-radius: 8px; border: 1px solid #e0e6ed;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 8px; font-weight: bold; color: #333; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-transform: uppercase;\">Quick Facts<\/p>\r\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 15px; margin: 0;\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; font-weight: 600; color: #5c91ff; white-space: nowrap;\">Type<\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0;\">Twin-fuselage long-range bomber prototype<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; font-weight: 600; color: #5c91ff; white-space: nowrap;\">Designer<\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0;\">Viktor Nikolayevich Belyayev (TsKB)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; font-weight: 600; color: #5c91ff; white-space: nowrap;\">First flight<\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0;\">Early 1940<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; font-weight: 600; color: #5c91ff; white-space: nowrap;\">Wingspan<\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0;\">21.6 m (70 ft 10 in)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; font-weight: 600; color: #5c91ff; white-space: nowrap;\">Engines<\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0;\">Two M-87B 14-cylinder radials, 950 hp each<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; font-weight: 600; color: #5c91ff; white-space: nowrap;\">Max speed (achieved)<\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0;\">488 km\/h (303 mph) \u2014 well below the 547 km\/h projected<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; font-weight: 600; color: #5c91ff; white-space: nowrap;\">Nickname<\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0;\">\u041a\u0443\u0440\u0438\u0446\u0430 (\"Kuritsa\" \u2014 \"the Chicken\")<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 12px 6px 0; font-weight: 600; color: #5c91ff; white-space: nowrap;\">Outcome<\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 6px 0;\">One prototype built. No production. Destroyed during WWII.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">A glider with ideas<\/h2>\r\n<p>Viktor Belyayev was not a fringe figure in Soviet aviation. He had worked under Andrei Tupolev throughout the 1930s on a series of large heavy bombers and had a deep engineering pedigree. What he also had was an obsession with the aerodynamic possibilities of the flying wing. His \"batwing\" glider, the BP-2, had been a successful test article in the mid-1930s, and Belyayev believed its short-fuselage, long-chord wing geometry could be scaled up to a combat bomber.<\/p>\r\n<p>The DB-LK \u2014 \u0414\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u0438\u0439 \u0411\u043e\u043c\u0431\u0430\u0440\u0434\u0438\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0449\u0438\u043a-\u041b\u0435\u0442\u0430\u044e\u0449\u0435\u0435 \u041a\u0440\u044b\u043b\u043e, \"Long-Range Bomber \u2014 Flying Wing\" \u2014 was the result. The design did away with the conventional fuselage entirely. The two M-87B engines sat at the front of two short fuselage pods, each ending in an extensively glazed tail cone that housed a radio operator\/gunner station. The pilot and navigator sat in cockpits at the front of the pods, with the bomb load slung between them inside the wing centre section.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin: 0 0 24px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; width: 100%!important; max-width: 100%!important; height: auto!important; border-radius: 6px;\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/belyayev-db-lk-three-view-1940.jpg\" alt=\"Belyayev DB-LK three-view diagram\" \/>\r\n<figcaption style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #777; text-align: center; margin-top: 6px; font-style: italic;\">The DB-LK three-view drawing from a 1940 Soviet engineering journal \u2014 every standard convention of bomber design is ignored. The crew sat in the twin fuselage pods, with gunner stations in the glazed tail cones. <em>Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">\"The chicken\"<\/h2>\r\n<p>Test pilots were reportedly unwilling to fly the DB-LK at all, citing the unconventional layout and the complete lack of flight envelope data for the configuration. It eventually fell to LII test pilot M.A. Nyukhtikov to take it up, after extensive fast-taxi trials \u2014 one of which ended with a collapsed undercarriage.<\/p>\r\n<p>When the DB-LK finally flew, the performance was genuinely impressive on paper. The forward-swept outer wings \u2014 swept just 5 degrees 42 minutes, but swept forward, anticipating the much more famous experiments of the German Junkers Ju-287 and the American Grumman X-29 \u2014 produced excellent low-speed handling. The defensive armament had clear fields of fire that no conventional bomber could match.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">What went wrong<\/h2>\r\n<p>The list of problems was not catastrophic individually \u2014 it was simply long. The take-off run was excessive because of high sensitivity to centre-of-gravity variations. The pilot cockpits had terrible visibility forward because they were tucked behind the propeller arcs and the wing leading edge. The crew complained that engine exhaust gases collected inside their compartments, forcing them onto oxygen masks. The crew could not see each other; the intercom was the only contact between cockpit and tail.<\/p>\r\n<p>Most importantly, the design promised 547 km\/h but delivered only 488. That offered no real advantage over the bombers already in service, and it was considerably slower than the next-generation Pe-2 entering service. The Soviet Air Force, the VVS, looked at the DB-LK, looked at its problems, looked at the production resources it would require, and said no.<\/p>\r\n<p>A redesign as a dive bomber was discussed but abandoned. The single prototype's ultimate fate is unrecorded; it was most likely destroyed during the Second World War.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin: 24px 0;\">\r\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 8px;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NlZGK56F6jo\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #777; text-align: center; margin-top: 6px; font-style: italic;\">The Belyayev DB-LK story \u2014 a deep dive into one of the strangest Soviet bombers ever built, with rare period photographs and engineering diagrams.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia; Plane-Encyclopedia; HandWiki; Military Matters \/ Forgotten Aircraft; Soviet engineering journals (1940 archives).<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\r\n<!-- mf-faq -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-block\"><style>.mf-faq-block{margin:34px 0}.mf-faq-item:not([open]) .mf-faq-answer{display:none !important}.mf-faq-block h2.mf-faq-h{padding-top:22px;margin-bottom:14px}.mf-faq-item{border:1px solid #e2e8f5;border-radius:8px;margin:0 0 10px;background:#fff}.mf-faq-item summary{list-style:none;cursor:pointer;padding:15px 50px 15px 18px;font-weight:600;color:#1a1a1a;position:relative;line-height:1.45;user-select:none}.mf-faq-item summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mf-faq-item summary::after{content:\"+\";position:absolute;right:18px;top:50%;transform:translateY(-50%);font-size:1.5em;font-weight:400;color:#5C91FF;line-height:1}.mf-faq-item[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mf-faq-item[open] summary{border-bottom:1px solid #eef1f8}.mf-faq-item summary:hover{background:#f5f8ff}.mf-faq-answer{padding:14px 18px;color:#333;line-height:1.6}.mf-faq-answer p{margin:0}<\/style>\r\n<h2 class=\"mf-faq-h\">Related Questions<\/h2>\r\n<details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>What was the Soviet bomber nicknamed 'the Chicken'?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>It was the Belyayev DB-LK, an experimental Soviet twin-fuselage long-range bomber that first flew in 1940. Its odd, swept shape earned it the nickname Kuritsa \u2014 Russian for the Chicken. Only one prototype was built.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>Why was the Soviet bomber called 'the Chicken'?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>Because of its strange appearance. The twin-fuselage design with unusually shaped wings reminded observers of a chicken, giving it the Russian nickname Kuritsa. Its looks, not its performance, earned the name.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>Did the 'Chicken' bomber ever enter service?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>No. Only a single prototype was built. It flew in 1940 but fell short of its performance targets \u2014 reaching 488 km\/h against a projected 547 km\/h \u2014 and was later destroyed during World War II without entering production.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>Who designed the Soviet 'Chicken' bomber?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>It was designed by Viktor Nikolayevich Belyayev, a respected Soviet aircraft engineer, at the TsKB design bureau. His twin-fuselage DB-LK was an ambitious attempt at an efficient long-range bomber, even if it never went into production.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\">\r\n<summary>How fast was the 'Chicken' bomber?<\/summary>\r\n<div class=\"mf-faq-answer\">\r\n<p>The DB-LK reached about 488 km\/h (303 mph) in testing \u2014 well short of the 547 km\/h its designers had hoped for. The disappointing speed was one reason the unusual twin-fuselage bomber never advanced beyond a single prototype.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/details><\/div>\r\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the Soviet bomber nicknamed 'the Chicken'?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"It was the Belyayev DB-LK, an experimental Soviet twin-fuselage long-range bomber that first flew in 1940. Its odd, swept shape earned it the nickname Kuritsa \u2014 Russian for the Chicken. Only one prototype was built.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why was the Soviet bomber called 'the Chicken'?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Because of its strange appearance. The twin-fuselage design with unusually shaped wings reminded observers of a chicken, giving it the Russian nickname Kuritsa. 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The disappointing speed was one reason the unusual twin-fuselage bomber never advanced beyond a single prototype.\"}}]}<\/script><!-- \/mf-faq -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f0f4ff; border-left: 4px solid #5C91FF; padding: 16px 20px; margin: 32px 0 8px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 8px; font-weight: 600; color: #333;\">Related Posts<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\">The Soviet Jet Train: When Engineers Bolted a Yak-40 Engine to a Railcar<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\">The PZL M-15 Belphegor: A Jet-Powered Biplane Named After a Demon<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two fuselages, forward-swept outer wings, pilots tucked in the wing roots. The Belyayev DB-LK was so weird that Soviet test pilots refused to fly it. They called it &#8220;the Chicken.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":1200451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1200531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Belyayev DB-LK: The Bomber They Called the Chicken<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Belyayev DB-LK had two fuselages and forward-swept wings \u2014 Soviet test pilots took one look at the 1940 bomber and named it the Chicken.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/belyayev-db-lk-soviet-twin-fuselage-bomber-chicken\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Belyayev DB-LK: The Bomber They Called the Chicken\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Belyayev DB-LK had two fuselages and forward-swept wings \u2014 Soviet test pilots took one look at the 1940 bomber and named it the Chicken.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/belyayev-db-lk-soviet-twin-fuselage-bomber-chicken\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-27T16:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-04T07:32:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/belyayev-db-lk-twin-fuselage-soviet-bomber.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"316\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Connor Kerr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Connor Kerr\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/belyayev-db-lk-soviet-twin-fuselage-bomber-chicken\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/belyayev-db-lk-soviet-twin-fuselage-bomber-chicken\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Connor Kerr\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bc7f2d09b1d7111c45fdb1335b8f2cf9\"},\"headline\":\"The Soviet Bomber Test Pilots Called &#8220;The Chicken&#8221;\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-27T16:34:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-04T07:32:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/belyayev-db-lk-soviet-twin-fuselage-bomber-chicken\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":908,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/belyayev-db-lk-soviet-twin-fuselage-bomber-chicken\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/belyayev-db-lk-twin-fuselage-soviet-bomber.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"History &amp; 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