A Soviet engineer in Santa Monica

In November 1936 Boris Lisunov, chief engineer of a Kharkov aircraft plant and a friend of Sergei Ilyushin from their student days, arrived at the Douglas works in Santa Monica. The Soviet Union had bought a licence for the DC-3 that July, and for two and a half years Lisunov documented every part, every tool and the after-sales support. In January 1938 he became technical director of Plant No. 84 at Khimki, and after his boss Vladimir Myasishchev was arrested the programme became his.

1,293 changes

Converting the drawings to metric took 1,293 engineering change orders. Skins were slightly heavier, the passenger door moved to the right, and the engines were Shvetsov ASh-62s, a Soviet development of the Wright Cyclone. The PS-84 began leaving the line in 1939, and 237 had been built when Germany invaded in June 1941. Lisunov evacuated the factory to Tashkent, where it was building aircraft again by January 1942.

The DC-3 that dropped bombs

In war service the PS-84 became the Li-2, and unlike the American C-47 it fought: military versions had a dorsal gun turret and could carry bombs, and served as night bombers, partisan supply and ambulance aircraft. In all 4,937 were built between 1940 and 1954, at Tashkent, Kazan and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Lisunov died of a heart attack in 1946, shortly after receiving the Order of Lenin. One airworthy Li-2 still flies in Hungary.

Fabrieken

• State Aircraft Plant No. 84 · Khimki, Moscow — Original PS-84 line until the 1941 evacuation
• Tashkent (GAZ-33/GAZ-84) · Tashkent, Uzbek SSR — Main wartime and post-war Li-2 plant
• GAZ-126 · Komsomolsk-on-Amur — 353 Li-2Ts, 1946–1950

Mensen

• Boris Lisunov · engineer, programme head — 1898–1946; Order of Lenin for the Li-2
• Vladimir Myasishchev · engineer — Led metrication of the drawings before his arrest