[Nadia]

Probably the MOST mysterious plane in my whole collection, that took a long time to identify; at some point
I even thought this one could be from Poland, because of the three letters ZKB, were reminiscent of PZL for instance...
But this is truly a soviet plane, father of family of planes that were only second to IL2, for the soviet bomber force.

Remarkable scenery and colors truly forerunner of the IL-2 sim, with the train, road, trucks and all...
It looks like a screen grab from the early IL-2, with the same green 'country side' colours...



Ilyushin ZKB-26 of 1935, prototype of the DB3 family, and of
the IL-4 family of bombers.This a plane that by itself offers rarest of information to be found on the Internet.

Here is what THE C.I.S. AVIATION AND SPACE DIRECTORY had to say about Ilyushin's:
...
...
History and Structure:
Founded in 1933 by Sergei V. Ilyushin as a small Design group within the Central Design Bureau, after which the first
development was named: the twin-engine bomber ZKB-26 (1935), during WWII renamed IL-4. During the war time
6,800 DB-3 and IL-4 were built and 42,000 armoured ground support aircraft IL-2. In 1948 the first jet-engine bomber
IL-28 made its maiden flight... ... ... ... ... ... story goes till today:
... All together more than 60,000 Ilyushin aircraft were built so far.

Now what the US new at the time from Mf 30-34 Military Intelligence Identification of Soviet-Russian-Aircraft:



How the Canadians got acquainted with the bird (Wikipedia/Germany):
" ...caused an international stir in 1939, the flight of W. and his navigator Kokkinaki Gordienko with DB-3 Moskwa.
On 29 April, they started in Moscow to New York. After 8,000 miles, the worst weather conditions of Labrador,
the consumption of all fuel and oxygen supply Kokkinaki landed with the landing gear retracted by the lighthouse
of the island of Miscou, New Brunswick, Canada. The DB-3 was located 22 hours and 56 minutes in the air,
representing an average speed of 348 mph."
This news event featuring the twin engine bomber plane from Russia crash landing in NB, probably inspired the war scene
that was made on this Canadian card, about soviet bombers... identified as being ZKB-26's...

The only known photo of the ZKB-26 prototype:


from http://www.suchoj.com