The Soviets manufactured almost three thousand DC-3 variants under license. They were built under the direction of Boris Lisunov, who had acquired his education in putting together the aircraft at the Douglas Santa Monica plant during a stint there from 1936 through 1939. The type went into production as the "PS-84", meaning "Passenger Aircraft from State Factory (GAZ) 84", and was in principle to be used as a civilian airliner by Aeroflot. After the Nazi invasion of June 1941, GAZ-84 relocated to Tashkent in Central Asia, and the aircraft acquired the military designation "Li-2".
Li-2 variants included:
Li-2G: Basic civil cargo hauler, with reinforced floor and tie-downs, plus cargo doors on the left.
Li-2T: Militarized Li-2G, with a capacity of 20 troops or 15 stretchers along with the crew of four. Some were fitted with a dorsal turret with either a ShKAS 7.62 millimeter (0.30 caliber) or UBT 12.7 millimeter (0.50 caliber) machine gun, and a ShKAS machine gun could be fitted to a flexible mount on each side of the aircraft. Bomb racks could be fitted under the fuselage, with typical carriage consisting of four FAB-250 250 kilogram (550 pound) bombs, and six RS-82 82 millimeter (3.2 inch) unguided rockets could be carried under each outer wing.
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