DAR-10. The Bulgarian Snipe.

 

The DAR-10 (acronym standing for Darzhavna Aeroplanna Rabotilnitsa - State Airplane Workshop) was a Bulgarian light-bomber and reconnaissance airplane which was designed by Zvetan Lazarov in 1938 at DAR's factory in Bozhuriste, near the Bulgarian capital city, Sofia. 

The DAR-10 was a two-seat (pilot and gunner) low-wing cantilever monoplane of traditional layout. It had a fixed undercarriage with spatted main wheels. Wings were made out of wood and covered in plywood and the type had no flaps.

The fuselage, constructed of steel-tube framework and wood formers was covered in fabric and, in comparison with other aircraft of the time, wide and deep to fit the Italian Alfa-Romeo 126 RC.34 radial engine which yielded 950 hp of power, driving a three-bladed propeller.

Two prototypes were built, the first of which, named DAR-10A (the A stands for Alfa-Romeo) "Bekas" (Snipe) flew for the first time on 2nd July 1941. It was designed to be armed with two forward-firing machine guns and two additional ones placed at the end of the canopy, manned by the gunner. It had provision for a total of five 100 Kg (110 lb) underwing bombs and it was also envisioned the installation of an additional 20 mm forward-firing cannon in the forward fuselage. However, it's doubtful if the DAR-10A received any armament at all.

This first prototype crashed in October 1942. Albeit having good flight reviews, it wasn't chosen for production as the high-wing Kaproni Bulgarski KB-11 "Fazan" (Pheasant) was selected instead.

The second prototype, DAR-10F (F stands for its Fiat engine) was powered by a Fiat A74 RC.38 radial engine yielding 870 hp of power. It wasn't until March 1945 that this airplane flew for the first time. It was slightly heavier than the DAR-10A and had a top speed of 454 km/h (282 mph). Owing to a stronger construction and dive brakes, it could also perform as a dive bomber. Its armament layout was the same as the DAR-10A but in this case with two additional 20 mm forward-firing fuselage cannons mounted in the upper half of the forward fuselage, on the engine. It had also provision for one 500 kg (1.100 lb) or one 250 kg (551 lb) bombs under the fuselage and four 100 kg (110 lb) of smaller underwing bombs. 

It wasn't however selected for production as the DAR-10A was discarded in favor of the KB-11 and the German Junkers Ju.87 Stuka, and the DAR-10F arrived too late, when the World War 2 was almost over, and Bulgaria had access to Soviet aircraft such as the Ilyushin Il-2 or the Ilyushin Il-10, among others.

Sources: 

1st: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAR_10

2nd http://airwar.ru/enc/aww2/dar10.html (translated)

3rd http://airwar.ru/enc/aww2/dar10f.html (translated)