Hong - 5 The Hong - 5 Light Bomber was a Chinese - Made bomber based from the received soviet bombers IL - 28 Beagle . Description . The H - 5 ( Hongzha - 5 , or Hong - 5 ) is a Chinese copy of the Soviet Union / Russian IL - 28 ( NATO codename : Beagle ) twin - engine jet bomber aircraft first introduced in the Soviet Air Force in the late 1940s . China obtained several hundred examples of the IL - 28 in the 1950s during the honeymoon period of the Sino - Soviet ally . A licensed production of the aircraft in China was scheduled but the project could not be materialised due to the breaking up of the Sino - Soviet relation in 1960 . As a result , Harbin Aircraft Factory ( now Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Company , HAMC ) was ordered to produce a Chinese version of the IL - 28 by reverse - engineering . The development of the Chinese copy of the IL - 28 began in 1963 and the aircraft received a Chinese designation H - 5 . The aircraft first flew on 25 September 1966 and the batch production began in April 1967 . By the time the H - 5 production finally stopped in 1984 , a total of several hundred examples were produced in a range of variants , including H - 5 bomber , H - 5 naval ( torpedo ) bomber , HJ - 5 bomber - trainer , H - 5A nuclear weapon carrier , HZ - 5 photo reconnaissance aircraft , HD - 5 electronic warfare aircraft , and ‘ Eagle ’ anti - ship missile testbed . The PLA Air Force ( PLAAF ) and PLA Naval Aviation retired most their H - 5 bombers in the late 1990s , though a small number remained flying after 2000 for few years before being completely withdrawn from service . As well as serving with the PLA , 14 examples in the H - 5 bomber , HJ - 5 bomber - trainer and HZ - 5 reconnaissance variants were also exported to Romania , making it the only country apart from China to be operating both IL - 28 and H - 5 . The H - 5 has high - mounted wings with a straight leading edge and forward - tapered trailing edge with blunt tips . Two turbojets are mounted beneath the wings in pods . Pods extend beyond wings leading and trailing edges . The fuselage is tubular and cigar - shaped tapering to the rear with a rounded , glassed - in nose and bubble canopy . The tail fin is swept - back and tapered with a blunt tip . Flats are low - mounted on the fin , swept - back , and tapered with blunt tips . A glassed - in tail gunner compartment is to the rear of the tail . The aircraft ’ s fixed weapons include two single - barrel 23mm cannons in the nose and a twin - barrel 23mm cannon mounted in the tail turret , with a total of 650 rounds . The fuselage weapon bay can carry up to 3 , 000 kg ( 4 X 500 kg or 12 X 250 kg ) free - fall bombs or torpedoes . Additional weapon payload ( bombs or rocket launchers ) can be carried on the eight under - wing stations . Avionics includes an autopilot , bombing radar , IFF , and radio communication and navigation equipment . The basic bomber variant has a crew of three : pilot , navigator , and radio operator seated in the main cockpit , the front glass - in nose compartment , and the tail compartment respectively . The bomber - trainer variant HJ - 5 has two pilot cockpits but with the nose and tail compartments removed . In the electronic warfare variant , the radio operator in the tail compartment was replaced by an equipment operator . The aircraft is powered by two Wopen - 5A turbojets , each rated at 26 . 48 kN ( 2 , 700 kg ) .