Operational usefulness did not make the Il-4 pleasant to fly. Some accounts describe a navigator taking over on a long mission because holding the aircraft under control wore the pilot down. A power-steering analogy captures controls that seemed to resist the pilot rather than merely lack assistance. The easier DB-3 shows how rapid structural evolution can impose a human-factors penalty even when reliability and mission equipment improve.
Notable Point · 29:24-30:41
Il-4 controls exhausted pilots on long missions
The Il-4 could be so tiring to hold in controlled flight that navigators sometimes relieved pilots during long sorties.