Polikarpov I-153
| Polikarpov I-153 | |
|---|---|
 Finnish I-153 with ski undercarriage |
|
| Type: | Fighter plane |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: |
Polikarpov |
| First flight: |
1938 |
| Commissioning: |
1939 |
| Production time: |
1939-1941 |
| Number of pieces: |
3,437 |
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The Polikarpov I-153 ( russian Поликарпов И-153 ) was a Soviet biplane - fighter of the late 1930s. It was created as a reaction to the experience gained in the Spanish Civil War with the I-15 as a further development. Because of its striking wing shape, it was called Chaika (Чайка, seagull). It was designed by Nikolai Polikarpow .
development
The most obvious change to the I-15 was the retractable landing gear, for which some structural changes had to be made to the fuselage and the lower wing. The draft was presented on October 11, 1937.
The machine, initially referred to as the I-15ter , was equipped with a 750 HP M-25W engine and flew for the first time in autumn 1938. Another prototype received the more powerful M-62 engine with an adjustable AQ-1 two-bladed propeller, that too was used in the series copies.
At the beginning of 1939 the 70th fighter regiment was the first unit to be equipped with this type. In the summer of the same year, the first combat mission took place during the Chalchin Gol border conflict against the Japanese air forces. Due to the element of surprise and their technical superiority over the Japanese fighters in use, they could inflict heavy losses on them. However, the alleged "ruse", which is still mentioned in the literature from time to time, that the Soviet pilots had deceived their opponents by flying with the landing gear extended and reduced speed and thus pretending that an outdated I-15 was easy prey for the Japanese To pull in the wheels surprisingly and launch an attack probably springs from the imagination of a front-line propagandist.
In the winter war of the Soviet Union against Finland in 1939/40, the I-153 was still in the first line of the fighter pilot's forces, 11 of them were captured by the Finns in the course of the fighting and also used.
In the spring of 1940 the Soviet Union handed 903 aircraft over to China as weapons aid, which they used against the invading Japanese troops.
When the German Reich attacked the USSR in 1941, many I-153s were devastated by the German Air Force . The remaining aircraft were withdrawn from the fighter units after the appearance of the new fighter types Jak-1 , MiG-3 and LaGG-3 and used as ground attack aircraft until the end of 1943 .
A total of 3,437 machines of this type were built in several versions.
construction
The I-153 was a braced biplane, the upper and lower wings of which were connected with I-struts. The upper wing had the characteristic seagulls (chaika) wing , which bent towards the fuselage, which reduced the forehead and interference resistance at the transition to the fuselage. The spars of the supporting structure consisted of a wooden frame covered with fabric, the ailerons on the upper wing were made of metal.
The fuselage was welded together from chrome-molybdenum steel pipes and covered with fabric, the fuselage bow received a duralumin planking. There was an 8mm armor plate behind the pilot.
The horizontal stabilizer each had a V-shaped strut below the fuselage and consisted of a metal frame with fabric covering.
In contrast to the manual retraction process by means of a crank on the I-16 , the landing gear was pneumatically retracted into the fuselage. The tail wheel was rigid. In winter all three wheels could be replaced with runners.
variants
- I-153BS :
Series version with two 12.7 mm MG BS instead of the usual standard armament (four 7.62 mm MG SchKAS ).
- I-153P :
Like I-153BS, but with two 20 mm MK SchWAK .
- I-153DM :
A trial version with two additional DM-2 - ramjet engines under the wings of September in 1940, the increase in speed was 30 km / h. Two more powerful DM-4s were tested on 17 flights in October 1940. The maximum speed increased by a maximum of 51 km / h due to the additional drive power of up to 297 hp. The engines were developed by Igor Merkulov .
- I-153W / I-153W (M-63 / TK / GK) :
Two prototypes, which received a hermetically sealed pilot's cabin from Shcherbakov and Polikarpow on a trial basis and were tested in 1940/41. No. 2 was also equipped with an M-63 engine with two TK-3 turbo compressors.
- I-190 / I-195 :
The I-190 was an aerodynamically improved further development, built in early 1939 and tested from December 30, 1939, with a 14-cylinder M-88W double radial engine that reached a top speed of 490 km / h. After a crash landing on February 13, 1941, the test program was discontinued. The second model I-195 with the M-90 engine was no longer completed. It was supposed to reach a calculated top speed of 580 km / h, making it the fastest double-decker in the world.
New buildings
Towards the end of the 1990s, the Moscow Society for the Restoration of Historic Airplanes, in collaboration with the former manufacturing plant in Novosibirsk , resumed limited production of I-153 and I-16 using original parts from wrecks found in northwestern Russia. Parts of two recovered I-15s were also used in the construction. The still existing original drawings and the technical equipment could also be used. The performance data of the aircraft created in this way largely correspond to the historical models, especially since the original M-62 engine is used as the drive. The first newbuildings (three I-153 and six I-16) were sold to New Zealand for $ 200,000 each. The aircraft are fully suitable for aerobatics and are also presented and flown at air shows.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data (Polikarpow I-153BS) |
|---|---|
| Constructor (s) | Nikolai Polikarpov |
| Year of construction (s) | 1938–? |
| crew | 1 pilot |
| length | 6.17 m |
| Wingspan | 10.00 m (top), 7.50 m (bottom) |
| height | 2.80 m |
| Wing area | 22.14 m² |
| Empty mass | 1,348 kg |
| Takeoff mass | normal 1,859 kg maximum 2,009 kg (with two additional 100 l fuel tanks) |
| drive | an air-cooled 9-cylinder radial engine Schwezow ASch-62 |
| power | 588.5 kW (800 PS) |
| Top speed | 366 km / h near the ground, 444 km / h at an altitude of 4,600 m |
| Rise time | 3 minutes at an altitude of 3,000 m |
| Duration of a full curve | 11.4-12.4 s |
| Service ceiling | 11,000 m |
| Range | normal 470 km maximum 880 km |
| Take-off run | 106 m |
| Armament | two 12.7 mm MG BS six 82 mm RS-82 missiles or two 100 kg bombs under the wings |
Countries of operation
See also
literature
- Olaf Groehler : History of the Air War 1910 to 1980. Military Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1981, p. 169.
- Wilfried Copenhagen : Soviet fighters. transpress, Berlin, 1985, VLN 162-925 / 145/85.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ian Brodie, Tom Middleton: Mad about the Gull. In: Airplane Monthly. May 2000, p. 46.
- ↑ Ian Brodie, Tom Middleton: Mad about the Gull. In: Airplane Monthly. May 2000, p. 44.
- ↑ Manfred Jurleit: Flying stove pipes. In: Fliegerrevue No. 3/1973, pp. 131, 132.
- ↑ Wilfried Bergholz: Russian fighter planes since 1934. Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2019, ISBN 978-3-613-04226-1 , p. 26
- ↑ Peter Misch: Polikarpows Tchaika flies again . In: Fliegerrevue . No. 6/1999 , p. 52-55 .