Polikarpov
4 types · 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
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Aircraft Types
Polikarpov I-15
The Polikarpov I-15 was a Soviet gull-wing biplane fighter of the 1930s, designed as the manoeuvrable dogfighter in a two-type fighter doctrine. First flown in October 1933, it fought for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, where Spanish pilots named it Chato, "snub-nose", and later in China and Mongolia, but it was outclassed by newer monoplanes before the Second World War began. Its developments, the I-15bis and I-153, kept the family in service into the 1940s, and a few I-153s survive, some of them flying.
Polikarpov I-16
The Polikarpov I-16 was a Soviet single-seat fighter that entered service in the mid-1930s as the world's first low-wing monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear. Designed by Nikolai Polikarpov's bureau, the squat radial-engined fighter fought in Spain, China and Finland, and was still the Soviet Union's most numerous fighter type when Germany invaded in 1941. A handful of examples restored from Russian wrecks fly today.
Polikarpov Po-2
The Polikarpov Po-2 is a Soviet two-seat biplane that began as a standard military trainer and became one of the most-produced aircraft in history, with about 33,000 built. Designed by Nikolai Polikarpov and first flown in 1927 as the U-2, it served the Soviet Union as a trainer, liaison aircraft, crop duster and air ambulance, and in the Second World War as a night bomber — most famously with the all-women 588th Light Night Bomber Regiment, the "Night Witches". Renamed Po-2 in 1944, it flew combat missions again in Korea and stayed in production, in the Soviet Union and under licence in Poland, into the 1950s.
Polikarpov R-Z
The Polikarpov R-Z was a Soviet two-seat reconnaissance bomber of the mid-1930s, a major redesign of the R-5 built at Moscow's Zavod No.1 and powered by an M-34N engine. It first flew in January 1935, and 1,031 had been built when production ended in 1937. The R-Z fought in Spain, where Republican crews knew it as the Natacha, against Japan at Khalkhin Gol and against Finland in the Winter War, and it was being replaced by the Ilyushin Il-2 when Germany invaded in 1941.