RuAviation

An I-16 fighter jet, which took part in the battles of the Great Patriotic War and was restored for the 79th anniversary of the Victory by the participants of the project Winged Memory of Victory, took flight in Novosibirsk. The I-16 was piloted by Vladimir Barsuk, Director of the Siberian Aviation Research Institute, Honoured Test Pilot of the Russian Federation. The fighter will take part in the Victory Parade on 9 May in Novosibirsk, the press service of the SibNIA said.

The Soviet I-16, created in 1933 in the design bureau of Nikolai Polikarpov, will be the only historical combat aircraft that will take to the skies as part of the Immortal Air Regiment event. The flight of the fighter jet is a tribute to the memory of aircraft designers and military pilots, the feat of the Soviet people in the victory over fascism in the Great Patriotic War, commented Boris Osyatinsky, President of the Winged Memory of Victory Foundation.

According to Vladimir Barsuk, Director of SibNIA, the I-16 marked a new era in the development of combat aviation. The biplanes were replaced by the first monoplane fighter, which favourably differed in speed and manoeuvrability, but at the same time did not forgive pilots for mistakes they could make at lower speeds in controlling biplanes.

“From my experience I can confirm that the I-16 is indeed one of the most difficult aircraft to control. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War it had become the most mass-produced fighter aircraft. From the Soviet pilots for the successful fulfilment of combat missions required maximum attention and concentration, with their successes they repeatedly confirmed the high level of training and mastery of air combat tactics!,” Vladimir Barsuk said.

In SibNIA said that the fragments of the aircraft I-16 were found by participants of the project Winged Memory of Victory in June 1992 in Karelia, two kilometres north-west of Lake Kokkoyarvi and 38 km south-west of Kostomuksha. When examining the fragments of the recovered aircraft, it was found that the I-16 had camouflage colouring with black camouflage spots on a green background, adopted by the naval aviation in the Red Army Air Force. These data were taken into account when painting the restored fighter.

Presumably, the recovered I-16 was in service with the 155th Fighter Aviation Regiment based in the area and made an emergency landing in the summer of 1941. The 155th Fighter Aviation Regiment took part in combat operations in Karelia from the first day of the war. The main task of the regiment in June-July 1941 was to cover bombers of the 55th Mixed Aviation Division.

No fragments of the aircraft’s armament were found, which may indicate that an emergency team of the armed forces worked on the site after its forced landing. The name of the pilot and the serial number of the aircraft could not be determined from the fragments. Fragments of wooden fuselage, centreplane, landing gear, landing gear, consoles, part of the plumage and M-62 engine were found at the I-16 landing site. According to the fragments of armament installation this I-16 was identified and further restored as type 24.

In 1992 the participants of the project Winged Memory of Victory transported the fragments of the I-16 to Novosibirsk. The second life of I-16 began with a long search and restoration of design documentation for the aircraft. Manufacturing and restoration of the aircraft design elements were carried out by the Chkalov Novosibirsk Aviation Plant and the company Aviarestavratsiya. The SibNIA performed the final assembly of the fighter, as well as its ground and flight tests.