Polikarpov I-16
Sign in to saveAlso known as Mosca, Rata, UTI-1, TsKB-12, Ishachok, UTI-4, Ishak, TsKB-18
Soviet fighter aircraft
Key facts
- Type
- Fighter
- National origin
- Soviet Union
- Manufacturer
- Plant No. 21 ( Gorky ), Plant No. 39 ( Moscow ), Plant No. 153 ( Novosibirsk ), Plant No. 458 ( Rostov-on-Don / Baku ), ( Spain )
- Designer
- N. N. Polikarpov Design Bureau
- Primary users
- Soviet Air Force Spanish Republican Air Force , Chinese Nationalist Air Force
- Number built
- 10,292 (6,848 fighters and 3,444 trainers)
- Manufactured
- November 1933 – 1942
- Introduction date
- March 1935
- First flight
- 30 December 1933 (TsKB-12)
- Retired
- 1945 ( Soviet Air Force ), 1953 ( Spanish Air Force )
- Developed into
- Polikarpov I-180
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Country
- Soviet Union
- Operator
- Kuomintang
- Manufacturer
- Rostvertol
- Designed by
- Nikolai Polikarpov
- Conflict
- Second Sino-Japanese War
- Image
- OSH2003 Polikarpov I-16.jpg
- Length
- 241.5
- Speed
- 303.9
- Has use
- combat air patrol
Show 14 more facts
- Commons category
- Polikarpov I-16
- powered by
- Shvetsov M-25
- armament
- machine gun
- first flight
- 1933-12-30
- total produced
- 8644
- service entry
- 1934-00-00
- service retirement
- 1944-00-00
- wing configuration
- low wing
- wingspan
- 354.5
- maximum operating altitude
- 35433
- vehicle range
- 248.6
- nominal power output
- 1100
- maximum capacity
- 1
- native label
- И-16
via Wikidata · CC0
~34 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Polikarpov I-16 (Russian: Поликарпов И-16) is a Soviet single-engine single-seat fighter aircraft. It is a low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear, and was the first such aircraft to attain operational squadron status. It "introduced a new vogue in fighter design". The I-16 was introduced in the mid-1930s and formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of World War II. The diminutive fighter, nicknamed "Ishak" or "Ishachok" ("donkey" or "burro") by Soviet pilots, figured prominently in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, Winter War and the Spanish Civil War – where it was called the Rata ("rat") by the Nationalists or Mosca ("fly") by the Republicans. The Finns called the aircraft Siipiorava "(flying squirrel)".
Design and development
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Polikarpov I-16” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.