Polikarpov I-16

[Cajunn]

Role    Fighter
Manufacturer    Polikarpov
First flight    30 December 1933 (TsKB-12)
Introduced    1934
Retired    1950s (Spanish State)
Primary user    Soviet Air Force
Produced    1934-1943
Number built    8,644



Specifications (I-16 Type 24)



General characteristics

    * Crew: One
    * Length: 6.13 m (20 ft 1 in)
    * Wingspan: 9 m (29 ft 6 in)
    * Height: 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in)
    * Wing area: 14.5 m² (156.1 ft²)
    * Empty weight: 1,490 kg (3,285 lb)
    * Loaded weight: 1,941 kg (4,279 lb)
    * Max takeoff weight: 2,050 kg (4,519 lb)
    * Powerplant: 1× Shvetsov M-63 air-cooled radial engine, 820 kW (1,100 hp) driving a two-blade propeller

Performance

    * Maximum speed: 525 km/h (283 kn, 326 mph) at 3,000 m (9,845 ft)
    * Range: 700 km (378 nmi, 435 mi (with drop tanks))
    * Service ceiling: 9,700 m (31,825 ft)
    * Rate of climb: 14.7 m/s (2,900 ft/min)
    * Wing loading: 134 kg/m² (27 lb/ft²)
    * Power/mass: 346 W/kg (0.21 hp/lb)
    * Time to altitude: 5.8 minutes to 5,000 m (16,405 ft)

Armament

    * 2 × fixed forward-firing 7.62 mm (0.30 in) ShKAS machine guns in upper cowling
    * 2 × fixed forward-firing 20 mm (0.79 in) ShVAK cannons in the wings
    * 6 × unguided RS-82 rockets or up to 500 kg (1,102 lb) of bombs

[BaDkaRmA158Th]

People are going to ride you and tell you to do a search.

Me, ill just agree and say again, we need this plane and every other early war bird, before perks and "ubber" rides have any meaning.

period. 

[Bruv119]

great little plane,  loads manufactured,  very long service record,  has 20 mm rounds,

a good fun rusky ride to compare with the spit 1 , hurri1, a6m2 and emil. Will be a good addition to the game IMO.

[Ghosth]

Would love to see all the early war birds. If we had a full stable EW arena might actually get some more use.

[Scherf]

+1

[Slade]

+ 1

[Noir]

that'd be fun !!! +1 

[frank3]

They actually kept being produced untill '43?
I thought Polikarpov factories would have their hands full churning out more modern aircraft

[Easyscor]

Yes please.

[Anaxogoras]

They actually kept being produced untill '43?
I thought Polikarpov factories would have their hands full churning out more modern aircraft

Quantity has its own quality.

[Noir]

Quantity has its own quality.

Yah I think they were basicly trying to field as much planes as they can, switching the polikarpov line to other aircraft models had a price measured in time.

[Puck]

плюс один

[waystin2]

Two enthusiastic thumbs up for the I-16!

[Anaxogoras]

Aces High players seem to think that every pilot in the war got the best aircraft available not long after it entered service... Maybe that's because they tend to choose the best aircraft available in the arenas and rarely branch out.

Alongside the I-16, the VVS were still using aircraft like the I-153 well into late 1942.  The Yak-1 and LaGG-3 served alongside the La-7 and Yak-9U.

The use of obsolescent aircraft wasn't restricted to Russia.  For example, the P-39 was still in service in 1944; so was the P-40.

If you were a combat pilot in WWII, you might have been assigned one of these aircraft.  In fact, the odds are that you would not have been flying the latest and greatest, as the older types often made up a majority of available aircraft.

So, yes, bring on the I-16.  It's an absolute must for the early and mid-war planesets.

[Wmaker]

Alongside the I-16, the VVS were still using aircraft like the I-153 well into late 1942.

FiAF met I-153s over the Gulf of Finland well into 1943 too.