Polikarpov TIS
| Polikarpov TIS | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| The second prototype (MA) of the TIS | |
| Role | Heavy fighter |
| National origin | Soviet Union |
| Manufacturer | Polikarpov OKB |
| Designer | Mikhail Yangel |
| First flight | September 1941 |
| Status | canceled |
| Number built | 2 |
The Polkarpov TIS was a heavily armed Soviet heavy fighter designed during the early 1940s. Competing contemporaneous designs in the USSR included the Grushin Gr-1, Mikoyan-Gurevich DIS and Tairov Ta-3.
Only two prototypes were built because its intended engines proved to be too unreliable to be placed into production and the engines' manufacturer lacked the resources to fix the problems.
The second prototype crashed in September 1944 and the program was canceled after the death of Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, the chief designer of his eponymous OKB, earlier that year.
The original request for proposals for a heavy escort fighter (Tyazholyy Istrebitel' Soprovozhdeniya) was received at the Polikarpov OKB in November 1938, but the press of work with the I-180 and SPB prototypes prevented any significant design work until the third quarter of 1940. Mikhail Yangel was appointed head designer, but his job was complicated by multiple changes in the role of the aircraft from escort fighter to interceptor, dive bomber, and eventually reconnaissance.
The prototype, internally designated as aircraft or TIS "A", was a low-wing, all-metal, cantilever monoplane with two Mikulin AM-37 engines and a twin tail. The monocoque fuselage had four 7.62 mm (0.300 in) ShKAS machine guns in the nose, each with 1,000 rounds. The pilot and the gunner/radio-operator were seated back-to-back, separated by an armor plate, under sliding canopies. The gunner had a dorsal ShKAS on a TSS-1 mount with 750 rounds that could be used once his canopy was slid forward. He also had a ventral ShKAS mounted below the armored floor that he could access by raising a hatch in the floor and kneeling down to fire the machine guns. The ventral gun was provided with 500 rounds of ammunition. A 12.7 mm (0.50 in) UBK machine gun with 400 rounds and a 20 mm (0.79 in) ShVAK cannon with 350 rounds were mounted in each wing root. Underneath the wings were two racks each capable of carrying a single 500 kg (1,100 lb) FAB-500 bomb. The wing had automatic leading edge slats and four split flaps separated by the engine nacelles. The single wheel landing gear retracted into the rear part of the nacelles, as did the tailwheel into the fuselage.
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