Tupolev I-5

I-5
An I-5 in flight
Role	Fighter
National origin	Soviet Union
Manufacturer	Polikarpov
Designer	N. N. Polikarpov
First flight	29 April 1930
Introduction	1931
Retired	1942
Primary user	VVS Naval Aviation
Produced	1931–34
Number built	803

The Polikarpov I-5 was a single-seat biplane which became the primary Soviet fighter between its introduction in 1931 through 1936, after which it became the standard advanced trainer. Following Operation Barbarossa, which destroyed much of the Soviet Air Forces (VVS), surviving I-5s were equipped with four machine guns and bomb racks and pressed into service as light ground-attack aircraft and night bombers in 1941. They were retired in early 1942 as Soviet aircraft production began to recover and modern ground-attack aircraft like the Ilyushin Il-2 became available. A total of 803 built (including 3 prototypes).

The 1928 Five-Year Plan ordered the Tupolev design bureau to develop a mixed-construction (metal and wood/fabric) biplane fighter powered by a Bristol Jupiter VII engine with the first prototype completed by 1 September 1929. The new fighter was designated I-5 (Istrebitel'—Fighter), but had the internal Tupolev designation of ANT-12. Concurrently, Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov's group was tasked with creating a wood-construction aircraft designated as the Polikarpov I-6 to the same specification. The I-5 design, begun by Pavel Sukhoi, under the supervision of Andrei Tupolev, lagged because the Tupolev bureau was preoccupied with large bombers. As the result the I-5 and I-6 projects were unified in 1929 under Polikarpov's leadership, although neither project met its specified completion date.

Nikolai Polikarpov was arrested by the OGPU in September 1929 for the crime of industrial sabotage for these failures and sentenced to death, although this was commuted to ten years imprisonment in a labor camp. In December 1929 the OGPU gathered a number of aircraft engineers together at Butyrka prison, including Polikarpov, and formed the Internal Prison Design Bureau (Konstruktorskoye Byuro Vnutrenniya Tyurma—KB VT) under the leadership of Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich. The KB VT was transferred to quarters on the grounds of Factory (Zavod) Nr. 30 in Moscow-Khodinka in early 1930. Shortly afterwards Polikarpov replaced Grigorovich as the head designer when his concept for the I-5 was approved by the OGPU. The full-scale mock-up was approved on 28 March 1930 and the first prototype, designated VT-11 (Vnutrenniya Tyurma—Internal Prison), was completed a month later.

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