WWII-era fighter plane restored for Victory Day

One of Russia’s few World War II era fighter planes will take to the skies for one more sortie on May 9, having been lovingly restored to take part in the Victory Day celebrations in Novosibirsk. The Polikarpov I-16 revolutionized fighter aircraft design when it was first introduced in the early 1930s: a fully enclosed cockpit, a single pair of cantilevered wings, retractable landing gear, and a lightweight construction. It formed the backbone of several air forces throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, and by the time it was retired at the end of the Second World War, every fighter in the world had taken at least some inspiration from its design.

The ‘donkey,’ ‘rat,’ ‘flying squirrel,’ or ‘fly’ as it was known (depending on where you flew one) went on to become a prize for collectors, maintained and restored with the help of the Siberian Aeronautical Research Institute. Vladimir Barsuk, one of the Russian Federation’s most respected test pilots, took the I-16 out for a quick trip around the sky before its Victory Day flight, and 89 years on, it looks as good as it ever has.

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