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For historical information, Wikipedia has an article on Polikarpov I-16.

The Polikarpov I-16 is a Soviet fighter and ground attack plane.

Description[]

The I-16 saw first action prior to WW2 in the Spanish Civil War and in the Soviet-Japanese border conflicts. It still formed the backbone of the Soviet fighter squadrons when Germany invades the Soviet Union in Summer 1941. It has two 7.62 mm (0.30 in) ShKAS machine guns in the upper cowling and two 20 mm (0.79 in) ShVAK cannons in the wings. In the ground attack role, they can also carry six RS-82 air-to-ground rockets. Though very rugged and well armed, the I-16 was outperformed by the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 in terms of speed. China also received a number of this planes and used them against the Japanese.

Gallery[]

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