Polikarpov I-16

The Polikarpov I-16 was a Soviet single-engine, single-seat fighter, a low-wing cantilever monoplane with retractable landing gear that was the first such aircraft to reach operational squadron status. The TsKB-12 prototype was accepted into production on 22 November 1933 and first took to the air on 30 December 1933 with Valery Chkalov at the controls. Introduced in the mid-1930s, the I-16 formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of the Second World War and figured prominently in the Second Sino-Japanese War, at Khalkhin Gol, in the Winter War and in the Spanish Civil War. Soviet pilots nicknamed it Ishak or Ishachok, the donkey, the Nationalists in Spain called it Rata, the Republicans Mosca, and the Finns Siipiorava, the flying squirrel. Around half of all I-16s produced were still in service in 1943, when they were finally replaced.