Tupolev I-8

The Tupolev I-8, also known as the ANT-13, was an experimental interceptor built in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. It was an exercise in developing the Polikarpov I-5 design, carried out by a group of engineers led by V. M. Rodionov, each of whom volunteered 70 hours of personal time to the project. It was a single-seat aircraft powered by one 466 kW Curtiss V-1570 Conqueror V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine and armed with two 7.62 mm PV-1 machine guns. It first flew on 28 October 1930 with M. M. Gromov at the controls and was the first Soviet aircraft to exceed 300 km/h in level flight. Despite promising performance it did not advance beyond the prototype phase, because there were no plans to acquire the Curtiss engine and no domestic equivalent was available.