- Yes
- No
TL;DR:
Fighter plane, fat with a big engine.
Overview:
After the crash of the first I-180 prototype and death of test pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Valery Chkalov, and subsequent death and injury of further test pilots, lead designer Dimitriy Tomashevich was arrested and sent to the NKVD TsKB-29 design bureau/prison in Omsk. There, he helped in the development of various aircraft, and in 1941 after the German Invasion was released.
He then became the head of his own design bureau, staffed with interned engineers, and in 1942 started development on a new fighter plane, the I-110. Tomashevich emphasised ease of maintenance and manufacturing in the design, using a large number of easily removable panels and assemblies that required a small amount of bolts to fit together, including an easily replaceable engine. It was of mixed construction, trying to minimize the use of metal which was in short supply, having only the front fuselage, wings, and flight surfaces made of steel or duralumin (in the steel fuselage’s case also providing armour) and the rest wood veneer composite. The I-110 used a new engine, the powerful 1400 horsepower Klimov VK-107. However it required a strong cooling system, and as such a massive radiator with oil and water cooling was installed under the nose. It was heavily armed, with a 20mm cannon through the engine and 2 machine guns above it on the nose, and could also carry up to 500kg of bombs.
Unfortunately, the design ended up being overweight, weighing 3285kg when empty. During its test flights, performed by P. M. Stefanovsky, it was considered to have pretty good flight characteristics but poor performance, reaching a max speed of 610km/h at 6250 metres and taking 7 minutes to climb to 5000 metres. As such, while also considering the difficulty of starting new aircraft production and that it didn’t offer any big improvements over existing aircraft, the design was not accepted for production. However, the work in the I-110 was used to improve the VK-107 engine, and later aircraft using the engine showed exceptional performance.
Specifications:
Weight:
Empty: 3285 kg
Take-off: 3980 kgDimensions:
Length: 9.91m
Wing Span: 10.2m
Wing Area: 18.73m²
Height: 2.8mEngine:
Klimov VK-107P inline V-12 engine
1400 hp
1700 hp take off
Liquid cooledPerformance:
Max Speed:
508km/h at ground level
610km/h at 6250m
Ceiling: 10 000m
Range: 1050km
Rate of Climb: 750m/minuteCrew: 1
Armament:
1x1 20mm ShVAK
2x1 12.7mm Berezin UBSOrdnance:
500 kg of bombs (2x1 250 kg on each wing)
Images:
Sources:
Nemecek, V. (1986). The History of Soviet Aircraft from 1918 (pp. 62, 408). Collins Willow.
Shavrov, V. B. (2002). Istoriya Konstruktsiy Samoletov v SSSR 1938-1950 gg. (pp. 267-268). Mashinostroenie.
https://www.airwar.ru/enc/fww2/i110.html