The Grigorovich I-1 was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

fighter prototype of the 1920s. It was the first land-based fighter developed by the Grigorovich Design Bureau, who had previously concentrated on water-borne aircraft such as the

Grigorovich M-5 Grigorovich M-5 (alternative designation Shch M-5, sometimes also Shchetinin M-5) was a successful Russian World War I-era two-bay unequal-span biplane flying boat with a single step hull, designed by Grigorovich. It was the first mass productio ...

of 1914.

Development

Initially, design was started on a single-seat fighter by

Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich ( uk, Дмитро Павлович Григорович, russian: Дмитрий Павлович Григорович) (born in Kyiv, Russian Empire, now Ukraine, 25 January (6 February) 1883, died 26 July 1938 in Mosc ...

, to compete with the

Polikarpov I-1 The Polikarpov I-1 was the first indigenous Soviet monoplane fighter. It had to be redesigned after the crash of the first prototype, and was eventually ordered into production in small numbers, but it was never accepted for service with the Sov ...

biplane. The finished aircraft, finalised in 1924 and produced at Factory No. 1, at

Khodinka Khodynka (russian: links=no, Ходынский, ''Khodynskiy''), officially Frunze Central Aerodrome, often referred to as Tsentralny (), was an airport in Moscow, Russia, located northwest of the centre of the city. History The founding of the ...

, near

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, was a single-seat, single-bay

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

of wooden construction, with the forward portion of the fuselage being covered in

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

and the rear having fabric skinning. In development, a major problem was that of engine cooling - various methods were tested including radiators attached to the undercarriage legs, but in the end a radiator suspended beneath the engine was used.

Operational history

After an initial flight in January 1924, testing took place in the spring of that year. The I-1 was found to have adequate speed for its purpose but its construction and therefore its flight were unstable, and its

climb rate In aeronautics, the rate of climb (RoC) is an aircraft's vertical speed, that is the positive or negative rate of altitude change with respect to time. In most ICAO member countries, even in otherwise metric countries, this is usually expressed ...

was found to be insufficient with repeated stalls. Therefore, the prototype was abandoned, and Grigorovich refined the design into the

Grigorovich I-2 The Grigorovich I-2 was a biplane fighter aircraft of the Soviet Union, the first indigenous fighter to enter service in substantial numbers. Developed from the Grigorovich I-1, it first flew on 4 November 1924, piloted by A.I. Zhukov. The M-5 ...

which later entered service in the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

Variants

;

:Aerodynamically more refined version of the I-1, entered service in 1926.

Specifications (I-1)

References

{{Soviet fighter designations Biplanes Grigorovich aircraft 1920s Soviet and Russian fighter aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1924

Development

Operational history

Variants

Specifications (I-1)

See also

References