The Russian Polikarpov I-153 Chaika ("Seagull") was a late 1930s Soviet biplane fighter. Developed as an advanced version of the I-152 (I-15bis) with a retractable landig gear.
The I-153 fought in the Soviet-Japanese combats in Mongolia on Summer 1939 ("Nomonhan Incident" on Manchkuoan-Mongolian border), the "Winter War" against Finland on 1939-40, and was one of the Soviet's major fighter types in the early years of the Second World War.
In 1937, the Polikarpov design bureau carried out studies to improve on the performance of its I-15 and I-152 biplane fighters without sacrificing manoeuvrability, as Soviet tactical doctrine was based on a mix of high performance monoplane fighters (met by the Polikarpov I-16) and agile biplanes. Early combat experience from the Spanish Civil War had shown that the I-16 had problems dealing with the Fiat CR.32 biplanes used by the Aviazione Legionaria Italiana and the Aviacion Nacional, which suggested a need to continue the use of biplane fighters, and as a result, Polikarpov's proposals were accepted, and his design bureau was instructed to design a new biplane fighter. Polikarpov assigned the task to the design team led by Aleksei Ya Shcherbakov, who was assisted by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich (who would later set up the MiG design bureau).
The new fighter (designated I-15ter by the design bureau and I-153 by the Soviet Air Forces (VVS)) was based closely on the design of the I-152, with a stronger structure, but was fitted with a manually retractable undercarriage to reduce drag. It reverted to the "gulled" upper wing of the original I-15 but used the Clark YH aerofoil of the I-152. The four 7.62 mm PV-1 machine guns of the I-152 were replaced by four ShKAS machine guns. While still rifle-calibre weapons, these fired much faster than the PV-1s, (1,800 rounds per minute rather than 750 rounds per minute) giving a much greater weight of fire. The new fighter was to be powered by a Shvetsov M-62 an improved derivative of the Shvetsov M-25 that powered the I-15 and I-152 with twin superchargers.
The I-153 first saw combat in 1939 during the Soviet-Japanese Battle of Khalkin Gol in Mongolia. The Japanese Army Air Forces' Type 97 Fighter (Nakajima Ki-27) Nate proved a formidable opponent for the I-15bis and I-16, but was more evenly matched with the I-153, which retained agility inherent to biplanes while featuring improved performance. While the overall I-153 performance was satisfactory, some significant problems were revealed. Most troublesome was the absence of a firewall between the fuel tank mounted in front of the cockpit and the pilot. Combined with strong draft coming in through the wheel wells, fuel tank fires invariably resulted in rapid engulfment of the cockpit and severe burns to the pilot. In addition, the M-62 engine suffered from a service life of only 6080 hours due to failures of the two-speed supercharger.
Stalin's purges in the 1930s resulted in a tremendous lag in Soviet aircraft at the beginning of World War II. Although the new Yak-1 and LaGG-3 fighters were entering production, on 22 June 1941, the bulk of VVS was equipped with the obsolete 1930s designs including a large number of I-153. Even as late as 1942, there were attempts to reinstate production of I-153 and I-16 to fill the shortage of fighter aircraft.
The Polikarpov I-153 never flew with any Spanish Air Force units during or after the Spanish Civil War. Two earlier variants of this aircraft, the I-15 and the I-152, did fly with the Republican Air Force during the conflict and, later, captured examples of both types were used by the Aviacion Nacional until the early 1950s.
Today, some restored I-153 are in airworthy condition in Wanaka Air Club, New Zealand, as part of "Warbirds over Wanaka" airshow.
(Source: Wikipedia on line and Revista Fach #140, 1976 (Chilean Air Force magazine)).
General characteristics
Crew: One
Length: 6.17 m (20 ft 3 in)
Wingspan: 10.00 m (32 ft 9½ in)
Height: 2.80 m (9 ft 2¼ in)
Wing area: 22.14 m² (238.3 ft²)
Empty weight: 1,452 kg (3,201 lb)
Loaded weight: 1,960 kg (4,221 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 2,110 kg (6,652 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Shvetsov M-62 radial engine, 597 kW (800 hp)
Performance
Maximum speed: 444 km/h (243 knots, 280 mph) at 4,600 m (15,100 ft)
Cruise speed: 297 km/h (160 knots, 184 mph) at 2,000 m (6,600 ft)
Range: 470 km (254 nmi, 292 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,700 m (35,105 ft)
Rate of climb: 15 m/s (2,985 ft/min)
Climb to 1,000 m (3,300 ft): 0.85 min
Climb to 7,000 m (23,000 ft): 8.3 min
Armament
4 × 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns, 2,600 rounds of ammunition total
6 x RS-82 unguided rockets.
Based on FS98 Hervé Devred/Bruno Duffort original.
Panel by G.Vinet/"Die Staffel" group.
All reworked to CFS, with new air file, up-scaled, damage profile, moving parts and new textures by Edmundo Abad, 2012.
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This virtual model represent the I-153 "red twelve", on winter camouflage. This machine was captured by Finnish forces on the Leningrad Front on June 25, 1941, and entered finnish servide with IT-19 registration number.
I have included new textures, moving parts and damage profile for use with CFS1.
This virtual model is up-scaled to obtain a better view in Combat Flight Simulator.
(for accurate scale in FS98, replace the file I153.mdl by I153.old.mdl and rename this as I153.mdl)
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Installation FS98/CFS
1. Unzip to Temporaly directory "Polik_I153winter".
2. Copy "Polik_I153winter" folder to X:\CFS\aircraft directory.
