Polikarpov TIS

Last updated

Polikarpov TIS
PolikarpovTIS.jpg
The second prototype (MA) of the TIS
Role Heavy fighter
National origin Soviet Union
Manufacturer Polikarpov OKB
Designer Mikhail Yangel
First flightSeptember 1941
Statuscanceled
Number built2

The Polikarpov TIS was a heavily armed Soviet heavy fighter designed during the early 1940s. Competing contemporaneous designs in the USSR included the Grushin Gr-1, Mikoyan-Gurevich DIS and Tairov Ta-3.

Contents

Only two prototypes were built because its intended engines proved to be too unreliable to be placed into production and the engines' manufacturer lacked the resources to fix the problems.

The second prototype crashed in September 1944 and the program was canceled after the death of Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, the chief designer of his eponymous OKB, earlier that year.

Design and development

The original request for proposals for a heavy escort fighter (Tyazholyy Istrebitel' Soprovozhdeniya) was received at the Polikarpov OKB in November 1938, but the press of work with the I-180 and SPB prototypes prevented any significant design work until the third quarter of 1940. Mikhail Yangel was appointed head designer, but his job was complicated by multiple changes in the role of the aircraft from escort fighter to interceptor, dive bomber, and eventually reconnaissance. [1]

The prototype, internally designated as aircraft or TIS "A", was a low-wing, all-metal, cantilever monoplane with two Mikulin AM-37 engines and a twin tail. The monocoque fuselage had four 7.62 mm (0.300 in) ShKAS machine guns in the nose, each with 1,000 rounds. The pilot and the gunner/radio-operator were seated back-to-back, separated by an armor plate, under sliding canopies. The gunner had a dorsal ShKAS on a TSS-1 mount with 750 rounds that could be used once his canopy was slid forward. He also had a ventral ShKAS mounted below the armored floor that he could access by raising a hatch in the floor and kneeling down to fire the machine guns. The ventral gun was provided with 500 rounds of ammunition. A 12.7 mm (0.50 in) UBK machine gun with 400 rounds and a 20 mm (0.79 in) ShVAK cannon with 350 rounds were mounted in each wing root. [2] Underneath the wings were two racks each capable of carrying a single 500 kg (1,100 lb) FAB-500 bomb. The wing had automatic leading edge slats and four split flaps separated by the engine nacelles. The single wheel landing gear retracted into the rear part of the nacelles, as did the tailwheel into the fuselage. [3]

The 'A' prototype first flew in September 1941 and reached a speed of 555 km/h (345 mph) at 5,800 m (19,000 ft) altitude. It suffered from a lack of directional stability and the engines were unreliable and vibrated above 5,000 m (16,000 ft). Factory No. 51 attempted to fix the stability problem in late September by increasing the area of the rear fins, but was unsuccessful. Flight testing continued in October in Novosibirsk, to where the LII (Russian : Лётно-исследовательский институт—Flight Research Institute) had been evacuated. Eliminating the stability problem took until March 1942, although the engines remained as unreliable as ever. [4]

By the summer of 1942 it was clear that the Mikulin OKB lacked the resources to fix the problems with the AM-37 and that the TIS would need a new engine, but the OKB's resources were fully utilized on the I-185 and ITP programs and the TIS program was put on hold. Work did not resume on the TIS until the second half of 1943, after the I-185 had been canceled, and the Mikulin AM-39 engine was selected. A new prototype was built, internally called the "MA", with a completely revised armament. Two ShVAK cannon replaced the nose ShKAS machine guns and a UBT machine gun in a VUB-1 mount replaced the dorsal ShKAS, while the ventral machine gun was removed entirely. Two 37 mm (1.5 in) Shpitalny Sh-37 or 45 mm (1.8 in) 111P cannon replaced the wing root guns. The intended AM-39s were unavailable and therefore two Mikulin AM-38Fs were used as a temporary expedient. The engine radiators were moved from the nacelles into the wings. [5] They were fed by inlets in the leading edge and outlets on the undersurface of the wing. [5]

Operational history

The "MA" was flight tested from June to September 1944 and generally met its expected performance figures. The engines were optimized for low altitudes and the aircraft could only reach a maximum speed of 535 km/h (332 mph) and a ceiling of 6,600 metres (21,700 ft). It did, however, have an initial climb rate of 13.5 m/s (44 ft/s) and, on the basis of the flight tests, it was concluded that it would be capable reaching 650 km/h (400 mph) at 7,150 m (23,460 ft) and would take 6.4 minutes to reach 5,000 metres (16,404 ft) once the AM-39s were fitted. A brake failure on 29 June damaged the "MA", which required a month to repair, but a crash-landing on 16 September caused by the failure of the undercarriage to extend proved to be the death knell for the TIS program. The OKB was being shut down after Polikarpov's death at the end of June and there was no one willing to champion the TIS. [5]

Specifications (TIS (A))

Data from Gunston, The Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft 1875-1995 [6]

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1</span> 1940 fighter aircraft model by Mikoyan-Gurevich

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1 was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II that was designed to meet a requirement for a high-altitude fighter issued in 1939. To minimize demand on strategic materials such as aluminum, the aircraft was mostly constructed from steel tubing and wood. Flight testing revealed a number of deficiencies, but it was ordered into production before they could be fixed. Although difficult to handle, one hundred were built before the design was modified into the MiG-3. The aircraft was issued to fighter regiments of the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) in 1941, but most were apparently destroyed during the opening days of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petlyakov Pe-8</span> Soviet heavy bomber aircraft

The Petlyakov Pe-8 was a Soviet heavy bomber designed before World War II, and the only four-engine bomber the USSR built during the war. Produced in limited numbers, it was used to bomb Berlin in August 1941. It was also used for so-called "morale raids" designed to raise the spirit of the Soviet people by exposing Axis vulnerabilities. Its primary mission, however, was to attack German airfields, rail yards and other rear-area facilities at night, although one was used to fly the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov from Moscow to the United States in 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yermolayev Yer-2</span> Soviet medium bomber

The Yermolayev Yer-2 was a long-range Soviet medium bomber used during World War II. It was developed from the Bartini Stal-7 prototype airliner before the war. It was used to bomb Berlin from airbases in Estonia after Operation Barbarossa began in 1941. Production was terminated in August 1941 to allow the factory to concentrate on building higher-priority Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft, but was restarted at the end of 1943 with new, fuel-efficient, Charomskiy ACh-30B aircraft Diesel engines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yakovlev Yak-2</span> Type of aircraft

The Yakovlev Yak-2 was a short-range Soviet light bomber/reconnaissance aircraft used during World War II. It was produced in small numbers, and most of them were destroyed during the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikoyan-Gurevich DIS</span> 1941 Soviet heavy fighter prototype

The Mikoyan-Gurevich DIS was a prototype Soviet heavy fighter of World War II, envisioned to serve primarily in the escort fighter role. The service designation MiG-5 was reserved for the production version of the aircraft. Competing designs in the USSR included the Grushin Gr-1, Polikarpov TIS and Tairov Ta-3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polikarpov I-185</span> Soviet fighter aircraft designed in 1940

The Polikarpov I-185 was a Soviet fighter aircraft designed in 1940. It was flown with three engines but all of them were either insufficiently developed for service use or their full production was reserved for other fighters already in production. The I-185 program was cancelled on 27 January 1943.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polikarpov ITP</span> Soviet fighter prototype

The Polikarpov ITP was a Soviet fighter prototype designed during World War II. Development was prolonged by the evacuation of the design bureau forced by the German advance on Moscow in the fall of 1941. By the time the second prototype was finished the Soviets had fighters with equivalent or better performance already in production and the program was cancelled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sukhoi Su-6</span> 1941 Soviet attack aircraft

The Sukhoi Su-6 was a Soviet ground-attack aircraft developed during World War II. The mixed-power high-altitude interceptor Su-7 was based on the single-seat Su-6 prototype.

The Ilyushin I-21,, also known as TsKB-32, was a single-engined, single-seat fighter produced in the USSR in 1936-7 in response to a government specification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polikarpov I-17</span> Type of aircraft

The Polikarpov I-17 was a Soviet single-seat fighter prototype designed and built by a team headed by Nikolai Polikarpov at the Central Design Bureau (TsKB) in 1934.

The Tairov Ta-3 was a twin-engined single-seat heavy fighter designed and produced in the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union from 1939. The Ta-3 was envisioned to serve primarily as an escort fighter. Competing contemporaneous designs in the USSR included the Grushin Gr-1, Mikoyan-Gurevich DIS and Polikarpov TIS.

The Ilyushin Il-8 was a Soviet ground-attack aircraft developed by Ilyushin to replace the Ilyushin Il-2. The first two prototypes were significantly faster than the older aircraft, but proved to be less maneuverable. It was redesigned, incorporating many features of what would become the Ilyushin Il-10, but proved to be inferior to that aircraft in testing. It was not ordered into production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilyushin Il-16</span> Soviet ground-attack aircraft prototype

The Ilyushin Il-16 was a Soviet lightweight armored ground-attack aircraft developed at the end of World War II by the Ilyushin Design Bureau. It was in essence a scaled-down version of the Ilyushin Il-10, but was fitted with a newly developed Mikulin AM-43 engine with the expectation that it would be faster and more maneuverable than its predecessor. However, the engine's defects proved to be impossible to rectify and further development were canceled in mid-1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tupolev Tu-1</span> Type of aircraft

The Tupolev Tu-1 was a prototype Soviet night fighter variant of the Tupolev Tu-2 medium bomber that first flew after the end of World War II. It was cancelled when its experimental Mikulin AM-43V engines reached the end of their service life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polikarpov VIT-1</span> Soviet Polikarpov prototype fighter

The Polikarpov VIT-1 was a Soviet twin-engined multi-purpose aircraft developed before World War II. One prototype was built in 1937, with an extremely heavy armament for ground attack duties. That was the only example built as it was decided to revise the design with more powerful engines as the VIT-2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polikarpov VIT-2</span> Type of aircraft

The Polikarpov VIT-2 was a Soviet twin-engined ground attack aircraft developed before World War II. A single prototype was built in 1938 for evaluation purposes. Although a promising design it was recommended that it be introduced into production as a high-speed dive bomber with a reduced armament to increase its speed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polikarpov NB</span> Type of aircraft

The Polikarpov NB was a Soviet twin-engined bomber designed during World War II. Only a single prototype had been built before the program was terminated upon the death of Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, the head of the aircraft's design bureau, in 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polikarpov SPB (D)</span> Type of aircraft

The Polikarpov SPB (D) (Skorostnoy Pikiruyushchy Bombardirovshchik (Dalnost)—High Speed Dive Bomber (Distance)) was a Soviet twin-engined dive bomber designed before World War II. A single prototype and five pre-production aircraft were built, but two crashed and the program was cancelled in favor of the Petlyakov Pe-2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tupolev I-14</span> Type of aircraft

The Tupolev I-14 was a Soviet fighter aircraft of the 1930s. It was a single-engined, single-seat monoplane with retractable undercarriage, designed to carry heavy armament, and as such was one of the most advanced fighters of its time. It was ordered into production, but this was cancelled after only a small number had been built, the competing Polikarpov I-16 being preferred.

The Tupolev ANT-41 was a prototype Soviet twin-engined torpedo-bomber of the 1930s. A single prototype was built, which was destroyed in a crash. No production followed, with the Ilyushin DB-3 serving as a torpedo bomber instead.

References

Notes
  1. Gordon 2008, p. 279
  2. Gordon 2008, pp. 279–280.
  3. Gunston 2008, p. 309.
  4. Gordon 2008, p. 280.
  5. 1 2 3 Gordon 2008, p. 281
  6. Gunston 1995, pp. 309–310.
  7. Green and Swanborough 1994, p. 478.
Bibliography