Rata Rebirth

This article, written by Ray Mulqueen, is the second in a three part series, and was first published in Classic Wings Downunder magazine, Volume 5, Number 2. It is Copyright 1998 Classic Wings Downunder magazine.

When Tim Wallis initiated the first warbird import into New Zealand in 1985, no one could envisage just what momentum that P51-D Mustang was going to make to New Zealand's aviation fraternity and also to the worldwide Warbird scene. When he visited Russia in 1990 as part of an agricultural good will mission, no one would have envisaged that it would lead to the ambitious restoration program of long forgotten Russian Polikarpov fighter wrecks. 
 
Based on economy of numbers, the Alpine Fighter Collection has brought to fruition, the restoration of six Polikarpov I-16 monoplane fighters and three Polikarpov I-153 biplane fighters, and these aircraft are an exciting new injection into world wide warbird scene. 
 
The Western world, to a large degree, has been kept fairly ignorant of the sheer magnitude of conflict that went on in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. Likewise the Western world has been woefully kept in the dark regarding the aviation achievement, exploits and massive losses that occurred to all sides during that conflict. The losses of men and aircraft were immense. It was only in the early '90s that warbird collectors from the western world were able to start realizing and exploiting the opportunities that existed in Russia to locate and export wrecks of the fighters lost in the conflict. Emphasis was placed on types familiar to the Western powers, but we are fortunate that Tim Wallis realized the potential and significance of also salvaging rare Soviet aircraft, and there the story really starts. During 1992, Tim Wallis and myself were alternating visits to Russia in a quest to locate rare fighter wrecks suitable for restoration. Despite the huge aircraft losses that occurred, only a handful of reasonably intact aircraft had been located but the research groups were producing evidence of numerous wrecks scattered through the tundra and amongst these, obviously, quite a proportion of Soviet wrecks. Tim's intense interest in aviation, his vision, and the challenge lead him to realize the potential in the ignored Soviet wrecks, and fairly dormant aircraft plants. Parallel to this Tim had other business activities in Russia in the deer farming area and marketing of commodities. A land of opportunity! 
 
He decided to split the risk and run the I-16 and I-153 as separate projects, in separate locations, under separate management. Visits to Design Bureaus and aircraft manufacturing factories in Moscow, right through to Siberia followed and we settled on one project in Moscow and the other in Siberia. However in Russia, it is not always as it seems and we very quickly learnt that we were better to consolidate both projects under single management located in Siberia. Why Siberia you may ask? During the Great Patriotic War, as the Germans advanced on Moscow, Stalin made a decision to relocate much of his major industry, including aviation, hundreds of miles inland from Moscow, out of reach of the German bombers. These factories and Design Bureaus were still in operation, producing military products for Russia prior to the fall of communism in the early 1990's. We were also swayed by the fact that this plant had produced over 500 Polikarpov fighters during the war period. 
 
The wrecks were relocated to the plants and the serious work started. Parallel with this a Russian aviation historian was searching museum archives throughout Russia for us, and gathering together all the original design data and drawings available. The process followed very closely what we have also gone through with the Hurricane projects. That revolves around disassembly, evaluation, determining non-availability of drawings, and back designing from the recovered components. But fate has been kind to us with both the Hurricanes and Polikarpovs, as a significant amount of original design data is still available. The Aeronautical Research Bureau adjacent to the plant headed this process and ensured that every item worked on had drawings alongside it. As with any project, this early stage is very time consuming with a lot of effort going into tooling and the manufacturing of jigs to ensure the correct configuration of all components. 
 
Early assurances of a fast turn around, economical, high performance fighter were quickly fading in to the dream stage! Repeatedly we found that the restoration schedule and budgeting became obsolete in weeks, sometimes even days. The challenge had begun! Many a lesser person would have walked away from the project several times in the first year or two. However, Tim's reputation for incredible perserverance certainly showed itself, and the Alpine Fighter Collection hung in there.  
 
Like the Hurricane, the I-16 and I-153s have a high percentage of tubular steel and considerable degree of timber in their construction, both of which were affected by the ravages of time after fifty years in the tundra, but there the comparison ends. The Hurricane we have found is a very complex, highly engineered piece of machinery, whereas the Polikarpovs, particularly the I-16, were designed to be built, to a large degree, by untrained or semi-skilled factory workers that the labour force consisted of back in the 1930s and early 1940s. The immensely strong wooden fuselage of the I-16 is a classic of simple construction, using thin strips of beech veneer overlaid three layers thick over a large former, and likewise the wooden wings of the I-153 have a very straight forward construction. For piece of mind we arranged for some spruce and glue to be sent in from the UK and had the Research Institute carry out a comparative analysis of the products. Their test results were in favour of the Russian wood and glue, a product they were familiar with. 
 
It was always interesting on visits to the Research Bureau and the adjoining Plant to see various parts of the projects "farmed" out to the specialist shops scattered over the huge complex. One was lead over the high security sprawling complex, into shops welding up the tubular structures of the I-16 centre section or the I-153 fuselage, or into the metal shop specialising in the build up of the flying control surfaces, or fabricating the wooden ribs for the I-153 wings, or heat treating undercarriage components, and in every instance it was very encouraging to see the relevant drawings and technical specifications on the bench beside the work being done. It quickly became apparent that despite the language barriers and vastly different lifestyle in Russia, when it comes to working on aircraft, the process is very similar worldwide. It also becomes a little humbling to find yourself constantly among people infinitely better educated in many aspects of aviation than most of us will ever achieve. Yet even with all of this expertise and aviation institute training, many of the skills required for this ambitious restoration program had to be re-learnt as many of these people were moving from the jet era back to this early technology. 
 
One of the most favourable inducements for us to embark on this program was the availability of the engines required for later type I-16 and the I-153 aircraft. The engine is still in use today in the huge numbers of Antonov AN-2 biplanes that are Russia's work horse. The ASh-62IR engine would have to have a reliability record, second to none, comparable with that of the venerable Pratt and Whitney that powered the very successful DC3. The 1000hp radial does an excellent job in the huge AN-2 biplane and does an incredible job on a twenty foot long fighter. One of the bigger problems we faced was the non-availability of propellers for these aircraft. The golden rule in Russia for a long, long time, has been that if you want something you have to make it, as opposed to scouring the world for some suitable substitute that may fit the bill. Quite a daunting task when you realise that two short blades have to absorb the same horsepower as four long blades on the AN-2. The last piles of paper work and drawings I saw during the design process were getting expensively high, but the end result is superb propeller blades with a cambered profile that perform exactly as per the design achieving thrust and static RPM at precisely the pitch setting the designer forecast. In the Moscow propeller plant they produced the two bladed propeller using the AN-2 hub and very cunningly reworking the vacant blade apertures and pitch mechanism. When these aircraft are fired up, the noise, the smoke, and the general sense of awe produced by these thundering radials and barking exhausts is something to behold and seemingly out of proportion to such a small aircraft. 
 
However excitement is taking me too far forward. In a country like Russia with no general aviation industry as we know it, how does one go about achieving the legality of performing this ambitious program. Aviation in Russia is controlled, primarily by two authorities. One is the RAR (Russian Aviation Register) and the other is the Ministry of Transport. The RAR in turn has delegated authority to the Research Institute to provide scientific / technical management and the issuing of certificates for practical application and test flying of light and amateur build type aircraft. In this particular instance they appointed a ten man commission to control the Polikarpov restoration program. The commission was headed by the Deputy Director of the Institute who in effect becomes the signing authority. He was very interested to talk to me about how the Russian rules align with both the FAR's and New Zealand Civil Aviation rules. The new Russian Aviation Rules are following a very similar format and content to the FARs and I was able to help him by sourcing some FAR and reference documents from the USA to assist him in the process. This gave us a lot of comfort for certification with various western world authorities, and particularly encouraging was the certificate guaranteeing technical support will always be made available to the Alpine Fighter Collection to support the continued airworthiness of these aircraft being restored. This is similar to the guarantee that one has to obtain from manufacturers for type certificated aircraft to go onto most registers.  
 
While all of this was taking place, progress was accelerating after a hiccuppy start, and in August 1995 Tim Wallis, Don Spary and myself met in Siberia to hopefully witness the first flight of the I-16 in Russia since the end of the war. We almost wore out the video camera on each high speed taxi trial, anticipating flight, but alas it was not to be. The excessive taxi trials kept producing high oil temperatures and the pilot would abort each time prior to lift off. Try as we might, we could not convince them that it simply needed airspeed through the duct to produce the required cooling. They were being very responsible and very safe and seemed reluctant to actually test fly until 100% sure. Anyway it was close, so we celebrated in due Russian style and I have unpleasant memories of how the evening finished! However, history was made a week or two later on 9 September 1995 when we were very pleased to receive a fax informing us that the plane had flown for the first time with everything right on the numbers. They then took it through a full test program with the flight test department of the Institute to confirm all flight parameters and that the aircraft performed within the design envelope. This first aircraft and the full test program formed the basis of the certification package for the following five I-16s. The test pilot found the aircraft remarkably stable and easy to control, contrary to much of the criticism levelled at it throughout the years. Stalls and spin recovery were entirely predictable and normal and yielded no surprises. 
 
The Russian historian in each instance researched the background, operational theatre, colour schemes and markings of each of the wrecks and advised the institute on the authentic colour scheme and markings that they produced for us. As each aircraft was completed, it was test flown, then disassembled and crated in a large overwidth box for shipment to New Zealand. This on its own presented quite a logistical challenge to move the large fragile box from the middle of Siberia to New Zealand. On arrival at the Alpine Fighter Collection workshop in Wanaka, each aircraft had a radio and ELT fitted and the necessary preparation carried out for the issue of a New Zealand Experimental Certificate for testing. This testing program is well advanced with each aircraft expected to fly up to ten hours prior to the issue of the full Experimental Certificate in time for the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow at Easter. 
 
During the New Zealand testing programme, these aircraft have been flown by several members of the Alpine Fighter Collection and also Ray and Mark Hanna of the Old Flying Machine Company during a visit to New Zealand late last year. They have all been amazed at the performance and agility of these fighters and in particular the amazing acceleration when their nose is pointed downwards. Visually blunt nosed and unstreamlined, the designers have achieved an amazing feat here in acquiring more thrust from the exiting engine cooling air than the drag created by the flat nosed cowlings. This aspect was even more pronounced on the I-153 where the exit area from the cowlings is very cleverly designed to overcome the additional drag created by the biplane and inter-strut inter-wing configuration.