Polikarpov,I-153 "Chaika" Captured.


Polikarpov's Bureau began work on the TsKB-3 in 1932, when the earlier I-5 was in full production. Unlike the I-5 the new fighter had a small lower wing and large upper gull wing curved down at the roots to meet the fuselage. As the I-15, the highly manoeuvrable fighter gained a world altitude record before serving in very large numbers (about 550) in Spain, where it was dubbed Chato (flat-nosed). It even served against the Finns and Luftwaffe, but by 1937 was being replaced by the I-15bis with a continuous upper wing carried on struts. 

The ultimate development was the powerful I-153 Chaika, with retractable landing gear, either wheels or skis folding to the rear. Coming on line in 1938 some thousands served in the Far East, Finland and on the Eastern Front. Armed with four 7.62 mm machine guns, the I-153 boasted a speed of 275 mph. While heavier than the I-15 types, the I-153 was powered by a M-62 1,000 hp engine. Later sub-types had variable-pitch propellors and drop tanks well outboard the lower wings.

I-153 had an incredibe turn and roll rate , but had a serious spin problem, it was a highly manoeuvrable but unstable fighter. Sometimes, vibrations caused the strip covering the wing box to separate. the ailerons often vibrated and the exausts stacks frenquently disintegrated.
The I-153 was an anachronism, entering service at the time when the biplane had long since been eclipsed by the monoplane fighter.

This particular plane was captured on the Eastern Front and subsequentially transferred to Ilmavoimat, December 1942.  It was subsequently assigned to 1/LeLv30(Finnish air force) April 1943 as IT-31.  Luftwaffe coding indicates staff flight of I/Luftlandegeschwader 1 by which presumably flown before transfer.

I have also changed from the original BR plane the sound to that of the camel and the panels to that of the PzlP-11c for more realism.

The i-153 in cfs:
in the game, avoid the high speed diving. the plane turn and rool very well, and has almost no inertia.
in a dogfight, it can be a dangerous ennemy but in form up game and B&Z, it is unable to catch another plane.
he has enough ammo to get many kills, even the guns are small machine guns (four shKAS 7.62 mm with 650 rounds/gun)

Original designer: Herv Devred
Moving parts, flight model and dp file: Bruno Duffort
Captured German textures by Mike 'JG26_Bandit' Colclough
Install: just unzip the files in our aircraft folder. this plane use cfs sound and panel to keep a small zip file.


herv devred: hdevred@csi.com
Bruno Duffort: bruno@icservice.fr  
Mike Colclough : webmaster@designersweb.com.au