The Tupolev I-14 (also designated ANT-31) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

of the 1930s. It was a single-engined, single-seat

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

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 The Polikarpov I-16 () is a Soviet single-engine single-seat fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it is a low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear, and the first such aircraft to attain operational status. It "in ...

being preferred.

Development and design

In 1932, the Soviet Air Force developed a requirement for a high-speed

fighter to serve alongside agile but slower

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 ...

fighters.Gunston 1995, p.301. In order to meet this requirement, the Tupolev design bureau assigned a team led by

Pavel Sukhoi Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi (; , ''Paviel Vosipavič Suchi''; 22 July 1895 – 15 September 1975) was a Soviet aerospace engineer and aircraft designer known as the founder of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. Sukhoi designed military aircraft with Tupolev ...

. Sukhoi's team produced the ANT-31, a low-wing monoplane with an unbraced

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

wing, retractable undercarriage, an enclosed cockpit and heavy cannon armament. The aircraft had a metal

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

fuselage, while the wings were of corrugated metal construction. The mainwheels of the

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft Landing gear, undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the Center of gravity of an aircraft, center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail ...

retracted backwards into the wing, being operated by cables driven by a handwheel turned by the pilot. The first prototype was powered by an imported 433 kW (580 hp)

Bristol Mercury The Bristol Mercury is a British nine-cylinder, air-cooled, single-row, piston radial engine. Designed by Roy Fedden of the Bristol Aeroplane Company it was used to power both civil and military aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. Developed from ...

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...

enclosed by an

NACA cowling The NACA cowling is a type of aerodynamic Aircraft fairing, fairing used to streamliner, streamline radial engines installed on airplanes. It was developed by Fred Weick of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1927. It was a ...

and driving a two-bladed wooden propeller. It was armed with a single

PV-1 machine gun PV-1 (''Pulemet Vozdushny'', airborne machine gun) is a Soviet air-cooled version of the Russian M1910 Maxim for mounting on aircraft. It was designed between 1926 and 1927. The first prototypes were produced and accepted into service in 1928.Ши ...

, with provision for two Kurchevsky APK-37

recoilless A Recoilless rifle (rifled), recoilless launcher (smoothbore), or simply recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated to "rr" or "RCL" (for ReCoilLess) is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some fo ...

autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a automatic firearm, fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary ammunition, incendiary shell (projectile), shells, ...

under the wing.Gunston 1995, pp. 401–402.Duffy and Kandalov 1996, p.75. The ANT-31, given the air force designation I-14 (''Istrebitel'' – fighter), made its maiden flight on 27 May 1933. It proved agile but difficult to handle, and with the

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. It is a form of forced induction that is mechanically powered (usually by ...

Mercury was underpowered, particularly at low altitude. It was therefore decided to build a second prototype, the I-14bis (also known as the ANT-31bis and the I-142 with a more powerful (531 kW (712 kp)

Wright Cyclone Wright Cyclone was the name given to a family of air-cooled radial piston engines designed by the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and used in numerous American aircraft in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Background The Wright Aeronautical Corporatio ...

engine, also imported, an uncorrugated wing and a new undercarriage. The I-14bis demonstrated excellent performance, although handling was still difficult, and an order was placed for production of 55 aircraft, to be powered by the

Shvetsov M-25 The Shvetsov M-25 was an aircraft radial engine produced in the Soviet Union (USSR) in the 1930s and 1940s, a licensed production variant of the Wright R-1820-F3. Design and development The first M-25s were produced from kits imported from the ...

, a licensed version of the Cyclone, with an armament of two 45 mm (1.8 in) Kurchevsky APK-11 recoilless cannons and two

ShKAS machine gun The ShKAS (Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Skorostrelny, Shpitalny-Komaritski rapid fire for aircraft; Russian language, Russian: ШКАС - Шпитального-Комарицкого Авиационный Скорострельный) is a ...

Operational history

Deliveries began from the GAZ-125 factory at

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

Gunston 1995, p.XXXII. in November 1936. The aircraft's armament had changed to a single ShKAS machine gun and a 20 mm

ShVAK cannon The ShVAK (, "Shpitalny-Vladimirov Aviation Large-calibre") was a 20 mm autocannon used by the Soviet Union during World War II. It was designed by Boris Shpitalniy and Semyon Vladimirov and entered production in 1936. ShVAK were installed in ma ...

as Kurchevsky's recoilless guns had fallen out of favour (with Kurchevsky himself soon to be arrested).Gunston 1995, p.XIV. By this time, the rival

fighter was well established in production and service, and production of the I-14 was stopped after 18 had been built, the type soon being phased out of service.

Operators

; *

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

Specifications (production I-14)

Notes

References