Its a bird, its a biplane!... sometimes.

Nikitin-Shevchenko IS-2

Historical Background

The IS series of aircraft designs was born from the rather backwards doctrine of Soviet aircraft design philosophy that maneuverability was key too developing the ultimate fighter aircraft, even after the great losses of Poliparkov I-16's in the Spanish Civil War to the much faster BF-109's. Many aircraft designs set out to increase the top speed off biplanes. One of the more out there concepts was developed by Nikitin's Test pilot Vladimir Vasiloyevich Schevchenko. He created the IS-1 (IS stands for Istrebitel Skladnoi "Folding Fighter" and not Iosef Stalin) by modifying an I-153. He added a retractable lover wing that was pneumatically of hydraulically raised into the upper wing. Control was provided through means of a three position switch with first raise the landing gear, then raise the wing. After the IS-1 further improvements were made which led to this, the IS-2. The IS-2 first flew in 1941 with a new M-88 radial engine, and although it produced the same power as the M-63 on the IS-1, it had a smaller diameter and was thus more aerodynamic giving it a top speed of 316mph. Armament was upgraded from four 7.62mm ShKAS MG's firing at 1800rpm to two ShKAS and two 12.7mm DShK MG's firing at 600rpm. Ultimately, while the design proved its concept, the added weight from the actuating mechanism almost completely negated the added lift from the lower wing and left the IS-2 in a useless limbo where it was less maneuverable but faster than contemporary biplanes and more maneuverable but slower then contemporary monoplanes. Development was cancelled to to these disappointing performance figures and the German invasion of Russia.

Controls

Normal flight controls.
Ag-8 for Landing gear.
Ag-1 for retracting the wings.
RETRACT GEAR BEFORE RAISING WINGS.

Gallery

Original photograph with detail of wing retract mechanism



Functioning cowling flaps

Working exaust flame (kinda faint but if ya squint real hard...)

This is sort of what the cockpit may have looked like (Based on the I-153's)

Notes

Well I surpassed my B.44 in part count. This is my first plane with a real cockpit but its really mostly guesswork and is based on an I-153 cockpit Its been a LONG time since the last IS was posted, so this challenge gave me a good excuse to revive this design. Camo is as accurate as I could make it. This aircraft is 1:1 scale.