A twin-engined fighter with “handed” Tumansky M-88R radial engines to cancel torque like the P-38 Lightning. Armament consisted of two .30 cal ShKAS machine guns in the nose with four 20mm ShVAK cannons underneath the fuselage. Competing proposals included the Grushin Gr-1, Mikoyan-Gurevich DIS, and Polikarpov TIS.

History:
The aircraft was a single-seat monoplane of mixed construction; with wing spars of 30KhSGA steel, D1 aluminum alloy ribs, flush riveted skin, and elektron magnesium alloy leading edges; the fuselage was largely of flush-riveted D1 aluminium alloy built as a semi-monocoque shell with a wooden tail section. Armour was provided fore and aft of the compact cockpit, and the heavy armament was grouped around the nose of the aircraft, with two .50 cal UB machine guns in the upper nose and four 20mm ShVAK cannon in the lower forward fuselage. The engines were housed in large underwing nacelles and drove counter rotating propellers to eliminate torque effect with throttle movement. First flown by Yu. K. Stankevich on 31 December 1939, the first aircraft was also tested by LII until the summer of 1940 when one of the engines threw a connecting-rod. The directional stability was found to be unsatisfactory so the second prototype Ta-1bis (OKO-6bis) was built with a much longer rear fuselage, twin fins on the tips of a longer span tailplane as well as more powerful engines with LH rotation. It was later developed into the Ta-3.

Three-view drawing of Ta-1bis (OKO-6bis)

Ta-1bis

Ta-1bis