Warbird Information Exchange

FlyVintage and the FlyPast forum reported and illustrated the assembly at Dixford on a Polikarpov I-15 identified by a white 19 code, with no registration apparent or legible.

A cursory web check yielded little, except eliminating the two Fighter Factory aircraft and a single New Zealand machine (ZK-JJB/75).

This, together with the presence of Russian engineers, suggests that it might be a new restoration direct from Russia. Can any Wixer identify the Duxford machine more precisely?

Gregory

Gregory...this should answer your questions, taken directly from my news article in 'Classic Wings' Issue 38. The company has since built a third and last example, coded RED 23 - this being the two seat version called the I-15DIT
Wonderful little aeroplanes !

regards
Dave

In the summer of 2002 the ‘Avia Restoration’ company , headed by Boris Osetinsky ,
completed restoration of the second flying rebuild of a Polikarpov ‘I-15bis’ fighter
plane.
This machine was one of the last of 2408 examples of the ‘bis’ [ meaning second
version ] built . Given the nickname ‘Bisenok ‘ ( ‘Little Demon’ ) by its’pilots , the
highly manoeuvrable attack fighter saw service with the VVS until 1944 , mostly in the
far north of Russia . Examples also saw service in Mongolia with the Chinese and some
thirty were supplied to the Spanish Airforce .
Carrying factory number 4439 , this particular aircraft was built in early 1939 at the
Moscow Aviation Factory No.1. During the early stages of the Great Patriotic War
until its loss in 1943 , this plane formed part of Assault Air Regiment 65, Air Division
103, located in Karelia, Northern Russia.
In the middle of the 1990’s the wreck of the plane was found and subsequently
brought to Moscow. Rebuild commenced in early 2000 and was completed in less than
eight months !
As with most wrecks of this type , a relatively small amount of original airframe
could be utilised , the rest being remanufactured to original specifications. In this
instance , half of the cockpit , elements of the landing gear , tail skid , fasteners ,
armament , and small amounts of sheeting were incorporated into the finished machine.
Avia Restoration had previously rebuilt the Alpine Fighter Collections’ Polikarpov I-15
and I-153 fighters and , earlier this year , successfully completed another I-15 for
American collector Jerry Yagen.
Powered by an ASh-62IR engine , the first flight of this aircraft took place on
August 16th, 2002 , test pilot Sergey Dadykin reporting the planes high stability in
flight and excellent flying behaviour , recommending only slight changes to flight
control settings.
Avia Restoration has found and recovered only two I-15bis wrecks , consequently
this will be the last of the type to be rebuilt and offered for sale , the asking price being
around U.S.$ 265,000.

Fast and complete - excellent!
Do you know whether 4439 has a Russian registration? As of today, it has neither a G- or N- registraion.

Gregory

Gregory

Don't know, but as soon as the people involved are back in Russia, I will send them a mail and ask.

Dave

BTW Do you have any contacts with wreck divers in Italy?...if so could you drop me a line off board, thanks.
dave.mcdonald@xtra.co.nz

the reg is FLARF-02089

Sander

Thank you! If you will pardon my ignorance, what does FLARF stand for? I thought that Russian civil aircraft were registered RA-0000 and Ukrainian aircraft UR-0000.

Gregory

Did some digging on the web myself. It stands for Federation of Amateur Aviators of Russia and they have a website http://www.flarf.org/indexeng.html

Sander

Interesting website!
Most of the aircraft in the galleries and news items have RA-registration, one had CCCP and at least one FLARF. Could it be something like the BGA system that governs UK glider registrations? Perhaps covering sportplanes/homebuilts/microlights?

Gregory

The following was posted in a newsgrooup:

"FLARF, or its Cyrillic equivalent, is a non- ICAO prefix which is
(officially) used in Russia and before that the Soviet Union on many
"sport" aircraft that are operated by the Federatsiya Lyubitleli Avistsii
Rossiskoi Federatsii (Federation of Aviation Enthusiasts of the Russian
Federation).

More recently the Russians appear to have started to allocate marks in the
format of the standard RA- prefix followed by 4 numbers and ending in a K - for example RA-1000K - rather than expected 5 numbers for some aircraft in this category. It appears that at the present time both systems are currently in use."

Sander

Just out of curiosity, but does anyone know who owns the aircraft, and whether it is in the UK to stay?

Cheers,
Richard

Boris Osetinsky was being interviewed at Flying legends and they said "thanks for bring the plane over and showing us"

So I think it was a flying visit - for 3 main purposes

a) because he was asked to display
b) to advertise the aircraft
b) to advertise his company

Paul

Paul

Exactly right. Boris is of course, head of the Avia Restoration Company.

Dave