I-17/ TsKB-19, N.N.Polikarpov

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The I-17 was a sleek fighter with a water-cooled engine, built for comparison with the stubby radial-engined I-16.

Few built, some used in combat in 1941.

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There was a widely used argument against evaporative cooling systems - vulnerability. But... this is a common feature of water-cooled engines (except special cases with armor-shielded cooler like Il-2). Large area of cooling surface is not a weakness - higher probability of combat damage is compensated by relatively lower impact of a hole on the system.

During trials of Stal-6 A.B.Yumashev performed few flights with imitation of a cooler combat damage. Each flight lasted more than 30min! Taking into account that flight endurance of (most) Soviet WW-II single-engine fighters was close to 1hour, damaged fighter could not only return home safely, but do it after the fight is over.

There also was a room for improvement - Stal-6 had single-unit cooler, while segmented system could be even less sensitive to damage.

Prototype(s):

TsKB-15 - the first prototype;

Modification(s):

TsKB-33 used evaporative cooling. Cancelled;

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References...

• "Most cherez vremja" p.43-44

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More Links...
• I-17 at Virtual Aircraft Museum
• I-17, Polikarpov
• TsKB-19, Polikarpov

Modified January 25, 1996

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