Kit has detailed resin parts, recessed panel lines, photo-etch details, vacu or injection-molded clear parts - canopy.
(injection-molded plastic kit). Limited edition. *****
Development serie of small fighter Red Air Force (1937-40).
plastic parts: 16, resin parts: 6, vacu canopy: 1, photo-etched: 0
2 version decals (Russian AF)
In 1937 designers Aleksei A. Borovkov and Ilyia F. Florov, members of the Polikarpov Design Bureau, elaborated their own independent project of an experimental aircraft registered under No.7211. In this project they intended to combine maneuverability and high controllability of biplanes with high speed of monoplanes. The No.7211 project was designed as the small dimensions aircraft with a pair of cantilever wings (without struts and braces), with a non-retractable in-hood type undercarriage, powered by the M-85 engine. It was characterized by an open pilot's cockpit located close in front of a tail fin. The No.7211 aircraft prototype performed its maiden flight on June 1 st 1937 and proved its high performance - maximum airspeed 416 km per hour in 5000 m altitude and 18 m per second rate of climb after take-off. Three other prototypes were ordered, marked as I-207/1 with the M-62 engine, the I-207/2 with M-63 engine inside the NACA cowling, and the I-207/3 with the retractable undercarriage which reached airspeed 486 km per hour with the identical engine.
In 1940 one aircraft more was built, the I-207/4 type with the cockpit canopy, the M-63P engine inside the more aerodynamic cowling with big propeller hub spinner and the three-blade propeller. In October 1940 the I-207/3 was tested as the dive-bomber with two FAB-250 bombs hung below the lower wing. It proved successfully, but it was never manufactured in lots because of its insufficient operation range. In the same year also Merkulov's DM ram-jet engines were tested on the I-207/3.
