Special: Polikarpov's Legacy

Pilots,

Nikolai Polikarpov was nicknamed 'The King of Fighters' among the Soviet aviation designers of the first half of the 20th century and for good reason! His creations, most notably the nimble I-16, flew in a league of their own and quickly became immensely popular among Soviet pilots. In our game too, the colourful Ishaks (which translates as "donkey" in English) have a faithful following that swears by the aircraft's outstanding capabilities. Discover one of them for yourself this week, and learn about the interesting life of their creator in our History Flashback below!

Promotion

Double Crew XP

What's a plane without its crew? Honour your pilots by valuing their contribution to your success!

50% discount on all Paint Shop items

Paint schemes, nose-arts, emblems - all camouflages and extra decals are up for grabs this week!

50% discount on the following planes:

				Polikarpov I-15
				Polikarpov I-16 (e.)
				Polikarpov I-16 (l.)
				Polikarpov I-17

Take a chance on the most famous Polikarpov designs - you won't regret it!!

The special runs from Monday 28 July at 08:00 until Thursday 31 July at 07:30 CEST (UTC+2).

History Flashback

Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov (8 June 1892 - 30 July 1944) led a remarkable life. Over the course of his brief career, he came in touch with pretty much all famous Soviet aviators of his time. Coming from a very humble background, he first planned to become a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church like his father. However, at age 18 he changed his mind and went to Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University where he discovered his passion for engineering. After graduation he joined Igor Sikorsky, probably the most prolific Soviet aviator of all time, and worked on his gigantic 'Ilya Muromets' bomber.

1923 he became the head of a design bureau, consisting of remaining employees of the Dux Aircraft factory – Russia's biggest pre-revolutionary plane manufacturer. Throughout the 1920s, Polikarpov designed multiple planes, among which also the I-1 in 1923 which was the first indigenous Soviet monoplane fighter. Several designs later, he was tasked with building the I-6, however, under unrealistic conditions. When the plane couldn't be delivered, he and his team were arrested on charges of counter-revolutionary activities and sentenced to death. After two months in prison, awaiting his execution, Polikarpov was transferred to another facility. There his sentence got changed to 10 years of forced labour, during which he was supposed to complete the previously abandoned I-5 project. He got help by Dimitri Grigorowitsch - who later designed among others the TSh-2 - and managed to complete the plane to the satisfaction of the Revolutionary Committee

He came free in 1931 and picked up right where he had left off - designing fighter planes. Together with Pavel Sukhoi, he developed first the I-16 in 1933, then the I-15 one year later. In the coming years he worked under Ilyushin and even briefly Andrei Tupolev. At the end of the 1930s, he managed to again set up his own construction bureau. However, the success wasn't meant to last. While he was out of the country, some of his chief engineers, among which a certain Mikhail Gurevich, received approval for the creation of a new design bureau under the leadership of Artem Mikoyan. When Polikarpov returned, he found that his company no longer existed and that all of his staff were now working at the new MiG bureau (where the infamous MiG jets emerged from some years later).

Polikarpov subsequently gave up designing and went to teach at an institute in Moscow where he died soon after on 30 July 1944. However, the many magnificent planes he gave us are still alive until this very day – in World of Warplanes, of course!

Fly an Ishak this week pilots and make Polikarpov proud!