Steve T's Polikarpov I-16 Tipo 10 "Super Mosca" Version 1.2

Republican Polikarpov I-16 Tipo 10 "Super Mosca" from 3a. Escuadrilla, 21 Grupo de Caza flown by Capt. Jos Mara Bravo (23 kills) during the Ebro offensive, 1938.

It had a semi-monocoque wooden fuselage and fabric-covered wings of metal construction. The pilot retracted the undercarriage manually. The first versions were armed with two ShKAS 7.62 mm machine guns and had an enclosed cockpit. 

With the introduction of the type 10, known in Spain as the "Super Mosca", a further pair of machine guns was added above the engine and an open cockpit was again used, fitted with a reflector gunsight. Later versions saw action in the war against Germany.

A total of 7,000 of all types were built. 


A demanding aircraft to fly, its high landing speed caused many accidents before effective flaps were installed.

*This version*

--Changed the texture on the engine cowling

--made the tail wheel non-retractable

--added a black prop

--modified the canopy frame in the virtual cockpit view

Steve T

April 2002

Version 1.1

In an effort to bring the I-16 up to present standards -- mainly as a stop gap before the new 3DZ appears -- I've done the following:

--sorted out most of the rendering and texture warping issues with the pilot's headrest fairing

--sorted out the underwing texture warping as best I could by remapping the textures on the PCX and adding masking sub-elements

--added detail to the cockpit when viewed from above

--sorted out the rendering issues with the underwing hardpoints (stores no longer show through the wing upper surfaces)

--reshaped the wing tips

--remapped the texture on the torn-off wings to the correct positions

--resized the prop and spinner

--added extra detail to the undercarriage bay interior

--added machinegun barrels and a pitot tube to the wing leading edges

--edited the FLT file so that muzzle-flashes are now in correct positions

--built a new virtual cockpit with a more historically accurate look, plus new wing view, to go with the PAK 1 gunsight on the earlier version

Please note, the node point total of the 3DZ file is now close to the 256 limit and it will need someone to find some free nodes if a radio antenna or any other details are to be added in the future.

The model is far from perfect, but it will have to do for now.

Steve T

February 2002

*Previous Versions*

I-16 Version 1.0

The skin represents a Spanish Civil War-era Polikarpov I-16 Tipo 10 "Super Mosca" of Grupo n. 21 Grupo de Caza, 3a. Escuadrilla "Doble Sis", Avacion Militare, 1938.

The monoplane successor to the I-15 "Chato" and another outstanding design, 280 Moscas of various types were delivered to Spain from the USSR and another 10 were built in Spain in the war's dying stages. It was still the most numerous front-line Soviet fighter in 1941.

This is a reworked aircraft model, using Alatriste's updated 3DZ -- based on the work of Charles Gunst and Captain Kurt -- plus Alatriste's original skin as a base, and Stratos's excellent virtual cockpit files.

What I've done:

--Polished up the skin to give it a more "weathered" look

--Unmirrored the codes

--Created a new shadow file that matches the aircraft shape and is black!

--Added a new two-bladed prop to the outside and the virtual cockpit views

--Added Russian instruments to the virtual cockpit view (placement is not historically accurate)

--Created a new gunsight spite representing the Pak 1 reflector gunsight (historically accurate)


What I've not done:

--sorted out the rendering and 3DZ editing issues with Alatriste's new-shape ventral fairing

--sorted out the texture warping on the underside of the wings

To install, select the correct flight model using ECAP then drop the TPC and 3DZ files into your EAW directory. To use the Pak 13 gunsight, rename I-16_gunsight.SPT to gunsight.SPT and put it into your EAW directory as well.

Well, I hope you enjoy taking on the 109's over Spain in this bird.

S!

Steve T

February 2002