The NSTU scientists and engineers restored the Soviet fighter I-16 used during the Great Patriotic War. The full-size model of the aircraft was made by the company "Aviarestavratsiya". Vladimir Berns, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of Aircraft Strength Department of NSTU supervised the process.
"We still have details of the various restored planes that cannot be used on the aircraft meant to fly, so we use them in the museum variants. Basically, the numerous wreckage of the aircraft were found in Tver Oblast, Karelia and in the North-West of Russia," Vladimir Burns said.
The aircraft required considerable re-working, since the entire wooden fuselage had to be made anew. The rest of the details were taken from other found planes. The recreated aircraft will be exhibited in the Museum of Military Equipment in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Oblast.
Earlier, the company "Aviarestavratsiya" and NSTU engineers managed to restore two downed wartime Il-2 to airworthy condition. Now they often become one of the central events in world air shows. Only in 2018, the fund "Winged Memory of Victory" received more than 10 invitations from the UK, Germany, France, Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden to perform on the recreated planes. Flight program on the restored aircraft is performed in Russia as well: during air shows MAKS, the Victory Day, Memory and Grief Day, the Air Forces celebration, the City Days, parades and other memorable dates. A project of the Center of flying historic aircraft display is preparing to be implemented, with one of the possible locations being in Kubinka airfield within the planned Aviacenter Park "Patriot".
"Aviarestavratsiya" is also engaged in restoration of Il-2 plane lifted in August from the bottom of the lake near Murmansk on NSTU facilities: https://www.nstu.ru/news_more?idnews=112401
For the reference:
I-16 (colloquially called "Ishak", "Ishachok" - lit. "Donkey") was one of the most massively produced Soviet fighters of the Second World War created in the 1930s. I-16 was produced at several plants, including the Chkalov plant in Novosibirsk, which produced more than a thousand aircraft of this type. For a long time I-16 had almost no competitors in speed and maneuverability which was proven by the first air battles in Spain. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War it was outdated because of the low speed, but when aviated by experienced pilots, the aircraft continued to be a dangerous weapon due to its high maneuverability. It was on the I-16 in the morning of June 22, 1941 that the first fascist plane was shot down.