Ramirezzz
Senior Airman
as af far as I know airforce.ru provides documents only in russian exept of some historical sources. And I did'nt even think to translate this text with the online translator i'
The guy who was interviewed had flown UTI-4, I-15 and I-16 during his training with 110 hours in total. He made 10 sorties with I-16 until his squadron was equipped with Hurricanes which served previously
in RAF 151 fighter wing. They recieved 2 variants of the plane : with 8 and with 12 machineguns.
He thinks that the Hurricane was rather easier to handle in comparison to I-16, had a better sight from the cockpit, also a better armour (actually I-16 hadn't any armour at all ). Unlike I-16 Hurricane had a radio equipment, only problem was microfone was integrated with a oxygen mask, which made communication during the dogfight difficult. Because of this this fact the pilots of his squadron have to wear this mask all the time during the flight what wasn't really nessecary because air fights took place mostly at the low or middle hights.
Further he tells that after 3 months they changed the armament from the brownings to 20 mm SchWAK's because of their inefficiency, especially against the bombers. With the same puprose 8 82 mm rocket launchers were installed on every plane.
In his opinion hurricane was rather an inert plane with slow dynamics but with good horizontal maneuverability.
The guy who was interviewed had flown UTI-4, I-15 and I-16 during his training with 110 hours in total. He made 10 sorties with I-16 until his squadron was equipped with Hurricanes which served previously
in RAF 151 fighter wing. They recieved 2 variants of the plane : with 8 and with 12 machineguns.
He thinks that the Hurricane was rather easier to handle in comparison to I-16, had a better sight from the cockpit, also a better armour (actually I-16 hadn't any armour at all ). Unlike I-16 Hurricane had a radio equipment, only problem was microfone was integrated with a oxygen mask, which made communication during the dogfight difficult. Because of this this fact the pilots of his squadron have to wear this mask all the time during the flight what wasn't really nessecary because air fights took place mostly at the low or middle hights.
Further he tells that after 3 months they changed the armament from the brownings to 20 mm SchWAK's because of their inefficiency, especially against the bombers. With the same puprose 8 82 mm rocket launchers were installed on every plane.
In his opinion hurricane was rather an inert plane with slow dynamics but with good horizontal maneuverability.