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Currently Playing: Polikarpov’s Prison Fighter: The Hardworking (But Not Very Good) I-5

This video explores the development of the I-5 fighter, a product of both innovation and repression within Stalin’s aviation industry. Designed in a prison bureau under OGPU oversight, the aircraft combined strong manoeuvrability with rugged mixed construction, becoming a mainstay of the Soviet fighter force in the early 1930s despite persistent performance compromises.