I-16 type 27

I-16 type 27

MiG-3-34

I-185 (M-82)

I-16 type 27

MiG-3-34

I-185 (M-82)

USSR

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.3	3.3	2.7

Class:

Fighter

Research:9 200

Purchase:16 000

Show in game

This page is about the Russian fighter I-16 type 27. For other uses, see I-16 (Family).

Description

The I-16 type 27 Ishak is a rank II Russian fighter with a battle rating of 3.3 (AB/RB) and 2.7 (SB). It was introduced in Update 1.39.

General info

Flight Performance

Describe how the aircraft behaves in the air. Speed, manoeuvrability, acceleration and allowable loads - these are the most important characteristics of the vehicle.

Characteristics
Stock
Max Speed (km/h at 2,000 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
442	425	9950	17.3	17.9	13.8	13.8	272
Upgraded
Max Speed (km/h at 2,000 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
490	463	9950	16.1	16.5	23.6	18	272

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
X	X	✓	X	X

Limits
Wing-break speed (km/h)	Gear limit (km/h)	Combat flaps (km/h)	Max Static G
			+	-
0	260	N/A	~16	~8

Optimal velocities
Ailerons (km/h)	Rudder (km/h)	Elevators (km/h)	Radiator (km/h)
< 330	< 320	< 340	> 190

Compressor (RB/SB)
Setting 1
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
1,530 m	850 hp	1,020 hp
Setting 2
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
4,200 m	800 hp	960 hp

Survivability and armour

• 8.5 mm Steel plate on pilot's seat.

Armaments

Offensive armament

The I-16 type 27 is armed with:

• 2 x 20 mm ShVAK cannons, wing-mounted (150 rpg = 300 total)
• 2 x 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns, nose-mounted (650 rpg = 1,300 total)

Suspended armament

The I-16 type 27 can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

• Without load
• 2 x 100 kg FAB-100 bombs (200 kg total)
• 2 x 50 kg FAB-50 bombs (100 kg total)
• 6 x RS-82 rockets
• 6 x RBS-82 rockets

Usage in battles

The key to success in this aircraft is by using its excellent turn and roll rate to eliminate enemies in a turn fight. Make sure to notice that this plane doesn't have that good of a climb rate. To be effective, climb in a 15 degrees angle at the start of the match, fly at around 3,000 m - 4,000 m, pretend yourself as a slow target for the enemies above you. If you spot someone diving on you, break and dodge his shots and try to drag him into a dogfight; you can out-turn most of the enemies in this tier.

Remember to always avoid head-ons when playing this aircraft - it's super fragile, you can often get one shot by the heavy-armed aircraft at this BR, such as the Bf 109 E-4 and P-40 variants. Due to the lack of engine horse-power at high altitude, always try to engage enemy aircraft below 4,000 m, and DO NOT toggle flaps over 200 kph, because they will typically rip off at those speeds.

Simulator:

The I-16 can be used in turnfighting, bomber intercepting and ground pounding. However in this mode, its characteristics appear to be quite conflicting. It is excellent in turning tightly and continuously, yet when maneuvering it easily gets into uncontrollable spins which isn't beginner friendly. Also the rather big nose blocks the visibility a lot, offering very poor over-the-nose visibility which is a disadvantage in a turn fight, because when leading a shot the enemy will always get obstructed by the engine, making the player guess the shot. More ever, there is no trim control available in a sim battle and the I-16 always pitch up and down. Although not a lot, it is still annoying when trying to get a precise aim.

It is recommended to set the convergence within 300m, with vertical convergence on, because the majority of turnfights happen at that range or closer.

Unlike realistic, sim requires long-range flying so discard the habit of bringing the least fuel. Bring at least 30 minutes of fuel, although it decreases the plane's performance a bit, it prevents constant refueling which saves time for patrolling and fighting.

As your I-16 roars down the runway, you will notice that it shifts severely to the side, and the nose will tip down. If you don't correct it the propeller will eventually strike the ground, causing a failed takeoff. Thus you must put rudder input as opposed to the side it's shifting towards, and apply positive pitch to keep the propeller off the ground. You do not want to use flaps anywhere except takeoff and landing, since they are very weak and will rip at more than 260 km/h, while the average speed during a battle tends to be around 300 km/h. Once one or both flaps are gone it creates an imbalance in the roll axis, making spins more common. It also makes landing harder.

Before engaging a fight, it is better to have an altitude advantage first. When approaching the fight try to figure out which is your teammate and which is the enemy, to avoid going for a second pass, as the energy retention of the I-16 is rather slow. Also pick your target carefully. For easier aiming, you want to go for those unmaneuverble twin engine aircraft like Ju 88 or Ki-45, or bombers if there are any. Given the bad forward visibility of the I-16, these are the best options as they are quite slow and sluggish, and are a bigger target to hit. When dealing with fighters, it is way harder to aim. The elevator control of the I-16 is extremely sensitive, giving it good maneuverbility, but at the same time, bad handling. The I-16 will respond in a very fast turn upon moving your stick / mouse by a little bit, which makes tracking nimble planes quite hard. But once you get used to it, try to lure every enemy into a turnfight, as that is where the I-16 shines. Several hits with the ShVAK cannon will effectively damage the enemy. If you find an enemy at your 6, utilise your great roll rate to do defensive maneuvers like scissors to make them overshoot. Or you can simply do tight turns, most monoplanes won't be able to cut inside your turn and they might disengage. Important note: DO NOT put too much rolling and pitching input at once, as aforementioned the I-16 tend to enter spins easily.

If you are not very experienced in sim, you can also go for even bigger targets (bombers) for easier aiming. However you want to be more careful when hunting bombers, since with the Sim control (whether it be mouse joystick or a real stick) the plane will manoeuvre much more gently, making itself a great target for the bomber's gunners. DO NOT follow behind a bomber's 6 unless you are sure that its tail gunners are unconscious. Chasing behind a bomber makes yourself stationary for the tail gunners, and you will be showered with bullets. Your big radial engine will usually get damaged. Instead, before attacking, get an altitude advantage over the bomber by flying around 2 km above it. The bomber should only fill up about 1/6 of your gunsight. The best position for an attack is at the bomber's high 6 so you can adjust the lead much easier. Dive at the bomber, but not directly at it, try to predict where you two will crash by imagining yourself as a missile, that's where you should aim at (deflection shooting). To maximise the damage it is better to aim for their wings and engines, as the fuselage usually soaks up quite some bullets. Only fire when the bomber passes in front of your guns. This short window might seem inadequate to do anything, but with a accurate burst on the engine the twin ShVAK can deal quite a bit of damage. Without an engine most bombers cannot go far.

Although ground pounding ability is limited, there are still bombs and rockets to choose from. The 2 bombs can effectively destroy pillboxes or tanks while the rockets, with accurate aiming, can destroy 3 targets. Once the suspended armaments are gone, use the 2 MG for soft targets like trucks, artillery and AA cars. Save the ammo for the ShVAK in case of an unwanted dogfight.

Just like the SB 2M, the I-16 can still fly when it's extremely slow, causing it to bounce up during landing which can lead to a fatal crash. The trick is similar: slow it down more than other aircraft. Make sure you are around 1 km from the start of the runway and is no more than 300m high. When the runway fills up your gunsight, drop speed to around 210 kph and deploy landing flaps. The good thing is, the I-16 will not pitch up drastically upon using its flaps so you don't need to counter the extra lift. Make sure that you extend landing gears early as they move very slow (takes around 15 seconds to deploy). When you are about to touch down you should be flying at around 140 kph. You must control the rate of descent (I-16's gears are fragile) and make sure that you are slightly pitching upwards with the nose obstructing the horizon. This way the I-16 should land gently without having to brake for too long. Once you are sliding on the ground, fully deflect your elevators upwards to counter the momentum that can push the nose into the ground. You must release brakes once every 4 seconds, because if you only release them as the nose dips down, it's too late.

Enemies worth noting:

Ki-27, N1K1, He 51, Gladiator, etc;

Those commonly seen planes are equally good at turnfights and will be a hard target to down since they are very small and agile. To deal with them you need to practice leading and deflection shots, plus maneuvers like barrel rolls and scissors. They are easily damaged by your ShVAK.

He 111 H-6:

This bomber is not only quite durable, but also pretty fast. In level flight it can outrun the I-16 rather easily. Avoid being on its 6 as it will have at least 2x 7.92mm MG facing its tail, and their rapid firerate and good penetration is a big threat. Either go for a head-on or use deflection shooting and aim for its engines. If you cannot keep up with it, disengage. If it flies way higher than you, change your target.

Sunderland:

This flying boat is like a low-tier Be-6. Its huge fuselage is very spacious and can absorb lots of bullets and shells. It also has lethal defensive firepower: two 7.7mm in the nose, four forward-facing, two on the top and four at the tail, so attacking from behind, in front or above aren't the best options. Dive under it and suddenly pull up to shoot its defenseless underpart. Aim at the large wings and engines, avoid shooting the fuselage. 

He 100, Bf 109 E / F, A6M2:

These planes might not be able to out-turn the I-16, but they can easily outrun it as the I-16 is very slow. These fighters will usually BnZ you, so you must constantly look above and behind you. If they are diving on you, do what you do in realistic: use your roll rate and dodge under their negative G areas. Most players will try to follow up, if not immediately losing track of you. Several dodges might make them impatient and if they really start to turn with you, they are already dead.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Controllable Not auto controlled	Not controllable Not auto controlled	Controllable Not auto controlled	Combined	Controllable 2 gears	Not controllable

Modules

Tier	Flight performance		Survivability	Weaponry
I	Fuselage repair	Radiator		Offensive 7 mm	DZ-40
II		Compressor	Airframe	New 7 mm MGs	RO-82
III	Wings repair	Engine		Offensive 20 mm
IV		Engine injection	Cover	New 20 mm cannons

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Excellent turning ability- with combat flaps deployed it can out-turn any Bf 109, Fw 190 A and even turn-fighters like the Spitfire
• Extreme roll rate allows it to do offensive / defensive scissors easily, which is an advantage over Bf 109 and Spitfire as their roll rate aren't as good
• Twin ShVAK cannons have good fire rate, adequate velocity and accuracy, and 150 RPG capacity allows for reasonably long engagements
• Suspended armament provides rockets and bombs which, to an extent, allows some ground attack ability
• Is a very short and small plane, offering the enemy a harder target to hit

Cons:

• Extremely poor level speed, climb rate, dive acceleration and energy retention- will get outran, out-climbed and out-dived easily by Bf 109 E / F, Fw 190 A or A6M2
• Engine tends to overheat when diving at more than 500 km/h
• Control surfaces are unresponsive over 450 km/h
• Flaps are very weak and will break over 250 km/h, severely limiting its sharp-turning potential at higher speeds
• Hard to fly in SB -- very unstable in pitch, no manual trim controls, poor over-the-nose visibility and is prone to enter flat spins
• Uses early ShVAKs that have a lot of poor quality HEF-I rounds
• Although it's manoeuvrable, it can still be out-turned by some Japanese turn-fighters

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

In-game description

A single-seat cantilever monoplane with a composite construction and retractable landing gear.

The I-16 Type 27 is a variation of the I-16 Type 18 fighter equipped with an M-62 engine and the same wing-mounted cannon armament as on the I-16 Type 17, which was created based on the I-16 Type 10 in the same way.

The I-16 Type 27 was powered by the 9-cylinder air-cooled Shvetsov M-62 radial engine with a rated output of 800 hp. The engine possessed a double-speed central-drive supercharger which increased its altitude limit. The plane was equipped with the AV-1 variable-pitch propeller with a larger propeller spinner.

One important alteration was the installation of a rubber self-sealing cover on the fuel tank. This prevented fuel leaks caused by small arms fire.

The I-16 Type 27's armament consisted of two 20 mm rapid-firing Shpitalny-Vladimirov ShVAK aviation cannons with 150 shells each. The cannons were located in the wing's central section outside the propeller interference zone. The fuselage housed a portion of the cannons' ammunition. The cannons were fed by tubes located behind the fuselage's first former and running across the central wing section along a forward longeron.

Two more synchronized ShKAS cannons were installed under nacelles in the fuselage above the engine. They had 650 rounds each.

The new cannons led to an increase in the airplane's weight and a corresponding reduction in its flight characteristics. For this reason, although the I-16 Type 27 was capable of aerial combat, it was mainly used to attack ground targets or as an interceptor.

The I-16 Type 27 was produced in small numbers in 1939. Only 59 were built in total. It saw limited use in the first stage of the Great Patriotic War, primarily as an attack aircraft.

Media

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See also

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• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the aircraft;
• other literature.