The Soviet Polikarpov I-15 Chaika fighter explained by one of its Spanish pilots

The Republican side operated 368 of these fighters in the Spanish Civil War

The Soviet Polikarpov I-15 Chaika fighter explained by one of its Spanish pilots

@DefAviation Esp 3·17·2025 · 21:33 0

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a prequel to the Second World War in terms of the use of military equipment.

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The Nationalist side used different models of aircraft manufactured mainly in Germany and Italy, while much of the Republican side's material came from the Soviet Union. In 1936, two models of Soviet aircraft arrived in Spain that demonstrated great performance: the Polikarpov I-15 Chaika (Seagull in Russian, although in Spain it was known as "Chato") and the Polikarpov I-16 (nicknamed "Mosca" by the Republicans and "Rata" by the Nationalist side).

An artistic recreation of two I-15s of the Spanish Republican Air Force in action during the Civil War. (Image: Shrove).

The Polikarpov I-15 was a biplane aircraft that made its maiden flight in October 1933. Its designer was Nikolai Polikarpov. The fuselage was made of steel and aluminum, with a fabric back and wooden wings. The aircraft had a top speed of 367 km/h, a ceiling of 9,800 meters, and a range of 510 km. It was equipped with four 7.62 mm ShKAS (also called PV-1) machine guns and could carry up to 100 kg of bombs.

An I-15 of the Spanish Republican Air Force reused by the Franco regime after the Civil War (Image: Mihail Bykov).

The USSR built 384 I-15s, and in Spain, 237 were manufactured by Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA). The Soviets also built 2,408 I-15 bis variants and 3,437 I-153s, a modernized version of the Chaika. The Republican side received 368 I-15s, of which 197 were lost. After the war, the Franco regime kept some of the surviving examples in service. The Friends of the Air Museum Association has published today a video recorded years ago in which we see Colonel Joaquín Calvo Diago (1919-2011), of the Republican aviation and pilot of the I-15, explaining this fighter in front of the replica of the CS-125, the plane he piloted, which is preserved in the Cuatro Vientos Air Museum (the video is in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):