https://cast.pudmed.ir/videos/watch/7e9ff746-0694-436b-b5f0-10cba3137b32 The 1930s. The Soviet Union is building an air force from nothing. Factories roar to life. Design bureaus compete. Young pilots train on wood-and-fabric biplanes. Then, in the skies over Spain, the first true test arrives – against German Messerschmitts and Italian Fiat CR.32s. This is where Soviet fighter aviation began. These are the first victories. In this full-length episode: ✈ The Forgotten Pioneers – The I-15 Chaika (Seagull), a nimble biplane that outturned anything in the sky. The I-16 Rata (Rat), the world’s first cantilever-wing monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear. We examine how these two designs shocked the West at the 1935 May Day parade. 🇪🇸 Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) – The proving ground. Soviet pilots (many disguised as volunteers) fly I-16s against Franco’s Nationalists. We reconstruct dogfights over Madrid, the first air-to-air missile (improvised grenades on wires), and the rise of Soviet aces like Sergei Gritsevets and Yevgeny Stepanov. ⚔ The Khalkhin Gol War (1939) – Japan vs. USSR in Mongolia. Why this forgotten battle gave Soviet pilots invaluable combat experience – and how the I-16 defeated the Japanese Ki-27. 🔧 Design Under Pressure – The Polikarpov design bureau. Nikolai Polikarpov, the “King of Fighters,” imprisoned then released to build the I-16. We explore the brutal engineering compromises: wooden skinned wings, no radio on early models, and a cockpit that pilots called “a flying coffin.” 📉 The Cost of Victory – The lessons learned – and ignored. By 1941, the I-16 was obsolete. But the pilots who survived Spain and Mongolia would become the aces of the Great Patriotic War. Their first victories taught them how to die – and how to kill. Sat, 13 Jun 2026 14:31:45 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://cast.pudmed.ir https://cast.pudmed.ir/lazy-static/avatars/eed1cb33-d04c-4158-b000-2f2fb9545c13.png https://cast.pudmed.ir/videos/watch/7e9ff746-0694-436b-b5f0-10cba3137b32 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://cast.pudmed.ir/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.