Alekseyev I-21
prototype fighter aircraft family
The Alekseyev I-21 was a Soviet twin-engined jet fighter, built in the late 1940s. Two prototypes were constructed with the designation of I-211, of which one was converted into the I-215 with more powerful engines. A third aircraft was built to evaluate the bicycle landing gear arrangement for use in other aircraft. The fighter was not accepted for production as it was inferior to swept-wing fighters like the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15.
Development
After working as Lavochkin's right-hand man during World War II, Semyon Alekseyev was appointed as Chief Designer of OKB-21 (design bureau) at Gor'kiy. The Council of the People's Commissars directed Alekseyev and other designers to develop jet fighters using more powerful engines than the captured German Jumo 004 and the BMW 003 and their Soviet-built copies. The result of Alekseyev's efforts was the I-21 (Russian: istrebitel (fighter)), which was planned to be produced in several variants.
The I-21 was a twin-engined, all-metal, single-seat jet fighter, with straight laminar flow wings, mid-set on a circular fuselage. The fighter's 1,500-kilogram-force (15 kN; 3,300 lbf) Lyul'ka TR-2 turbojet engines were mounted below the wings much like those on the German Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter. Underneath the engine nacelles were hardpoints that could carry 250-kilogram (550 lb) bombs or drop tanks.
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