Apophenia
The designation "I-16 type 1" is very doubtful anyway. The matter is that all these "type" numbers (Type 18, 24 etc.)
weren't given by Polikarpov, but by Zavod No.21 in Gorky city (Nizhny Novgorod) which produced I-16 in series.
This was their internal system of factory designations, in which some "types" weren't I-16s at all! For example, "type 7" was their own design of biplane fighter by Borovkov and Florov - that first, "short" pre-I-207 tested in 1937, more known as Aircraft "7211". Actually 7211 was its serial number - Type
7, Zavod
21,
1st built! "Type 6" was UTI-1 - two-seat trainer version of Polikarpov I-5; so
there was no I-16 Type 6, despite some sources mention it. "Type 25" was I-180, and "type 30" was LaGG-3! And what's important for us:
I-16 was fourth aircraft type produced by Zavod 21 from its establishment, therefore its
first production version became
Type 4.
(For Zavod 21, it was simply "Type 4" not "I-16 type 4"!) And the first aircraft produced there,
the Type 1 was Polikarpov I-5! Type 2 was for Tupolev/Sukhoi I-14 - yes, the I-16 main rival: it was planned to be produced at the same place, though no one was built when it was decided to transfer it into Irkutsk. Type 3 was Nieman KhAI-1 (only 3 were built in Gorky, all the rest in Kiev by Zavod No.43). So, there was no I-16s with these "type" numbers -
I-16 type 1 never existed.
Of course it's very hard to imagine
I-16 with inline engine (especially with V16
). It would no more be the Little Donkey we all know, but something VERY different.
Nevertheless, Polikarpov actually projected a monoplane fighter with M-32 engine - but earlier, and not directly connected with I-16. It was named
I-9, and the first sketches of it were drawn by Polikarpov in Summer 1929. The project discussion began in November 1929, and the work was continued by Kocherigin (because of Polikarpov's arrest). In 1930 spring, the VVS administration (UVVS) issued the project specification for single-seat I-9 fighter with 600-hp M-32 engine. The requirements were:
Maximum speed (5000 m altitude) - 330 to 350 km/h;
Climbing to 5000 m - 5 to 7 minutes;
Service ceiling - 8000 to 10 000 m;
Landing speed - 95 km/h;
Armament - two 7.62-mm PV-1 machine guns (plus two additional when overloaded)
or one cannon (20 to 30 mm);
Flight range - 700 to 800 km (5000 m altitude).
But the impossibility to get M-32 in terms became more and more clear, and on March 16, 1930 the UVVS Scientific committee sent a revised specification - this time for Curtiss Conqueror engine. Later the rough aerodynamical calculations were done for I-9. The results weren't amazing:
Maximum speed - 275.4 km/h (at sea level), 264.7 km/h (3000 m altitude), 261 km/h (5000 m altitude)
Climbing to 3000 m - 6.4 minutes; to 5000 m - 14.3 minutes
Service ceiling - 7530 m
Flight range - 1030 m
The next events show that neither I-9 layout, nor the engine type were still uncertain. When on July 1, 1930 the commission of experts discussed I-9 mockup, it got M-19 engine and
turned into biplane (!). The design works continued at Zavod 25 until middle summer; Kocherigin was chief designer, his "sidekicks" were Sutugin and Yatsenko. In autumn 1930, I-9 was definitely de-scheduled from the prototype aircraft construction plan.
(Source for the I-9 info: Maslov M. The King of Fighters: Polikarpov's warplanes. - Moscow, 2009 (ISBN 978-5-699-30998-6). - P.86-88).