"The first experimental, or rather demonstrational,the the aircraft No.22 was assembled at the end of 1938 (no later than December 25) and began to work it out on the ground. A month later, on January 1, 1939, the commission, chaired by the director and chief designer A. Yakovlev, signed the Act on the acceptance of the aircraft and its admission to factory flight tests."
"Since the plane "22" was presented as a reconnaissance aircraft, and the government primarily demanded a bomber, by the indicated date (September 10, 1939) a second prototype under the designation BB-22 was manufactured and the next day it was handed over to factory tests. The leading pilot in the car was still Julian Piontkovsky. But it was not presented for state tests, limited to factory ones. But the report with their results could not be found, only the flight data of the machine are known. In particular, its maximum speed compared to the first C-22 decreased by 22 km / h."
"On the other hand, the P-12 with engines M-105 December 11, 1939 passed the state tests. Thus it showed a speed of 590 km / h at a height of 5000 meters and a distance of 1000 km. Aircraft armament consisted of two guns and bombs 120 kg."
"The main bomber of the military series (No. 1001) with the M-103 engines at the plant No. 1 was built on December 31, 1939, and until February 20, 1940, when it overcame the earth's gravity, they worked on its development. In this form, the first seven vehicles of the military series with the machine gun installation SU BB-22 GI Gudimenko were manufactured, which provided for the raising of the lantern above the cockpit of the navigator and the turret with the help of a pneumatic drive of the arc. Three other machines for comparison with them were equipped with Frolov and MV-3 installations, as well as with a turret from the two-seat fighter DI-6, due to which it was necessary to drop the garage. "
"The construction of the BB-22IS (I-29) with the M-105 engines was started in accordance with the resolution of the Defense Committee No. 429ss of November 5, 1940, taking into account the requirement of the Defense Committee of the USSR of October 2, 1940 on increasing the range of the flight of twin-engine fighter jets Tracking up to 2000 km at a speed corresponding to 0.8 from its maximum value. Apparently, this circumstance forced OKB-115 to change the fuel system of the aircraft, increasing the fuel reserve, with the only reserve for this was the cargo bay, which delayed its construction. "
"The strength and critical speed data are identical with the Yak-4, which was tested earlier, why the instructions for carrying out the flight tests of a single-seat fighter remain the same as for BB-22 with 2M-105. "
This suggests that the first flight of the I-29 took place in September 1941, and on October 29, OKB-115 was evacuated to Novosibirsk, which could not but affect the timing of the I-29 and its fate.Work on the aircraft continued for over a year and stopped only in 1942, when the production of the Pe-3bis fighter was set up. "