The Horrible History of Russian Fighter Planes 

Thanks to Nord VPN for sponsoring this video! Get 4 months extra on a 2 year plan here: nordvpn.com/animarchy It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee! Correction: in the video I stated that Duralumin is an earlier form of Aluminium. This is not strictly correct. Duralumin alloys are an aluminium alloy which were and are used in aviation. The reason I chose to describe it that way is to separate the poorer quality less advanced alloy compositions used by the Soviets from Western and Japanese Duralumin alloys. Also fun fact, the Japanese aluminium alloys used in the Zero were more advanced than anything in the western aviation industry, so much so that US companies reverse engineered it. Leading to the high quality aircraft aluminium alloys used today. So it wasn’t just a Euro-American race. Well guys, the long awaited tale of how the Russian Fighter Force began, developed and failed spectacularly upwards has finally arrived. From epic failure to calamitous catastrophe to a soaring triumph over fascism. This is the story of the early days of Russian fighter design. From 1908 to 1946. Featuring our cast of intrepid heroes as they try to bring Russia's fighters to life, while keeping their own. Music by Karl Casey at Whitebat Audio and the works of Russia's great composers. Special thanks to @habitual_linecrosser for his guest appearance! Support the channel on Patreon: www.patreon.com/Animarchy Bibliography and Source List -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Silvansky IS: photosofmilitaryhistory.medium.com/the-silvansky-i-220-is-how-not-to-design-a-fighter-aircraft-4f3300add83c#:~:text=The%20IS%20was%2021.9%20feet,paces%2C%20performance%20was%20never%20validated. en.topwar.ru/1197-nebyvalyj-istrebitel-konstruktora-silvanskogo.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Works of Yefrim Gordon - The leading historiographer of Soviet Aviation: Soviet Air Power in WW2 (2010) Soviet Combat Aircraft of the Second World War: Volume One (1998) Yakovlev’s Piston-Engine Fighters (2002) Lavochkin’s Piston-Engine Fighters (2003) Mikoyan’s Piston-Engine Fighters (2003) OKB Mikoyan: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft (2009) Polikarpov's I-16 Fighter: Its Forerunners and Progeny (2002) (And all his other associated works that are far too numerous to list here. Go read them) LaGG and Lavochkin Aces of the Second World War (2002) - George Mellingher prussia.online/Data/Book/la/lagg-lavochkin-aces-of-world-war-2/AA%20056%20-%20LaGG%20and%20Lavochkin%20Aces%20of%20WWII.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Janes Fighting Aircraft of WW2 (1995 edition) - By Bill Gunston and Fred Jane The Russian Military Air Fleet in World War I, Volume One (2010) - August Blume The Imperial Russian Air Service: Famous Pilots & Aircraft of World War One (1995) - Victor Kulikov Russian Aero-Piston Engines (2005) - Vladimir Kotelnikov World Encyclopedia of Aero-Engines (1989) - Bill Gunston Lavochkin Fighters of the Second World War (2017) - Jason Moore

The existence of R&D gulags makes me imagine the possibility of HR gulags, marketing gulags, and IT gulags.

An engine falling out of the sky and landing on the Russian Knight is frankly the most Russian thing ever.

"I'd intercept me" -mentaly stable aircraft

I used to think the phrases “and then it got worse” and “then along came Stalin” were more memes than anything else. Turns out it describes pretty much all of the USSRs history fairly accurately.

Every Russian history video about anything has a section "And then came Stalin".

I still cant believe the first ever quad-engine aircraft died via Looney Tunes gag.

My grandfather flew IL 2 during the war. Over the course of three years, he lost four gunners, returned more than a dozen times with the fuselage almost completely shot through, and was even shot down twice, but each time he landed the aircraft. This plane was not just called a flying tank, it really was one.

I'm starting to see why the famous "Night Witches" had to make do with obsolete biplanes lacking proper insulation.

I don't even want to think how many beers Animarchy went through trying to put together this video.

'Some guy called Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry " ahh..... classic Blackadder

1:12:23 Aeronautics engineer here. Duralumin is an aluminum alloy which offers a more favorable strength to weight ration over steel. It is basically stronger then regular aluminum, while still being very light. Such alloys are still widely used today. In Western aviation mostly 2024 series alloys are used while the Russians use D16 and D16T. I guess you meant not a lower grade aluminum, but an alloy that was just out of spec and shit.

"What is beyond dispute is that the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is widely considered to have been a bad idea." That got me properly cackling... Well played. 😂

Animarchy: "if we keep fostering our economic growth and the passion of our workers we can-" Joseph Stalin: (interrupts your sentence) -"and everyone died, the end"

The sheer irony of the god king Emperor of America's Rotary Aviation help create Russia's Air Force

"Mr. Putin how would you comment on the criticism against the Su-57?" "Before we start, I would like to do a quick 30 second to a minute historical recap if that's okay? So we must return to the year 1908 at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute..."

Advisor: "The people can't eat guns!" Stalin: *"Then they can eat bullets."*

Sikorsky really was an absolute Chad visionary wasn't he.

I'm now picturing you and Laserpig somehow conveying all this history in a musical with the Horrible Histories title.

I'm very glad you mentioned the Czechoslovak legion in the video as they were absolute gigachads. Czechs want to go home, Czechs get told no and are labelled enemies of the Russian state, Czechs steal a train, Czechs proceed to win every battle despite being outnumbered, Czechs arrive in Vladovostok, there's no boat, Czechs steal a boat, Czechs win a naval battle, Czechs go home, the game last train home does a great job telling the story too

“It appeared that the Russians/Soviets held an advantage at the time. Unfortunately, this was a facade.” Tale as old as time.

My favorite Russian fighter is the Parade Fighter. AKA that time the Soviets welded pipes to the front of a bunch of unarmed jets to look like giant cannons because they didn't have engines powerful enough to lift the guns they wanted, air frames that wouldn't fly apart when the gun they wanted fired, or a loading mechanism that wouldn't eject spent shells directly into the air intakes. But they thought the west would think they looked scary as hell because they incorrectly assumed the west took all their claims at face value.

Ah, classic Animarchy starting the story 13 billion years ago on a video about one airplane that was made 6 years ago.

Fun fact, which I only found out recently, about Lend Lease to the USSR, half of the entire production run of the Hawker Hurricane went to the Soviet Union.

11:03 morbid fact. Sophie was pregnant, so Gavrilo Princip killed three if you count the unborn child

A few points about И-220 of Silvanskiy. 0. Before getting the work of И-220, Silvanskiy proposed two aircraft projects inspired by Polikarpov's planes (because Silvanskiy was practicing and working on Polikarpov's factory). For the first time he was rejected softly (i.e. the first project of a non-experienced engineer, you'd need to do some research on the matter). While the second one was completely destroyed by the comission for the same reason (on the comission there were Polikarpov himself, Dubrovin, Pashinin, and some other experienced aircraft designers of the time). 1. Most of the engineers he took with him were from the bureau of Dmitriy Pavlovich Grigorovich, who has recently passed away (was not killed by NKVD, but passed away). Who was a father of the first hydroplan, as far as I remember. 2. The issue with the engine appeared because of a very funny fact. The initial project of the И-220 plane was in fact a Polikarpov's attempt to improve the И-16, the project of И-164. Works on this project were not finalized as when the information about the newer engines appeared, Polikarpov went designing his new plane that would eventually become И-185 (a very decent fighter of its time in theory). While the project of И-164 was archived. And it was a common practice of a Soviet Union to provide newly created bureaus such archived projects to work on and to improve them (the МиГ bureau (Jesus Christ this word hurts my ukrainian brain to write everytime) was born in this way). So in the end, Silvanskiy, having engineers of one KB experienced to work with one aircraft, received a project of another aircraft, and an engine of a new design NOT for this aircraft. And while Polikarpov ignored these issues becuase the И-164 was designed for an old engine, Silvanskiy didn't notice this fact on blueprints and it appeared to be an issue when the engine itself arrived to the factory. 3. Before sawing off the propeller, there were multiple other attempts to 'fix' the issue, and let me put a few corrections here. First, Silvanskiy offered to extend the landing gear WITHOUT CHANGING THEIR POSITIONS ON THE WINGS WHAT THE F**K WAS HE THINKING ABOUT. That didn't work, the landing gear was not folding in its places. Then he was offered to move the guns (what's left of them anyway) further away and move the lending gear to these positions for them to be able to fold. Silvanskiy rejected this idea. Then he order to place more powerful pneumatic shock absorbers to compensate for the poor clearance. The gear was not folding because of the engine parts. He wrote a letter to the engine designers ordering them (lol) to remove these parts, because I AM QUOTING RIGHT NOW 'The airplane is more important than the engine'. No response was given, so he tried to flatten these parts with the sledgehammer without the necessary results (the engine survived that though). And only after that Silvanskiy went for sawing off the propeller tips. 4. The story of test flights doesn't end on the quote about the 'Shit'. Silvanskiy got offended by these words and asked to give him another pilot for this. And he got one. Who kept his vocabulary polite, but the results of test flights were the same - the plane was barely flying. Silvanskit got offended again. And dragged an active fighter pilot to the cocpit of the aircraft. For those of you don't know, test pilots (I have no idea how this profession actually called) are used to fly unfinished unpolished aircrafts that can do anything during the flight. While the service pilots are used to fly serial machines with predictable and stable behaviour. That was not the case for И-220, so the pilot nearly crashed the plane during the simple maneuver, landed the plane barely, 'Threw his helmet on the ground and left the airfield. What were the words he said at this moment remains uknown' (c).

So to summarise; The Russian airforce did not really fall behind, they were just mostly behind from the very start.

that "the universe was created and everyone agreed it was a bad move" joke just NEVER gets old to me. it's a timeless classic of a joke. much like life & the universe itself.

A history so complex he had to pull a dune, and make it a 2 parter.

“Qouta was everything” Mfs where playing lethal company the whole time…

23:41 It actually came to my attention that there’s a game that covers the Czech militant group as they crossed Russia and now I’ve been meaning to pick it up

“The Ilya Muromets” BF1 players: *Nervous sweating*

28:30 It's all fun & games until Grandpa Stalin comes home at 3AM after losing the annual state bowling championship...

Thank you for not trolling us Animarchy. For a minute there I thought you were baiting us on about the Soviet aviation video. Now if you would do your promised video on the Soviet relationship with fascism both pre and post-WWII.

Of all the cameos, habituallinecrosser was not on my expectations. This was absolutely brilliant And now that I finished it holy fuck your best work to date. And I think your videos are well researched and straight bangers.

The most Soviet conversation ever: “Comrade, the plane is so nose heavy it tends to nose over on takeoff and destroy itself” “Hang on to tail” “WHAT?” “Ride the tail and weigh it down, then when plane is in air, jump off” “You’re serious?” “Da, Comrade”

Russian bias wasnt patched in back then.

This deserves a part 2. It would be interesting to see how soviet aviation developed into the jet age.

I was NOT expecting an HLC cameo, but I love it XD

20:25 technically there were 4 Ukrainian states. 1. The Ukrainian People's Republic with capital in Kyiv 2. The Western Ukrainian People's Republic, with capital defacto Lviv, dejure depended on what territory they held - Ternopil, Mostysko, Stanislawiw, Buchachiv, Chortkiv, Viden (they later united with the UPR) 3. The Soviet Socialist Ukrainian People's Republic set up as a puppet government by the Russian Bolsheviks, with the capital in Kharkiv 4. The anarchist Free Territories, with the the capital in Huliaipole.

I met someone who flew IL-2 (and other planes) during the war. He told me that the IL-2 was one of the worst aircraft ever flown. The engine lost power with every flight, barely managing to get the aircraft off the ground towards the end. The smell from the engine compartment was unbearable, and it leaked fluids everywhere possible. The aircraft always wanted to roll in the direction of the motor and was difficult to keep stable. The flaps would jam during tight turns or wouldn't function at all. Additionally, replacement parts for the aircraft were often not delivered but falsely declared as delivered or not issued because corrupt Russians only 'sold' the parts to mechanics and pilots. Many IL-2 pilots had to guard their planes at night because other pilots would steal parts from other aircraft at night, even if they didn't need them. The IL-2 is portrayed far too favorably in that video.

Video isn't even live yet and the there is already "Why are you so wrong?" comments. Excellent, all is going according to plan.

a slight correction mate: 1:12:23 - duralumin is not lower quality of aluminium, but actually stronger alloy - that was used in aviation for very long time, and is even used nowadays.

Can't wait for part 2, mate... this is awesome and I watched it twice back to back

1:12:23 Duralumin is not a "lower quality early form of aluminum", it is an archaic trade name for the same 2017 and 2024 alloys used in aircraft today.

Part 2 will cover fighter development during the Cold War and Part 3 will be the long awaited Su-57 video?

I agree. The creation of the universe was a catastrophically bad move.

Great job, your production is top rate ( Outstanding sense of humor)Hope you can continue such excellent work.

About Italy outproducing Russia in World War I... The original Caproni factory is still around, turned into a museum in walking distance from Malpensa Airport.

Props to the Douglas Adams opening. Love it.

Please tell me you’re going to make a part 2 for the jet age, you’d make everyone’s day

A lot of Russian history can be summed up in the phrase "and then it got worse."

And Then It Got Worse: Aeronautics Edition

You can tell this guy is Australian by the premier being literally midnight central European time. Imma guess it's pretty long too. See ya tomorrow instead.

My grandfather flew a Douglas Dakota for the RCAF in WW2. After the war, he stayed on for a year and a half, flying POWs and refugees around Europe until the end of 1946. On one trip, they took a group of Russian POWs back to the Soviet Union. He and his crew slept in shifts in their aircraft while it was parked, armed with Thompson submachine guns, to guard against the Russian ground crews who would try to steal the flight instruments out of the plane.

Love the baldrick explanation of how WW1 started.

Excellent Black Adder Goes Forth reference. Archie Duke indeed. God bless Private Baldrick, and Lieutenant George

"Ridiculous length"? I was expecting a 3-hour descent into abject insanity!

This is the same way that Dan Carlin's "quick episode on Cleopatra" for Hardcore History turned into the 5-episode epic that is Death Throes of the Republic.

i absolutely love the long form videos honestly i struggle to make myself watch something less than 30 minutes, not downing on any shorter ones you’ve made but all these hour + have been absolute bangers!!

Stalin saying something is "as vital as bread" might not be a compliment

I love the Habitual Linecrosser insert

Top content, m8. Loved every bit of it! Cant wait for part 2

I am really looking forward to the part 2. Watched this over several days of my cardio workouts. It was absolutely wonderful

if the Su-57 ever entered combat NATO would have to change it's name from Felon to Fallen

Awesome video mate, superbly researched and brilliantly presented

Well done. You have the rare knack of inserting humor in a way that doesn't outshine or undermine your intellectual content or credibility.

Great stuff. Love it. Excited to hear more of the story!

The first 10 minutes reminds me of the las Vegas scene from the movie 2012. "Thats a big plane." "Its Russian."

Thanks for the Douglas Adam’s reference!

The I-220 project just sounds like if you tried to make Lockheed Skunkworks but you take the worst people for the job

Fantastic video! I am HYPED for Part II!

Of course the first Russian strategic bomber was originally designed to carry a bar. These facts are no surprise 😹

Came for the Femboy jet, stayed for the history lesson!

Mig15, 19 and 21 were the golden age of Soviet aerospace engineering

Pokryshkin achieved most of his kills on a Bell P-39. This fact was, of course, carefully redacted from his memoirs (except that they named their squadron dog "Cobra" after P-39).

That Habitual Linecrosser was unexpected but welcome. Cheers for another great work!

Oh boy, gonna have to remember to buy popcorn before watching this one.

The I-16, was not outclassed in the Spanish civil war. The only fighter that could actually match it at that time, was the bf-109-E1, that was introduced at the end of the war. Pls read the book by the US pilot Frank Tinker, who flew the I-16 in combat, and where the first pilot to down a 109.

The La-7 and Yak-3 were genuinely some of the best machines to take to the skies in world war 2. This is what happens when you give your talented guys time and resources instead of the horrendous hands they were played years earlier, they will COOK.

Just an fyi, the train the Czechoslovakian legion stole was filled with gold from the imperial palace.

In addition to the fact that the American P-39 and P-40 were decent low altitude fighters, I think the main reason Russian pilots loved them was they... didn't randomly fall apart mid-air or have their fuel tanks fall out.

Excellent work, I look forward to part 2. 😎👍

Animarchy started this video like Tucker Carlson’s interview with Putin, “way back in the start there was a bang”.

I was waiting for this for so long I'm so happy it's finally out, good work as always

Russian Planes: Failing Upwards

Somehow, the Lazerpig video on the T-34 got me prepped for the production quality issues in this video. 👍

That was EPIC!!. Nice shout outs through out. The f22 raptor bit was hilarious. Look forward to part 2

"Would you intercept me? I'd intercept me."

I have been waiting for a long time for this, and you premier it at some ungodly hour in the civilised world. At least I know what I'll be watching tomorrow after work.

This is a unique, comprehensive, though sometimes pessimistic and humorous historical documentary on Russian military aviation. I was blown away by the amount of detail and research the author provided while maintaining a tinge of sarcasm on such a serious subject. It certainly held my attention for the full 90 minutes. Seriously though, thanks for all your research and hard work.

Well done! Rated my subscription! Can't wait for the second half!

Listening to this while flying some Yaks in the single player campaign in IL-2 GB is something else, like dam I flying an almost piece of junk

A video literally years in the making

Amazing video, thx so much for your time and effort!

Wow. Fascinating and entertaining at the same time! Good work!

We've been waiting for this for so long :)

Very interesting!!! While I have been familiar with many of the WWII Soviet aircraft, you showed me a lot of information I was not aware of. Will be looking forward to part 2.

Gotta respect that outro song, very fitting, 10/10 would watch again

I appreciate the work put into this video, as well as the humour.