2. I-16 (nickname in the USSR – Ishak, Yastrebok, Spanish army, Franco – Rata – agile rapacious «Rat», Republicans «Mosca» – «Fly», in China – «Yanzi» – «The Swallow»). The first fighter is a low-grade aircraft in the USSR. Armament – four 7.62 mm. the ShKAS machine gun (the Shpitalniy and Komaritsky system, for the first time in the world, the rate of fire is 1,800 rounds per minute) or two 20 mm. guns and two 7.62 mm. machine gun. The speed at altitude is 450 km. h. The range of flight is 520 km. This is the maximum performance of an airplane with a single-row, star-shaped engine. The lantern of the cockpit can be closed completely, however, due to frequent seizures, the pilots keep it open (as can be seen in almost all the photographs). By 1942 inclusive (83 aircraft in the last year) produced 10 300 copies (not counting a few dozen, manufactured in Spain and China). Together with the «Seagull» brutal I-16 was the backbone of Soviet fighter aviation to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Led by an experienced pilot, he was not an easy prey, he tried to avoid maneuvering with him the aces of the Luftwaffe, saying that, they say; «You should not drive a rat into a corner.» However, the time I-16 passed.
3. Bf. (Me) – 109, Series B (Bruno), a fighter, was supplied to the Francoists in the second half of the Civil War. At that time had three 7.92 mm. machine gun. By the beginning of the Second World War Me-109 got four machine guns, or, in the other series, two machine guns plus 30 mm. a cannon with 60 shells. As an attack aircraft, he carried one 250 kg. the bomb. Speed – before modernization, during the war in Spain only 470 km. h, but by 1939, after replacing the engine (which became an unpleasant surprise, primarily for the British Air Force) – 570 km. h. In the mid-forties, its speed reached 620 km. h. The range of the flight is 480 km. In total, from 1937 to 1945, 34,000 Messerschmitts were produced.
4. Heinkel 51, the fighter of the Frankish first half of the war. Virtually had no chance against I-15. Armament – two machine guns 7,92 mm., Speed 310 km. h, flight range 550 km.
The rebels are changing the direction of the main attack and are crashing to the north of Spain – the Basque Country. April 26 German pilots destroy the city of Guernica. Strengthens his dictatorship Franco – his party «Spanish Phalanx» gets rid of internal opposition. At this time, the official Spanish government, which wants to achieve stability, completely purposely replaces a number of ministers. A single strong leader does not appear. The Republican army exhausts forces in fruitless frontal attacks of insignificant objects.