Moiseenko P-1 (2U-B3)

The Moiseenko P-1 (2U-B3) was a two-seat training aircraft that was ordered into production before being cancelled in favour of the very similar Polikarpov P-2.

The P-1 was designed by V L Moiseenko, a designer working at GAZ No.1 in Moscow, in response to a February 1925 specification for a training aircraft to be powered by the Siddeley Puma engine. This was later changed to the BMW IIIa or BMW IV engine. Under the designation system in place between 1923 and 1926 the new aircraft was known as the 2U-B3, with 2U standing for two-seat trainer (uchebnyi) and B3 for the BMW III. This was changed in 1927 to P-1, as the first transitional trainer, or perekhodnyi.

The P-1 was a conventional single bay biplane, but with the normal bracing wires between the wings replaced by a single long bracing strut that ran diagonally from the lower wing root to the upper wing. It was to be armed with a fixed forward firing Vickers machine gun and a flexibly mounted Lewis gun in the rear cockpit.

The prototype was completed on 24 February 1926 and test flown at GAZ No.1, before going for its state trials in September. These were completed on 4 January 1927, and the design was considered successful enough for a batch of ten aircraft to be ordered in February. This success was short-lived. The designer N. Polikarpov, who at the time was also working at GAZ No.1, produced a design for a modified version of the P-1, to be powered by a licence built version of the Hispano-Suiza 8Gb. A mock-up of this design was inspected on 14 April 1927. The new design was considered to be more promising than the P-1, and so work on the ten production aircraft was cancelled and two prototypes of the P-2 were ordered instead. 

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How to cite this article: Rickard, J (14 April 2011), Moiseenko P-1 (2U-B3) , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_moiseenko_P-1.html

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