As threatened ...
By the beginning of 1939, the design team at the Polikarpov OKB was in disarray. The evolved I-180.2 monoplane fighter prototype had crashed, its development came to an end. That crash was the result of an impetuous test pilot insisted upon flying prototype despite its engine having been left unprotected from frost the previous evening. That decision cost Hero of the Soviet Union, Valery Chkalov his life. But someone else had to take the blame. That fell to I-180.2 designer, D. L. Tomashevich who was imprisoned under Stalin's orfers.
Meanwhile, the mandated biplane equivalent seemed to have reached fruition. The I-190 was a revised I-153 airframe fitted with a 14-cylinder Shvetsov M-88 radial derived from the Gnome-Rhône 14K. With I-190 design work complete, project chief, A. Ya. Shcherbakov, was transferred to the I-180 programme. His first decision was to cancel further work on the I-180.3 prototype.
Whereas the I-180.2 (and planned I-180.3) had new wing designs, Shcherbakov concluded that such major revisions would inevitably be over-run by the more modern fighter designs being produced by Yakovlev and Lavochkin. Accordingly, Shcherbakov shifted to a more straightforward adaptation of the base I-16 type 24 fighter.
Shcherbakov's second conclusion - in part inspired by his work on the I-190 - was that the M-88 engine suffered from fatal flaws inherited from its French parent. As a result, for the I-180.5, Shcherbakov turned to another Shvetsov 14-cylinder radial - the M-82 (in effect, a 2-row derivative of the I-153's M-62 - itself derived from the American Wright Cyclone by way of the earlier M25V).
As built, the I-182.1 (as the I-180.5 was re-named) was a heavily modified I-16 type 24 airframe. The shpon fuselage remained largely unchanged aft of the firewall. The wings were similar to those of the I-16 but all fabric-covering was entirely replaced by sheet dural. The internal wing structure was also altered to accommodate a new, hydraulically-operated main undercarriage. No armament was fitted to the I-182.1 to hasten construction and flight trials.
Before the I-182.1 had made its first flight, construction had begun on the armed prototype I-182.2. The latter carried only twin 20 mm Shvak guns synchronised to fire through its propeller arc. However, it was always intended that another pair of Shvak cannons would be mounted in the wings of production I-182s. The I-182.2 also differed in detail from the I-182.1 - a new tailwheel being the most noticeable.
As it transpired, Aleksei Shcherbakov concern about the pace of Soviet fighter development was prophetic. By the time that the I-182.1 had flown, more modern designs were available from two of Shcherbakov's former assistants - Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich - as well as A. S. Yakovlev. As the ASh-82, Arkadiy Shvetsov's M-88 would become a highly successful engine. But, in 1939-40, OKB-19 had yet to make the M-88 a reliable powerplant.
Shcherbakov's I-182 designs were culled from the pack, with V-VS orders going to the MiG-3, LaGG-1, and Yak-1 fighter types instead.
