The I-16 was the world’s first mass-produced monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear in flight, a hero of the early stages of the Spanish Civil War and the last of the fighters with an open cockpit — where silk scarves made from parachute fabric still made sense as they streamed in the wind.
Sent to the far side of Europe to liberate the oppressed classes, the Soviet pilot and his Spanish comrade-in-arms stand alongside the spirit of Stalin’s “clear falcons,” the coat of arms of Republican Spain, and the slogan that once flew over the streets of Madrid: “¡No pasarán!” — “They shall not pass!”
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