An interesting coincidence: on the same day, August 3, 1938, three new combat aircraft took off for the first time in the USSR, Great Britain and Italy. However, for various reasons, all three prototypes did not suit the military, they were not accepted into service, and after a while they were scrapped.
Let's start with our loser - a multipurpose aircraft by aircraft designer Nikolai Polikarpov, codenamed "Ivanov". Its first flight ended normally, and on the second, which took place on the same day, the landing gear broke during landing. After repairs, tests resumed and continued until 1940. By that time, a competitive model, the Su-2 aircraft, developed at the Pavel Sukhoi Design Bureau, had already been adopted and put into mass production. Since the Polikarpov "Ivanov" had approximately equal flight characteristics with it, there was no point in replacing the Sukhov aircraft with it. In the same year, the project was closed.
In the photo - "Ivanov" at the Central Aerodrome before and after tests on August 3, 1938.
In British aviation, the situation was similar. Firm "Martin-Baker" on its own initiative and at its own expense has developed and built a prototype of the MB-2 fighter, which made its first flight almost simultaneously with "Ivanov". The aircraft possessed a number of advantages, but not so outstanding that for the sake of it one of the newly launched fighters, the Spitfire or the Hurricane, was abandoned. And the adoption of three different types of machines of the same purpose for service at once was considered by the British generals an unnecessary excess. As a result, MV-2 shared the fate of "Ivanov".
The MV-2 was designed as a "total war plane" with minimal use of scarce materials. Its frame was welded from steel pipes, and a significant part of the skin was canvas. The aircraft had a fixed landing gear, which at the end of the 1930s was already considered archaism, however, the company intended to equip it with retractable struts in the future. The main "highlight" of the car was its original power plant - a 24-cylinder H-shaped air-cooled engine Napier "Dagger". In fact, it consisted of two 12-cylinder boxer motors mounted on a common crankcase. The excessive complexity of this engine fell short of expectations.
Also, pay attention to the "nail" sticking out of the cab in the lower picture. This is a special anti-cabotage bar that prevented the cab from crushing when the machine was overturned and extended when landing in sync with the landing flaps. As far as I know, no other aircraft was equipped with such a device.
Finally, on August 3, Italy began testing a modified prototype of the Caproni Ca-165 fighter. It was one of the last European biplane fighters. In its original form, it took off for the first time in February, but then the plane was significantly reworked. In particular, a drop-shaped cockpit canopy with all-round visibility was installed on it, and the retractable radiator was replaced with a fixed one, hiding it in a tunnel fairing.
The aircraft turned out to be much faster than its main competitor, the Fiat CR-42 fighter, but less maneuverable, and for biplane fighters it was maneuverability that was considered the main characteristic. Another important factor was the relatively high price of Caproni - one and a half times more than that of Fiat. The combination of these factors led the military to opt for the Fiat. Almost 1,800 CR-42s were built, and the elegant Ca-165 remained in a single copy and soon ended its days in a junkyard.
The top picture shows the Ca-165 in its initial configuration, and the bottom picture shows it after revision.
