The last installment of the N.N. Polikarpov Design Bureau’s biplane fighter family was the I-153. It featured a gull-shaped upper wing, a retractable chassis and more powerful armament with four ShKAS machine guns. Serial planes had M-62 radial engines and the later series had the more powerful M-63. The maiden flight was in August 1938. In total 3437 were produced between 1939 and 1941. In the summer of 1941 the I-153 Chaika (gull) was the basis of Soviet Fighter Aviation along with I-16 fighters. I-153 was used in combat until the middle of 1943.