In the mid-1930s, work was underway in the USSR to create an armored attack aircraft, which eventually led to the development of the famous Il-2. But in parallel, there were projects of small light attack aircraft. One of them was the Sh-Tandem aircraft, designed by designer Peter Grushin in the workshops of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI). December 5, 1937 - the first flight of the experimental light attack aircraft Sh-Tandem (aka Sh-MAI, MAI-3, MAI-Tandem).
As you can guess from the name, the Sh-Tandem was designed according to a tandem scheme with a two-keel tail and a retractable landing gear. With the M-87 engine (930 hp), it developed a maximum speed of 488 km/h. The armament consisted of 5 ? 7.62 mm SHKAS machine guns and 200 kg bombs.
The tests revealed a number of problems for the Sh-Tandem ? insufficient stability, poor handling, difficulties with takeoff. The designer was offered to modify his aircraft, but in May 1940 the project was closed. Only 1 prototype of the Sh-Tandem was built.
