Gribovsky G-15

The Gribovsky G-15 (Russian: ГРИБОВСКИЙ Г-15) was a single engine, side-by-side two seat touring aircraft built in USSR in the 1930s. Only one was completed.

Design and development
The G-15 inherited the monocoque fuselage and low, two spar, partially plywood covered wings of the earlier G-5 and G-8 but was a bigger and heavier aircraft, the first Gribovsky had designed for touring rather than sport and training. Unlike the smaller machines the G-15 had seats for two, arranged side-by-side.

Following earlier Gribovsky practice, the wing centre section was an integral part of the circular cross-section fuselage and, like it, was ply covered. The outer wing panels were ply covered from the leading edge back to the rear spar, with the rest fabric covered. In plan the wings were strongly tapered, mostly on the trailing edges, and ended in long, elliptical tips. Their trailing edges carried slotted flaps inboard; slotted ailerons filled the rest of the span. Fuel tanks were located between the spars, two in each wing.

The G-15 was powered by a 115 kW Shvetsov M-11 five cylinder radial engine driving a two blade propeller, housed under a broad chord NACA cowling. The cockpit was over the wing, with a fairing behind it dropping smoothly to the underlying fuselage line. The fin, also ply covered and an integral part of the fuselage, had a curved leading edge and carried a slightly taller, unbalanced rudder. A straight edged tailplane, mounted mid-fuselage, carried rounded elevators. Both rudder and elevators were fabric covered. The G-15 had a fixed, wide track tail skid undercarriage, with its vertical, wing-mounted main legs in trouser type fairings which widened to form spats enclosing the wheels.

The G-15 was built at the glider works in Moscow in 1934. Both its design and performance were praised but, like most of Gribovsky's designs, it was not put into production. The sole example is known to have made a successful forced landing after an engine failure during a 1935 flight near Moscow, but it is not known if it flew again.