Grigorovich M-11

The Grigorovich M-11 (or Shchetinin M-11) was a Russian single-seat fighter flying boat designed by Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich and built by Shchetinin

Design and development
Originally conceived as a two-seater the prototype M-11 was built in 1916 at the Shchetinin factory in Petrograd. The M-11 was a biplane with a 100 hp (75 kW) Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine with a pusher propeller strut mounted below the upper wing. The small number of two-seaters had a poor performance and were only used as trainers, Grigorovich developed a single-seat version powered by a 110 hp (82 kW) Le Rhône engine and fitted with a forward firing machine gun in front of the cockpit. Originally 100 single-seat M-11s had been ordered but this was reduced to 60 as the aircraft had poor handling when landing or alighting on water. The M-11 was operated from snow and ice with twin skis fitted under the forward fuselage and a single ski under the tailplane.

To improve the water handling an improved variant was developed as the M-12 which had a re-designed hull and reduced loaded weight. Although the climb to height was improved the forward speed was 5 mph (8 km/h) less than the M-11 consequentially only a few M-12s were built.

Variants

 * M-11 (two-seat)
 * Small numbers built for training use.


 * M-11 (single-seat)
 * Production variant, 60 built.


 * M-12
 * Improved version.

Operators

 * Estonian Air Force
 * Imperial Russian Navy
 * Soviet Naval Aviation
 * Imperial Russian Navy
 * Soviet Naval Aviation
 * Soviet Naval Aviation