On May 15, 1942, the first jet aircraft powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, the BI-1, took its maiden flight in the USSR. It was piloted by test pilot Captain Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi. The aircraft was unusually compact: a wingspan of 6.48 m, a length of 6.4 m, and a wing area of just 7.0 square meters. It was armed with two ShVAK cannons with 90 rounds and 38 kg of bombs. The D-1-A-1100 engine (the first nitrate engine with a nominal thrust of 1,100 kg) was supplied with components from onboard compressed air tanks at a pressure of 150 atm. The projected duration of its flight at a speed of 800 km/h was 2 minutes, at a speed of 550-360 km/h - about 4-5 minutes.The projected duration of its flight at a speed of 800 km/h was 2 minutes, at a speed of 550-360 km/h - about 4-5 minutes.