Thank you "Arsenal VG 33" for your detailed response. The Russian websites look very informative, but unfortunately for me, I have not mastered the use of translation programs.
About sources in other languages. How good is the french Polikarpov I-16 book by LELA press? (Cony, Ledet, Cerda, Louie & Kulikov). I guess sources have become rapidly outdated recently, so you should always look for the latest.
Now, specific topics that you might be able to shed further light on. Re. the M-88 engine. Had the problems been solved in the USSR, at say, decision-time of july 31 1940, (or november for that part.) That is to say, did engine supply questions affect (or determine, if you want to word it more strongly) the aircraft production plans in late 1940/early 1941.
Do you know if the M-88 was a copy of the Gnome-Rhone 14N or a seperate line of development of the 14K. Bearing in mind, the strength of the french communist party, and the fertile ground for soviet espionage in France, either direct official technology transfer, or "industrial espionage" could easily have passed information from France to Russia. (And, yes, let no-one hijack this thread to discuss interwar french politics
).
And on a similar theme, and prompted by your nom-de-plume, Do you know if there is any connection between the french interest in "non-strategic materials", (wood), which produced among others the Arsenal VG series in France, and the soviet efforts that led to the Lagg series? Was there anything common in either material, or process of production between the wooden aircraft projects?
A third point of interest. If you compare two designs with a common(?) engine, the Polikarpov I-180, and the Bloch MB 152, the I-180 is much superior in every respect (except, arguably, firepower). Yet the Bloch is a "modern" all-metal monocoque design, the I-180 an obsolete mixed construction. How could that be? How credible are the I-180 performance figures? In Gordon and Khazanov´s book, Soviet Combat Aircraft, the tables at the end give the preproduction 180s superior performance to the third prototype, (albeit with no range information). Yet it seems the pre-production planes were closer to the second prototype than the third.
(I must confess that I have never been able to figure out just what was so wrong with the MB 152).
(And Denes Bernad, yes BB-1 = Su-2, just my flawed memory).
Birgir Thorisson