mike1204, e-mail, 15.05.2012 13:30 The Grigorovich M-9 (ShCh M-9, or Shchetinin M-9) was an evolutionary biplane flying-boat, developed from the M-5. The first M-9 was ready in 1915 and its maiden flight was carried out on 9 January 1916 at Baku. On 17 September that year the test pilot, Jan Nagórski, became the first to make a loop with a flying-boat. During the Russian Civil War, M-9s participated in the air defence of Baku, dropping approximately 6,000 kg of bombs and 160 kg of anti-personnel 'arrows'. The aircraft also carried out photo-reconnaissance, artillery spotting duties, as well as air combat sorties. The M-9 was also used for the first experiments on sea-shelf studies, participating in the discovery of new oil fields near Baku. Nine M-9s were captured by Finland during the Russian Civil War, one of which was flown by a Russian officer to Antrea on 10 April 1918. It was sunk the following day during type evaluation. Eight more were captured at Åland and Turku. These aircraft were used by the Finnish Air Force until 1922.

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