Where did the ShS's engine come from?

Short answer

From the MV-6, an unlicensed copy of a six-cylinder inline Renault engine delivering 220 hp, which powered the resulting aircraft. The Renault 6P was manufactured in the USSR under that very designation, MV-6. The aircraft was the OKA-38, adopted for production as the ShS, staff and liaison aircraft.

Published: November 1, 2026 · Updated: November 1, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

North American Rockwell Shrike Commander 500S, Robert A. "Bob" Hoover

A Renault Copied in the Soviet Union

The aircraft resulting from the project was powered by the MV-6 engine, which was itself an unlicensed copy of a six-cylinder inline Renault engine delivering 220 hp. The Renault 6P was produced in the USSR under that designation, MV-6, whose initials allow more than one reading: Motor Vozdushniy, air-cooled engine, or Motor Voronezhskiy, engine built in Voronezh, with no certainty about which interpretation is correct. The engine is also identified as the Voronezh MV-6.

From the OKA-38 to the ShS

Several prototypes were completed and flew in tests in 1940, and the OKA-38 was adopted for production under the designation ShS. The initials are read either as Shtabnyi-samolyet, staff aircraft, or as Shtabnoy-Sviasnoy, staff and liaison aircraft.

A Series That Was Never Finished

A factory was built on the Baltic to manufacture it. German forces occupied the site in the summer of 1941, when production had already begun but before the first aircraft had been completed.