| BA-I | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Armoured car |
| Place of origin |  Soviet Union |
| Service history | |
| Used by |  Soviet Union |
| Production history | |
| No. built | 82 |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 5 tonnes (5.5 short tons) |
| Length | 4.8 m (16 ft) |
| Width | 2.0 m (6.6 ft) |
| Height | 2.4 m (7.9 ft) |
| Crew | 3 |
| Armor | 8 mm |
Main armament | 37mm 7K gun |
Secondary armament | 2x7.62mm DT |
| Engine | GAZ-AA 40 hp (30 kW) |
| Power/weight | 8 hp/ton |
| Suspension | wheeled |
Operational range | 150 km (93 miles) |
| Maximum speed | 63 km/h (39 mph) |
TheBA-I (sometimesBAI) is a Soviet three-axlearmoured car. Only 82 vehicles[1] of this type were built in 1932–1934, nevertheless the design initiated a series of heavy armoured cars of Izhorskij plant:BA-3,BA-6,BA-9, andBA-10. Some vehicles were used inWorld War II, despite being obsolete at the time.
In 1931, the first Soviet 6x4chassis was created, a design based on addingTimken tandem rearaxles to the AmericanFord AA chassis,[2] and because of that calledFord-Timken.[3] This immediately initiated the development of armoured cars. By the end of the year assembly was taking place at the plant "Gudok Oktyabrya" in Kanavin, nearNizhniy Novgorod. In autumn of the same year at the Repair Base of Nº2 inMoscow hull from theBA-27 armoured car was first attached to the new chassis. About 20 such cars were built, having the designation BA-27M.[4] At the same time, and with the same chassis, but at the Izhorskij plant, several dozenD-13 armoured cars were built, developed by N. I. Dyrenkov.
In 1932, engineer P. N. Syachentov, known for his development of the artillery, designed the universal armoured carBAD-2, which was both amphibious and capable of driving therailroad track. A single copy was built, but not accepted for manufacturing.
The body and the layout of the components and assemblies of the armored car bear great similarity to the American armored carT4 (M1), released in 1931.
In 1932, at the Izhorskij plant, the armoured carBA-I (I stands forIzhorskij) was developed by A. D. Kuzmin. In some publications the name of this machine is written together -BAI. It used the same triaxial Ford-Timken chassis as its predecessors.
The hull waswelded together - an advanced technology for the time. Due to the "stepped" form of the roof on the hull it was possible to place turret lower, substantially reducing the overall height of combat vehicle. In thecylindrical weldedturret, there was a 37 mm gun with 34 rounds (similarly to earlier BA-27 armored car), and aDT machine gun on a separate ball mount. The second DT was placed in the frontal sheet to the right of the driver. There were doors in the hull and in the rear for crew evacuation.
An interesting idea that was borrowed from the earlierD-13 armoured car was mounting of spare wheels just next to the front wheels and only slightly higher. These helped when crossing trenches and rugged terrain. An innovation was the possibility to convert vehicle to ahalf-track by fitting auxiliary ("Overall")tracks to the rear pair of dual tandem wheels. Additionally some vehicles were equipped withradio. All three of these ideas were subsequently used in all succeeding designs, including theBA-10.
A version has been developed using an improvedGAZ-AAA chassis.Also a prototyperailway BA-IZD variant was created, but was not accepted for production.