The I-17 (TsKB-19) was displayed at the 15th Paris Air Show, Le Bourget, in November 1936 together with the Tupolev ANT-25 record-breaking aircraft (URSS-No25) and an ANT-35 airliner (URSS-No35).
   For many years the TsKB-19 was preserved at what is now called the Central Aerospace Museum at 4 Krasnoarmeyskaya Street in Moscow. At first the aircraft stood on the floor, minus its M-100 engine which was displayed separately. When more exhibits were acquired the fighter was suspended from the ceiling to save space with the landing gear retracted. The photo above right was taken in February 1943 when the museum's director A. I. Yegorov showed a group of soldiers round the museum before their return to the frontlines. The picture on the right with Ivan Kozhedoob's Lavochkin La-7 and a Messerschmitt Bf 110 was taken in the 1950s or 1960s. Later many of the exhibits were transferred to the Air Force Museum in Monino near Moscow, which, in effect, saved them from perishing. The I-17, however, was not so lucky: taking advantage of the general confusion that ruled in the country in the late 1980s, the generals who ran the museum then plundered it, stealing even the interior furnishings, including the cast bronze chandeliers dating back to the early XXth century. Many of the exhibits were either sold abroad or wantonly scrapped. R F. Vyalikov, who became the museum's current director in 1995, had to restore the place and the exhibits from scratch.