Lavochkin La-9
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The Lavochkin La-9 (NATO reporting name Fritz) was an early post-World War II Soviet fighter aircraft.
Contents
Development
La-9 represents further development of the Lavochkin La-126 prototype. First prototype, designated La-130 was finished in 1946. Similarity to the famous Lavochkin La-7 was only superficial -- the new fighter had all-metal construction, a laminar flow wing, and a pressurized cockpit. Weight savings due to elimination of wood from the airframe allowed for greatly improved fuel capacity and four-cannon armament. Mock combat demonstrated that La-130 was evenly matched with La-7 but was inferior to Yakovlev Yak-3 in both horizontal and vertical planes. The new fighter, officially designated La-9, entered production in August 1946. A total of 1,559 aircraft were built by the end of production in 1948.Variants
Like other aircraft designers at the time, Lavochkin was experimenting with using jet engines to augment performance of piston-engined fighters. One such attempt was La-130R with a RD-1Kh3 liquid fuel rocket engine in addition to the Shvetsov ASh-82FN piston powerplant. The project was cancelled in 1946 before the prototype could be assembled. A more unusual approach was La-9RD which was tested in 1947-1948. It was a production La-9 with a reinforced airframe and armament reduced to two cannons which carried a single RD-13 pulsejet (likely of the German V-1 rocket origin) under each wing. The 70 km/h (45 mph) increase in top speed came at the expense of tremendous noise and vibration. The engines were unreliable and worsened the handling. The project was abandoned although between 3 and 9 La-9RD were reported to perform at airshows, no doubt pleasing the crowds with the noise.Other notable La-9 variants were:
- La-9UTI - field-modified two-seat trainer version
- La-132 (La-132) - prototype with upgraded Shvetsov M-93 engine. Projected top speed 740 km/h (460 mph) at 6,500 m (21,300 ft). Engine proved a failure and the single prototype was equipped with an experimental Shvetsov ASh-82M instead. The aircraft did not proceed to production.
- La-9M (La-134) - long-range fighter prototype, see Lavochkin La-11
Users
USSR, Romania, Poland, North Korea.Specifications (La-9)
References
Kopenhagen, W (ed.), Das groβe Flugzeug-Typenbuch, Transpress, 1987, ISBN 3344001620External links
- http://www.aviation.ru/La/#9
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