| La-9 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Fighter |
| Manufacturer | Lavochkin |
| Status | Phased out of service |
| Primary users | Soviet Air Force |
| Number built | 1,559 |
| History | |
| Manufactured | 1946–1948 |
| Introduction date | August 1946 |
| First flight | 1946 |
| Developed from | Lavochkin La-126 |
| Developed into | Lavochkin La-11 |
TheLavochkin La-9 (NATO reporting nameFritz) was aSovietfighter aircraft produced shortly after World War II. It was one of the last piston engined fighters to be produced before the widespread adoption of thejet engine.
La-9 represents a further development of theLavochkin La-126 prototype. The first prototype, designatedLa-130 was finished in 1946. Similarity to the famousLavochkin La-7 was only superficial – the new fighter had an all-metal construction and alaminar flow wing. Weight savings due to elimination of wood from the airframe allowed for greatly improved fuel capacity and four-cannon armament. Mock combat demonstrated that the La-130 was evenly matched with the La-7 but was inferior to theYakovlev Yak-3 in horizontal 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 in1948.
Like other aircraft designers at the time, Lavochkin was experimenting with usingjet propulsion to augment performance of piston-engined fighters. One such attempt wasLa-130R with an RD-1Kh3liquid fuel rocket engine in addition to theShvetsov ASh-82FN piston powerplant. The project was cancelled in 1946 before the prototype could be assembled. A more unusual approach wasLa-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-13pulsejet (the engine which powered theV-1 flying bomb, probably taken from surplus Luftwaffe stocks) 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:
Data from[citation needed]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
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The initial version of this article was based on material fromaviation.ru. It has been released under theGFDL by the copyright holder.
