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combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

Reflection is a lot of time. The more time passes, the better you can comprehend something that happened. I've already accessed this plane twice, and now - the third time. maybe, God loves trinity, but actually, just re-read about this car. Thoughtfully, because you want to believe, want not - does not let go.

there is an opinion (not only mine), that the entire pre-war triad of fighters must be disassembled again and mentally circled.

But let's start with the fighter LaGG-3.

Let's start looking from Spain, where the Germans hit us very hard out of pride. Unpleasant, but it turned out, that the country, which, together with us, started from scratch after the First World War, has better quality aircraft. And the I-16 suddenly became just a good plane, in comparison with the Me-109, which turned out to be the best.

I. Stalin did not like, when it flew in out of pride. Furthermore, whatever the appearances (a stone in the garden to all those who broadcast from abroad on the topic “we were betrayed!»), and Joseph Vissarionovich was far from the thought of barbecue with Kakhetian with Adolf Aloizovich. Therefore, immediately after debriefing in the skies of Spain, in the literal sense of the word, he gave the order to start work on the plane, who will be able to resist the "Messerschmitt".

The problem was, that a fair number of designers were in a "forced landing". I do not presume to judge, how realistic is it to create something creative, in fact in custody, but I think, that digging a channel and designing an airplane are two different things.

Stalin was imbued with the situation with the sudden advantage of the Germans. Therefore, everyone was really invited to participate in the competition for the creation of a new front-line fighter. Even those, who considered himself a designer, for no particular reason. You can read about this in Alexander Yakovlev's "Purpose of Life", if anything.

But there were also high-level specialists. Polikarpov, Gurevich, Yakovlev. There were those, who wanted to prove, that he is in the competition for a reason. This is Mikoyan, Gorbunov and Lavochkin. The last three are actually aviation functionaries. We will leave Mikoyan aside for now, until we talk about the MiG-3 and the role of Polikarpov in the creation of this machine, but let's talk about the other two now.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

Vladimir Petrovich Gorbunov served as head of the aircraft department of the People's Commissariat of the Defense Industry.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

Semyon Alekseevich Lavochkin was his direct subordinate, curator of one of the aircraft factories.

true, Lavochkin had experience in creating aircraft. He worked with Grigorovich and Chizhevsky, but not a single plane went into production.

Gorbunov also had an impressive work experience, Furthermore, he, can say, was an even more experienced designer, rather than Lavochkin. Gorbunov created a number of nodes, and he was directly involved in the beginning of the serial production of TB-3 aircraft, Sat, P-6.

Lavochkin had a project of a fighter with a water-cooled engine. Almost ready. Gorbunov proposed to submit to the Politburo a proposal to build this aircraft.

Gorbunov and Lavochkin suggested that, which the government simply could not refuse. They offered a solid wood plane. Working in the People's Commissariat of the aviation industry, they had an excellent idea of ​​the potential of the country's aviation industry.

By that time, wooden structures had become an anachronism throughout the aviation world.. Including with us. but the acute shortage of duralumin stifled all potentially progressive developments. And this is the first negative component in aviation at that time..

Yes, metal gave huge weight savings. To 40%. And this weight could be used in a smart way, how did the germans do it. With the appropriate engine, they stuffed an amazing ammunition load into the plane, radio stations, oxygen equipment (actually used), radio half-compasses and even the "friend or foe" response system. Not for aircraft, for air defense. The most useful thing.

Our engine was also a problem. All, what actually had in the USSR, Is a licensed Hispano-Suiza 12Y capacity 735 hp, which the French "kindly" sold to us. Pushing off the base of this engine (development 1932 of the year), Vladimir Klimov actually accomplished a feat, pulling out the M-100 motors from the frankly weak base, M-103, M-104, M-105 and M-106 of various modifications, almost doubling the power.

Last (M-106) just planned to install Lavochkin on his plane. I'll tell you right away - it didn't grow together, and more, I will draw your attention to this.

M-106 was supposed to issue 1350 HP. But did not give out. The motor was developed with 1938 of the year, in a small series, he went only in 1942 year. So the same M-105P was prepared for Lavochkin's plane., which gave out all 1050 HP. Naturally, carburettor.

for comparison: the Me-109E was equipped with a Daimler-Benz DB 601A engine with direct fuel injection, power 1000 hp, but on the Me-109F already DB 601N capacity 1200 HP.

Plus all-metal construction. So much for the lag of our aircraft initially.

Nevertheless, Gorbunov and Lavochkin did not give up and began work on the plane. Solid wood construction - archaism. Motor, copied from albeit not the worst, but outdated is also not a gift. And yet.

by the way, perhaps, already some have a question: why am I only talking about Lavochkin and Gorbunov? It's simple. Gudkov was simply not on their team then.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter Gudkov Mikhail Ivanovich

An interesting historical moment: when Gorbunov and Lavochkin went to see Kaganovich (People's Commissar of Heavy Industry at that moment, was in charge of such questions), then Gudkov was already at his reception. All three were familiar from the time of training at the Moscow Aviation Institute (all three from the first graduation of this glorious university), that's why three of us entered the report. Although Gudkov had a completely different topic of the visit, he, like Lavochkin, supervised one of the aircraft factories.

Gorbunov told interestingly and vividly, and carried Kaganovich with the project. And the people's commissar decided, that all three are authors of the plane. A. Gudkov, also "lit up" by the creation of a fighter, asked classmates to take him to the team.

Generally, if you look seriously at Gudkov's work on LaGG and his independent projects, then we can confidently conclude that, that as a constructor he remained underestimated.

The triumvirate is lucky: for work on the aircraft they were sent to the plant, where he worked as chief engineer Leonty Iovich Ryzhkov - man, developed the technology for the manufacture of delta wood. That is, hot-pressing birch veneer, impregnated with an alcoholic solution of phenol-formaldehyde resin. The layers were glued together with VIAM-ZB glue.

Delta wood was used in aircraft construction, spar shelves were made from it, ribs, some nodes of the front of the fuselage. But not the whole plane, as they say today.

Initially, there was such a alignment: Lavochkin was engaged in design and technical documentation, as the author of the original project, Gorbunov general manager of works, Gudkov dealt with production issues.

Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 243 on the construction of 2 copies of the I-301 all-wood fighter («301» - by plant number) came out 29 August 1939 g. The first aircraft with the M-105TK engine was supposed to be built by February 1940 city, second, with M-106P engine - by May 1940 g.

Unfortunately, both aircraft were not built. more precisely, were not finally built.

First, with M-105TK, planned as a high-altitude fighter (to-be, not MiG-1), that's why the M-105 with the TK-2 turbocharger. The turbocharger could not be brought to the delivery level, the project stalled.

The second model also "did not take off". The reason for this was the motor again, M-106, which was also not brought to mass production. Eventually, the only thing, which was at the disposal of the designers - the M-105P.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

Tested prototypes of the aircraft actually in parallel with the I-26 (future Yak-1) Yakovlev. AND, naturally, compared to him. Both aircraft did not pass state tests due to their "dampness" and multiple failures. But also I-26, and I-301, were recommended for serial production for field tests.

The future LaGG had many drawbacks: heat in the cockpit, poor visibility forward and to the sides due to poor-quality glazing of the lantern, overheating of water and oil when climbing (in fairness worth noting, what if someone was warming up, so this is a Yakovlev plane), heavy loads on the handle from ailerons and elevator, insufficient longitudinal stability, maximum landing gear loads, lack of landing light and radio station.

But losing a little in speed and maneuver, where I-301 won, so it is in arms. 23-mm Taubin cannon and two synchronized heavy machine guns BS, and even the ability to install two ShKAS ...

I-26 with 20-mm ShVAK and two ShKAS was, to put it mildly, not a competitor.

It turned out, with proper fine-tuning, a very, very serious plane! In no way inferior to the Me-109F in terms of speed, and much superior in armament.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

But yes, the plane was dug up. And I put the blame for this on the People's Commissar of Aviation Shakhurin and the head of the Red Army Air Force Smushkevich. To whom a rather delusional thought about the urgent need to increase the aircraft's flight range to 1000 km, now we hardly know. But Shakhurin and Smushkevich puzzled the designers.

Meanwhile, this is a rather difficult task., especially since the installation, let us say, hanging tanks she then did not dare. by the way, go constructors this way, unknown, what would happen. But they added two caisson tanks to the fenders.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

As a result, the plane was able to fly 1000 km, but the flight performance was expectedly dropped. But the load on the chassis has increased, to which there were already claims.

So, properly, and LaGG-3 appeared, and LaGG-1 is the same machine, only three-turbo.

by the way, Yakovlev, whose I-26 had a range of 700 km (a hundred more), from its increase somehow managed to unscrew.

At the end 1940 g. Lavochkin, Gorbunov and Gudkov were awarded the 1st degree Stalin Prize for the creation of the I-301. For patience including. And the car went into series. And Smushkevich was arrested a year later and shot. On a very peculiar charge, including for "... a decrease in the combat training of the Red Army Air Force and an increase in the accident rate in the Air Force".

Perhaps I agree, these experiments on LaGG can be quite carried out under such an article.

Don't hide, that the plane came out more than strong, despite a completely wooden structure. At least, stronger than Yakovlevsky for sure. The case, of course, unprecedented, since after LaGG, wooden aircraft appeared in other countries, but they were definitely not so successful.

Don't use the British Mosquito as an example, it was not originally designed for mobile combat, and on that, to use the speed just to run away. And they did not make it from pine and birch, but from balsa, which was brought from South America. Yes, from this tree Thor Heyerdahl built his Kon-Tiki raft.

Everything else is wooden, including the Germans, at the end of the war it flew even more shameful.

One more hit is a cannon. Misfortune never comes alone, and Yakov Grigorievich Taubin, developer of the MP-6 cannon, for it, that did not meet the deadline for work on the gun, was arrested and subsequently shot.

So the armament of the aircraft of the first three series (while Lavochkin's team was urgently reworking the bow compartment for the placement of the ShVAK) consisted of five machine guns - one ammo (instead of a gun), two BS and two ShKAS.

Plus, the RSI-3 radio station began to be installed on the LaGG-3 of the first series «Eagle». Another plus is almost 20 kg.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

But the most unpleasant thing began with the start of mass production.. clear, that piece production in the OKB is always better than mass production. From parts, where new fighters were sent, complaints began to arrive in batches. The list was quite extensive:

- chassis struts broke (additional two fuel tanks);
- failures of mechanisms for retraction and landing gear (additional two fuel tanks);
- weapon failures;
- the planes clearly did not give out the declared speed (more on this below);
- suction by flow of landing flaps; 
- very limited view in the rear hemisphere; 
- tendency to stall into a spin at low speeds.

Strengthening the chassis elements and improving the weight distribution of the car added to the weight almost 100 kg. As a result of all the work, the maximum flight speed fell from 605 km / h to 550-555 kmh.

And then I will debunk one myth, more precisely, lies. Many iksperts today speak with aspiration, how the units hated LaGG-3 and called it "Lacquered Guaranteed Coffin". Well these are people, who only know how to lie and understand absolutely nothing on airplanes. I'm sorry, may be?

so here, when the I-301 first rolled out of the hangar into the light of day, then everyone liked the deep crimson color of the polished varnish on the wood. And the plane immediately received the nickname "Royale".

And about the "lacquered coffin" was invented by would-be writers from history. Think, dear readers, how long a dark red plane will last in a war? Correctly, not for long. But we didn't have idiots in the aviation industry! And Lavochkin, Gorbunov and Gudkov were specialists!

In short, in the air force the planes were not varnished, but painted. According to the palette of the Red Army Air Force. Yes, paint, unlike polished varnish, gobbled up about 10-15 kmh, but the plane did not sparkle for the entire universe.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

so, what we have, if you think about the facts well? We have a plane, which they diligently crushed. Moreover, the coffin was not made by the traitor designers., and bosses over designers and the existing order of affairs in the aviation industry.

It is customary to reproach the trinity of LaGG designers for, that they created such an underplane for the poor, wooden, squalid, not maneuverable, lightly armed and so on. In short, guaranteed coffin for the pilot. Meanwhile:

  • instead of engine power 1350 HP. I had to put the engine power 1050 hp;
  • the turbocharged engine was not ready either;
  • increase in the amount of fuel, a, Consequently, the entire mass of the aircraft by about 400 kg;
  • weakening of weapons (machine gun instead of a cannon);
  • reinforcement of the chassis due to the installation of fuel tanks;
  • using wood and delta wood instead of metal.

And who will you order here to blame? Lavochkin, Gorbunova, Gudkov or someone, who created all of the above list of problems?

So okay, with the beginning of the war, experiments continued! AND, by the way, they did not continue with the screwed up MiG-3, not with Yak-1, with whom everything was clear too, but for some reason only with LaGG-3.

But the son of three designers for some reason quite normally transferred his conversion from a fighter to a strike aircraft. Six launchers for RS-82? No problem. On the wings. Dragging. Bomb racks for wing roots or fuselage? We put DZ-40 and hang bombs on them: high explosives FAB-50, fragmentation AO-25M and FAB-50M or chemical HAB-25 and AOX-15, VAP-6M (poured aircraft device for chemical herb), ZAP-6 (incendiary, for phosphorus).

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

A little RS-82? Good, let's hang the RS-132. Why not hang, if LaGG drags? 

well yes, thank God, after all, the wing tanks were abandoned, five-tank aircraft after 1942 years only in Georgia did. But they immediately came up with suspended drop-off tanks on 100 liters.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

Dear readers,, you see a miserable "rusfaner" or "guaranteed coffin"? Personally, I am not. I see a plane, due to which we traveled in any inconvenient situation. Real war air worker.

And it was modernized and improved all the time., and the disintegrated triumvirate of designers did it independently of each other! All three worked to improve their plane like the damned!

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

I will give an example, so as not to be unfounded. Complaints about the aircraft were not always the real blunder of the designers or production workers. As practice has shown (and archives of the plant in Nizhny Novgorod), often the plane was simply misused. Many pilots in their memoirs talked about, how low our culture of servicing technology was.

for example, archive of plant number 21 in Nizhny Novgorod (then - Gorky) kept a complaint from the command of the 5th Guards IAP. spring 1942 g. the regiment commander wrote a report in which he indicated, that the maximum speed of LaGG-3 is less than the declared one by 50 kmh. Test pilot of the Air Force Research Institute Proshakov and lead engineer Rabkin urgently flew to the regiment.

The conclusion was as follows: the planes really didn't get the speed. The reason for this was the following revealed circumstances:

- flights with the sliding part of the cockpit removed; 
- installation in front of the frontal part of the canopy to reduce oil splashing; 
- metal grids are installed on the suction pipes of the motor supercharger air intakes to prevent dust from entering; 
- the pilots in flight put the damper of the water radiator in only two positions - fully open or completely closed;
- the pilots interviewed had little idea in what operating mode of the engine the aircraft develops maximum speed.

Conclusion of specialists: complete illiteracy and unpreparedness as a flight, so the technical staff of the guards regiment.

Of all the reasons, one was valid - an open canopy. Unfortunately, there was no emergency reset device on LaGG, and pilots, taught by the bitter experience of those, who could not open the lantern in time in a dive on a wrecked plane, it was not closed at all.

All other claims are a direct consequence of the unpreparedness of the regiment's personnel.

Fighting splashing of the canopy canopy should not have been by installing a self-made shield, stealing several kilometers of speed, but by replacing the corresponding gaskets and oil seals.

When you read and thoughtfully study such documents, you start to understand, that everyone mocked LaGG, who was not too lazy, from People's Commissar Shakhurin to Technician Petrov, who was too lazy to change the gasket on the screw hub. And he attached a visor from a piece of duralumin, aloud cursing those, who designed and assembled the plane.

And when we knew how to admit our mistakes, is not it? Especially if someone else can blame them.!

It is very surprising to read this:
«Flight characteristics of the plane LaGG-3 of the 66th series (maximum speed - 591 km / h and rate of climb - 893 meters per minute) allowed to fight on equal terms with the main German fighters of the eastern front Bf.109G-6 and Fw.190A-3. However, the LaGG-3 was still inferior to them in armament.».

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

Really? No kidding? Fighter 1940 years on an equal footing could fight the monster Fw.190A-3? Which had an injection motor, 1700 hp, and even with the afterburner? The Me.109G-6 has a little less - 1470 HP. And "on equal terms"? But this is the "coffin"!

And then "inferior in weapons" ... This is when the "Fokker" 4 20-mm guns and 2 gun? Or a 20-mm gun and 2 machine gun 13-mm at "Messer"?

Wonderful ... it's time to call the lawyers? So now in social networks those, whose opponents are called "corpses", which prove, that everything was no worse with us and not only were heaped with corpses ...

I represent the LaGG-3 team of lawyers. clear, who flew it not in a flight simulator.

combat aircraft: Lagg-3 fighter

Twice Heroes of the Soviet Union:

Nikolay Mikhailovich Skomorokhov
Pavel Yakovlevich Golovachev
Vasily Alexandrovich Zaitsev
Alexey Vasilievich Alelyukhin
Sergey Danilovich Lugansky
Pavel Mikhailovich Kamozin

Heroes of the Soviet Union:

Fedor Fedorovich Archipenko
Andrey Mikhailovich Kulagin
Georgy Dmitrievich Kostylev
Grigory Denisovich Onufrienko and even more 20 human, flying on LaGG-3.

Kostylev and Kulagin are generally record holders, shot down on LaGGe by 28 and 26 enemy aircraft respectively.

Many iksperts will grumble, they say, and how many were shot down by the Germans, and how many could not become Heroes and so on. The usual liberal snot.

And the same, how many infantrymen died in the first attack. Percentage. This is war. Someone could, some don't. A matter of skill and luck.

It's very easy to blame everything on a "bad" plane. And in fact, obtained, he was not like that. He was spoiled by everyone, sundry, and he continued to be a combat aircraft and carried out his service until the end of the war. Yes, not in the main direction, in air defense, on the Karelian front against the Finns, but nonetheless.

I highly recommend those, who is not familiar (link at the end), read the memoirs of Air Marshal Nikolai Skomorokhov "Fighter lives in combat". There, can, and some, but attention is paid to this car, where senior sergeant Skomorokhov began his combat path. And try to find at least one word about, that the car is bad.

It's not even, what was then "not accepted to find fault", no. Just Comrade Marshal, when I saw fit, called things by their proper names. And in our case ... In our case, he flew and won his first victories on the LaGG-3.

All those, who reached the end of the story.

History is a very slippery thing. It is very easy to take and stick the "coffin" label on the plane, who just had absolutely no luck with the situation. But he remained a warplane in the hands of those, who fought on it. And those who criticize and label, who usually have no idea about the army, I don't even stutter about flights. Well, so we have the custom.

As a result. What was the LaGG-3, "Tomb" or "piano", you can't say for sure. This was our plane at that time. I can not tell, that he was better than opponents or foreign colleagues, no. He was that plane, which our designers were able to create at that time in the existing conditions.

It was a car, which allowed to fight, and fight effectively. Yes, to 1943 year LaGG-3 is really outdated, but the same fate befell the Yak-1, and MiG-3. That's just until the end of the war, if they survived, somewhere in spare shelves.

And LaGG-3 reached. Now tell me yourself, he was bad or what?

——————————

sources:
— https://www.litmir.me/bd/?b=47373
— http://airwar.ru/enc/fww2/lagg1.html

/Roman Skomorokhov, topwar.ru/

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