Lavochkin La-7

The Lavochkin La-7 was a Soviet fighter developed during World War II. It was a development and refinement of the Lavochkin La-5, and the last in a family of aircraft that had begun with the LaGG-1 in 1938.

The 63rd Guard Fighter Aviation Corps began combat trials of the La-7 in mid-September 1944 in support of the 1st Baltic Front. Thirty aircraft were provided for the trials, which lasted one month. During this time the new fighters made 462 individual sorties and claimed 55 aerial victories while losing four aircraft in combat. Four other La-7s were lost to non-combat causes, mostly related to engine problems. A total of three pilots were killed during the trials to all causes.

One regimental commander, Colonel Ye. Gorbatyuk, a Hero of the Soviet Union, commented: "The La-7 exhibited unquestionable advantages over German aircraft in multiple air combats. In addition to fighter tasks, photo reconnaissance and bombing were undertaken with success. The aircraft surpasses the La-5FN in speed, manoeuverability, and, especially, in the landing characteristics. It requires changes in its armament, and urgent fixing of its engine." The twin ShVAK armament inherited from the La-5 was no longer powerful enough to bring down later, more heavily armored German fighters, especially the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, in a single burst, even when Soviet pilots opened fire at ranges of only 50–100 meters (160–330 ft).

The La-7 ended the superiority in vertical maneuverability that the Messerschmitt Bf 109G had previously enjoyed over other Soviet fighters. Furthermore, it was fast enough at low altitudes to catch, albeit with some difficulties, Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bombers that attacked Soviet units on the frontlines and immediately headed for German-controlled airspace at full speed. The Yakovlev Yak-3 and the Yakovlev Yak-9U with the Klimov VK-107 engine lacked a large enough margin of speed to overtake the German raiders. Only 115 La-7s were lost in air combat, only half the number of Yak-3s.

Production of the La-7 amounted to 5,753 aircraft, plus 584 La-7UTI trainers. Those aircraft still in service after the end of the war were given the NATO reporting name Fin.

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 8.6 m (28 ft 3 in)
• Wingspan: 9.8 m (32 ft 2 in)
• Height: 2.54 m (8 ft 4 in)
• Wing area: 17.59 m2 (189.3 sq ft)
• Gross weight: 3,315 kg (7,308 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Shvetsov ASh-82FN 14-cylinder, two-row, air-cooled radial, 1,096 kW
• Propellers: 3-bladed VISh-105V-4

Performance

• Maximum speed: 661 km/h (411 mph; 357 kn) @ 6,000 meters (19,685 ft)
• Range: 665 km (413 mi; 359 nmi) (1944 model)
• Service ceiling: 10,450 m (34,285 ft)
• Time to altitude: 5.3 minutes to 5,000 meters (16,404 ft)

Armament

• 2 × 20 mm ShVAK cannons with 200 rounds per gun
• 3 × 20 mm Berezin B-20 cannons with 100 rpg
• 200 kg (440 lb) of bombs

** Lavochkin La-7 - Warbird Fare

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Yakovlev Yak-3

The Yakovlev Yak-3 was a World War II Soviet fighter aircraft. Robust and easy to maintain, was much liked by pilots and ground crew alike. It was one of the smallest and lightest major combat fighters fielded by any combatant during the war, and its high power-to-weight ratio gave it excellent performance. It proved a formidable dogfighter. Marcel Albert, the official top-scoring World War II French ace that flew the Yak in USSR with the Normandie-Niémen Group, regarded it a superior aircraft to the P-51D Mustang and to the Supermarine Spitfire. After the war ended, it flew with the Czech and Polish Air Forces.

Lighter and smaller than Yak-9 but powered by the same engine, the Yak-3 was a forgiving, easy-to-handle aircraft loved by both rookie and veteran pilots and ground crew as well. It was a robust, easy to maintain and a highly successful dogfighter. It was used mostly as a tactical fighter, flying low over battlefields and engaging in dogfights below 13,000 ft.

In 1944, the Normandie-Niemen Group re-equipped with the Yak-3, scoring with it the last 99 of their 273 air victories against the Luftwaffe. Production accelerated rapidly, so that by mid-1946, 4,848 had been built.


Specifications

• Crew: 1
• Length: 8.5 m (27 ft 10 in)
• Wingspan: 9.2 m (30 ft 2 in)
• Height: 2.39 m (7 ft 11 in)
• Wing area: 14.85 m² (159.8 ft²)
• Empty weight: 2,105 kg (4,640 lb)
• Loaded weight: 2,692 kg (5,864 lb)
• Powerplant: 1× Klimov VK-105PF-2 V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine, 1,120 kW

Performance

• Maximum speed: 655 km/h (407 mph)
• Range: 650 km (405 miles)
• Service ceiling: 10,700 m (35,000 ft)
• Rate of climb: 18.5 m/s (3,645 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 181 kg/m² (36.7 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 0.36 kW/kg (0.22 hp/lb)

Armament

• 1 × 20 mm ShVAK cannon,
• 2 × 12.7 mm Berezin UBS machine guns

** Yakovlev Yak-3 - Warbird Fare

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Polikarpov I-16

The Polikarpov I-16 was a Soviet fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it was the world's first cantilever-winged monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear. The I-16 was introduced in the mid-1930s and formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of World War II. The diminutive fighter prominently featured in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Battle of Khalkhin Gol and the Spanish Civil War where it was called the Rata (Rat) by the Nationalists or Mosca (Fly) by the Republicans. The Finnish nickname for I-16 was Siipiorava ("Flying Squirrel").

While working on the Polikarpov I-15 biplane, Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov began designing an advanced monoplane fighter. It featured cutting-edge innovations such as retractable landing gear and a fully enclosed cockpit, and was optimized for speed with a short stubby fuselage and a Wright Cyclone radial engine in a NACA cowling. The aircraft was small, light and simple to build.

Service trials of the new fighter, designated I-16, began on 22 March 1934. The M-22 prototype reached 359 km/h (223 mph). The manually-retracted landing gear was prone to jamming and required considerable strength from the pilot. Most of the test flights were performed with the gear extended. On 1 May 1934, the M-22 prototype participated in the flyover of the Red Square. Approximately 30 I-16 Type 1 aircraft were delivered, but were not assigned to any V-VS fighter squadron. Most pilots who flew the I-16 Type 1 for evaluation purposes did not find the aircraft to have many redeeming characteristics. Regardless of pilot opinion, much attention was focused on the Cyclone powered aircraft and the M-25 (the license built Cyclone). On 14 April 1934, the Cyclone prototype was damaged when one of the landing gear legs collapsed while it was taxiing. A total of 7,005 single-seat and 1,639 two-seat trainer variants were produced.

General characteristics

• Crew: One
• Length: 6.13 m (20 ft 1 in)
• Wingspan: 9 m (29 ft 6 in)
• Height: 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in)
• Wing area: 14.5 m² (156.1 ft²)
• Empty weight: 1,490 kg (3,285 lb)
• Loaded weight: 1,941 kg (4,279 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 2,095 kg (4,619 lb)
• Powerplant: 1× Shvetsov M-63 supercharged air-cooled radial engine, 820 kW (1,100 hp)
• Propeller: two-blade propeller

Performance

• Maximum speed: 525 km/h (283 kn, 326 mph) at 3,000 m (9,845 ft)
• Range: 700 km (378 nmi, 435 mi (with drop tanks))
• Service ceiling: 9,700 m (31,825 ft)
• Rate of climb: 14.7 m/s (2,900 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 134 kg/m² (27 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 346 W/kg (0.21 hp/lb)
• Rate of climb: 5.8 minutes to 5,000 m (16,405 ft)

Armament

• 2 × fixed forward-firing 7.62 mm (0.30 in) ShKAS machine guns in upper cowling
• 2 × fixed forward-firing 20 mm (0.79 in) ShVAK cannons in the wings
• 6 × unguided RS-82 rockets or up to 500 kg (1,102 lb) of bombs

** Polikarpov I-16 - Warbird Fare

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Ilyushin IL-4

The Ilyushin Il-4 was a Soviet World War II bomber aircraft, widely used by the Soviet Air Force (VVS, Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily) although not well known. Its NATO code-name was "Bob".

The Il-4 started life as a quickly produced bomber prototype called the TsKB-26. Parts of the fuselage and cockpit were taken from the TsKB-12 (Polikarpov I-16) fighter, married to new wings made of welded steel U-beams and tubes. Only a few were built before attention turned to the updated TsKB-30, which included a new fuselage using the same construction methods. Welding the beams required three welds per joint, so the plane took a huge amount of time to build. Nevertheless the design had excellent range and was quite sturdy. It was put into production in 1936 as the DB-3, 1,528 being completed by 1939.

Although the Il-4 was only a medium bomber, it had the range to be used on strategic missions. The VVS wasn't terribly interested in this role, but nevertheless the Il-4 was used on several highly publicized raids against Berlin. Most would be used on much shorter range missions, often adding another 1,000 kg (2,204 lb) of bombs under the wings, in addition to the internal 2,500 kg (5,512 lb).

Finland bought four captured DB-3Fs from German stocks. These were given the Finnish Air Force serials DF-22 to DF-25 and flown from Bryansk, Russia to Finland (one aircraft, DF-22, was destroyed en route and crashed near Syeschtschinskaya airfield). The aircraft were later flown by No. 48 Sqn during 1943 (DF-23, DF-24 and DF-25), No. 46 Sqn during 1944 (DF-23 and DF-24) and No. 45 Sqn for a short time in 1945 (DF-23), until the last remaining serviceable aircraft went into depot, February 23 1945.

General characteristics

• Crew: 4
• Length: 14.80 m (48 ft 6.75 in)
• Wingspan: 21.44 m (70 ft 4.5 in)
• Height: 4.10 m (13 ft 5.5 in)
• Wing area: 66.7 m² (718 ft²)
• Empty weight: 5,800 kg (12,787 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 11,300 kg (24,912 lb)
• Powerplant: 2× Tumansky M-88B radial engines, 820 kW (1,100 hp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 430 km/h (232 kn, 267 mph)
• Range: 3,800 km (2,052 nmi, 2,361 mi)
• Service ceiling: 9,700 m (31,825 ft)

Armament

• 2 × 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns
• 1 × 12.7 mm Berezin UB machine gun
• 2,500 kg (5,500 lb) of bombs or mines.
• 1 × 940 kg (2,072 lb) 45-36-AN or 45-36-AV torpedo.
• 2 × BETAB-750DS 305 mm rockets.

** Ilyushin IL-4 - Warbird Fare

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Ilyushin IL-2 Shturmovik

The Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik was a ground attack aircraft (Shturmovik) in the Second World War, produced by the Soviet Union in very large numbers. In combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330 were built, making it the single most produced military aircraft design in all of aviation history, as well as one of the most produced piloted aircraft in history along with the Cessna 172 and the Polikarpov Po-2. It is regarded as the best ground attack aircraft of World War 2. It was a prominent aircraft for tank killing with its accuracy in dive bombing and its 37mm guns penetrating their thin back armor.

To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was simply the diminutive "Ilyusha". To the soldiers on the ground, it was the "Hunchback," the "Flying Tank" or the "Flying Infantryman". Its postwar NATO reporting name was "Bark". The Il-2 aircraft played a crucial role on the Eastern Front, and in Soviet opinion it was the most decisive aircraft in the history of modern land warfare. Joseph Stalin paid the Il-2 a great tribute in his own inimitable manner: when a particular production factory fell behind on its deliveries, Stalin sent an angrily-worded cable to the factory manager, stating "They are as essential to the Red Army as air and bread."

The IL-2 is a single-engine, propeller driven, low-wing monoplane of mixed construction with a crew of two (one in early version), specially designed for assault operations. The most notable design feature of the aircraft was the inclusion of armor in an airframe load-bearing scheme. Armour-plates replaced the frame and paneling throughout the nasal and middle part of the fuselage. An armored hull made of riveted homogeneous armor steel AB-1 (AB-2), secured the aircraft’s engine, cockpit, water and oil radiators, and fuel tanks.

The idea for a Soviet armored ground-attack aircraft dates to the early 1930s, when Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich designed TSh-1 and TSh-2 armored biplanes. However, Soviet engines at the time lacked the power needed to provide the heavy aircraft with good performance. Il-2 was designed by Sergey Ilyushin and his team at the Central Design Bureau in 1938. TsKB-55 was a two-seat aircraft with an armoured shell weighing 700 kg (1,540 lb), protecting crew, engine, radiators, and the fuel tank. Standing loaded, the Ilyushin weighed more than 4,700 kg (10,300 lb), making the armoured shell about 15% of the aircraft's gross weight. Uniquely for a World War II attack aircraft, the armor was designed as a load-bearing part of the Ilyushin's monocoque structure, thus saving considerable weight. The prototype TsKB-55, which first flew on October 2, 1939, won the government competition against Sukhoi Su-6 and received VVS designation BSh-2. The prototypes - TsKB-55 and TskB-57 - were built at Moscow plant #39, which was the base for Ilyushin design bureau at that time.

The BSh-2 was overweight and underpowered, with the original Mikulin AM-35 1,022 kW (1,370 hp) engine designed to give highest power outputs at high altitude. Because of this it was redesigned as the TsKB-57, a lighter single-seat design, with the more powerful 1,254 kW (1,680 hp) Mikulin AM-38 engine, a development of the AM-35 optimised for low level operation. The TsKB-57 first flew on 12 October 1940. The production aircraft passed State Acceptance Trials in March 1941, and was redesignated Il-2 in April. Deliveries to operational units commenced in May 1941.


General Characteristics

• Crew: Two, pilot and rear gunner
• Length: 11.6 m (38 ft 1 in)
• Wingspan: 14.6 m (47 ft 11 in)
• Height: 4.2 m (13 ft 9 in)
• Wing area: 38.5 m² (414 ft²)
• Empty weight: 4,360 kg (9,612 lb)
• Loaded weight: 6,160 kg (13,580 lb)
• Powerplant: 1× Mikulin AM-38F liquid-cooled V-12, 1,285 kW (1,720 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 414 km/h (257 mph)
• Range: 720 km (450 mi)
• Service ceiling: 5,500 m (18,045 ft)
• Rate of climb: 10.4 m/s (2,050 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 160 kg/m² (31.3 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 0.21 kW/kg (0.13 hp/lb)

Armament

• 2 × fixed forward-firing 23 mm caliber VYa-23 cannons, 150 rpg
• 2 × fixed forward-firing 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns, 750 rpg
• 1 × manually aimed 12.7 mm Berezin UBT machine gun the in rear cockpit, 150 rounds
• 600 kg (1,320 lb) of bombs and/or 8 × RS-82 rockets or 4 × RS-132 rockets

** Ilyushin IL-2 Shturmovik - Warbird Fare

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