Whilst the Lavochkin bureau is one of the less well known of the Soviet aircraft design teams, it was at the forefront of the Soviet supersonic jet fighter programme from the late 1940s onwards and produced a number of very interesting aircraft. The first of Lavochkin’s jet fighters was the La-15. This was a fantail, single-seat swept-wing jet interceptor fighter, which was a less successful contemporary of the MiG-15, despite being more technically advanced. It was a development of the La-172, and was initially known as the La-174D. About 500 were built, less than originally planned because of production problems. They were in use until 1954.
Further development occurred leading to the last aircraft in the sequence to be designed, the La-250 Anakonda, which appeared in 1956/57. This was a deltawinged long-range all-weather interceptor. This was a very large aircraft even though it lost out in competition to the even bigger Tu-28. The La-250 was designed to fly long-range missions at high altitude, armed with two large missiles. Four of the aircraft were built. It was nicknamed ‘Anakonda’ on account of its long narrow fuselage. After the first aircraft crashed, as a result of poor visibility from the cockpit causing early ground touch during landing, the noses of the three remaining planes were lowered by 6 degrees.
The book deals with all known variants of the various Lavochkin’s jet aircraft designs featured. As always, the book has been researched in Soviet archives and is well illustrated with numerous photos and line drawings. This welcome addition to a very successful and ground-breaking series will also be sought by all those interested in Soviet jet aircraft design in the early Cold War era and by aviation modellers keen for source material on Soviet aircraft types of the period.
The ‘Red Star’ series has developed into a comprehensive library of volumes detailing the development of Soviet and Russian aircraft from World War 2 through to the 21st century. The series has become required reading for all those interested in the history of aviation and, in particular, the development of Soviet aircraft types before, during and after the Cold War. The first volume in the ‘Red Star’ series scheduled for publication in 2007 covers the last jet aircraft designs produced by the Lavochkin design bureau.
Title: Lavockin's Last Jets (Red Star 32)
Author: Yefim Gordon
Format: PB 128 pages
Publisher: Midland Publishing
Pub date: April 2007
ISBN 10: 1857802535
ISBN 13: 9781857802535
List Price: £19.99
