Lavochkin La-7
The Lavochkin La-7 was a Soviet single-seat piston fighter of the Second World War, the final development of the La-5 and of a design family dating to 1938. Aerodynamic refinement and metal wing spars made it faster than the La-5FN on the same Shvetsov ASh-82FN engine, and it entered Soviet service in 1944, fighting through the last year of the war in Europe; 5,753 were built. Czechoslovakia was the only export operator, and the type is closely associated with the Soviet ace Ivan Kozhedub.
Why It Mattered
The La-7 was the final wartime development of the Lavochkin bureau's piston-fighter line, the last in a family that had begun with the LaGG-1 in 1938. It entered service with the Soviet Air Forces late in 1944, in time for the final campaigns in Europe, and the pilots who flew it felt it to be at least the equal of any German piston-engined fighter. Its reputation rests partly on who flew it: Ivan Kozhedub, the top Soviet ace of the war, scored his last 17 air victories in the type in 1945.
Design Notes
In mid-1943 the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI) refined its earlier studies of aerodynamic improvements for the La-5 and applied them to a production La-5FN: the engine cowling was completely sealed, the oil cooler rearranged within the wing center section, and the engine air intake relocated. Tested that winter, the modified aircraft used the same engine as the standard La-5FN yet flew markedly faster. Lavochkin began his own improved version in January 1944, adding lighter, stronger metal wing spars in place of wood now that alloy supplies had eased. His aircraft moved the intake to the wing roots, streamlined the wing–fuselage fillets and fitted a new propeller. The prototype carried three 20 mm Berezin B-20 cannon, but that gun was not ready, so production aircraft retained the two 20 mm ShVAK cannon of the La-5; aircraft fitted with three B-20 cannon began production in January 1945.
Operational History
Combat trials began in mid-September 1944, when the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment took 30 aircraft to support the 1st Baltic Front. In a month the regiment flew 462 sorties and claimed 55 aerial victories, losing four aircraft in combat and four more to non-combat causes, mostly engine trouble. Its commander reported that the La-7 surpassed the La-5FN in speed and manoeuvrability, but called for changes to its armament and urgent fixing of its engine. Dust drawn into the low wing-root intakes caused repeated engine failures, and a batch of defective wings caused six accidents in October 1944, four of them fatal, and the fighter was grounded until the cause was found. Even so, numbers built quickly: 398 La-7s were in front-line service on 1 January 1945 and 967 by the end of the war in Europe, and 313 were assigned for the invasion of Japanese Manchuria that August. The type is credited with one of the war's rare jet kills — Kozhedub is reported to have downed an Me 262 while flying an La-7. Czechoslovakia received 56 aircraft for its 1st and 2nd Fighter Regiments; most arrived in 1945, saw no combat, and served until 1950 as the S-97. Across three factories, production totaled 5,753 aircraft.
Afterlife
The La-7 left Soviet service quickly once the war ended: it was phased out in 1947, although aircraft still in service after the war were given the NATO reporting name Fin. Its follow-on, the La-9, looked much the same but was a completely new design. Only two La-7s are known to survive, both on static display. At the Central Air Force Museum in Monino, outside Moscow, is the aircraft numbered 27, flown by Ivan Kozhedub and reported to be the machine in which he scored his final victories. The other survivor is at the Prague Aviation Museum in Kbely: a former Czechoslovak aircraft that was operated by a Czech regiment in late 1945 and now wears a paint scheme representing a Czechoslovak Eastern Front aircraft of spring 1945.