Soviet Aircraft in WWII

4. SOVIET COMBAT AIRCRAFT - VOLUME ONE
Contents
OKBs Data Tables
Introduction 6 Bereznyak-Isaev 15 A Lavochkin 174
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Bisnovat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 B Mikoyan-Gurevich 175
Notes 13 Borovkov-Frolov 18 C Polikarpov Biplanes 175
Colour Profiles 180 Gudkov 20 D Polikarpov Monoplanes 176
Type Index 183 Ilyushin 20 E Other Fighter Types 177
Kozlov 22 F Yakovlev Fighters of the First Half
Lavochkin 22 of the Second World War 177
Mikoyan-Gurevich 64 G Yakovlev Fighters of the Second Half
Nikitin 84 of the Second World War 178
Pashinin 86
Polikarpov 86
Silvansky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Sukhoi 119
Tomashevich 121
Yakovlev 122
Yatsenko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
5

5. SOVIET COMBAT AIRCRAFT - VOLUME ONE
Introduction
BILL GUNSTON
aBE FRAeS
Stalin's domain was a fairly closed society. Dmitri Khazanov have had the benefit not Well-known, but very evocative, state information
The rest of the world had little idea of what only of long experience studying Soviet air- photograph, showing 'Soviet fighter planes on an
airfield'. MiG-3s in a variety of colour schemes.
went on in the Soviet Union, and even after craft but also of access to the archives of the Philip Jarrett collection
Operation Barbarossa - the invasion by Nazi various design bureaux. Even after the col-
Germany on 22nd June 1941 which launched lapse of the rigid Soviet system in 1990 quite a
what the Soviet Union called The Great Patri- few errors persisted where Soviet aircraft emigrated. The few that were left were organ-
otic War - for several months nearly all the in- were concerned. ised into groups called an OKS (experimental
formation on Soviet aircraft was gleaned from construction bureau), administered by the
propaganda material put out by the German Soviet aviation centralised Glavkoavia, from 1939 renamed
enemy. Checking through a 1941 volume of One of the few things that the outside world the MAP (Ministry of Aviation Industry). De-
The Aeroplane Spotter I found only one pho- did know about Soviet aviation was that in a spite the word 'construction', the real pur-
tograph of a modern Soviet aircraft that had Communist state there were no 'companies'. pose of these bureaux was to design aircraft.
not been captured by the enemy. It showed a I apologise for retracing what may be familiar If they had the facilities, they also built proto-
MiG-3. Never having heard of such an aircraft, ground, but the system was so unlike that in types of their designs.
the caption-writer said it was an '1-18 ... armed other countries that it may need to be ex- Each bureau was allocated a few technical
with eight machine guns'! plained yet again. staff and a larger number of mostly unskilled
Today we can put such nonsense behind In the early days of the Soviet state several workers. Everyone, especially senior design-
us. In compiling this book Yefim Gordon and of the most experienced aircraft designers ers, was allocated to a particular OKS, but to a
6

6. INTRODUCTION
very limited degree individuals could choose production capacity. After 1934 some of the almost all the Luftwaffe's bombers. Hitler
to work elsewhere. largest new factories were built far to the East, never intended to make his armies march
These bureaux undertook hardly any re- in such places as Irkutsk, Gorkii, Rybinsk, 5,000 miles across Siberia to the Pacific. His
search. That was left to centralised establish- Khabarovsk and Novosibirsk. However, on reason for attacking the Soviet Union was in
ments, such as the Central Aviation and 22nd June 1941 very few of these new plants order to take over the oil-producing region of
Hydrodynamics Institute (which had wind had been completed. More than 900/0 of the Azerbaijan. He then intended to set up a
tunnels) and the Central Institute of Aviation Soviet aircraft industry was still in European guarded frontier on or West of the Urals, and
Motors. Even more surprisingly, not only did Russia, and by 1943 almost every factory ex- then carry on the war against Britain.
the OKBs not build aircraft in quantity but they cept those within the cities of Moscow and We British thought he would be able to ac-
had almost no say in where the aircraft they Leningrad had been overrun by the Germans. complish this. To quote the 'The Spotter'
had designed were built. If an aircraft was Thus, of the aircraft in this book that finally again, on 3rd July 1941 it said 'While the Luft-
deemed worthy of being made in quantity - in made it to production before June 1941, al- waffe is primarily occupied on the Russian
some cases after competitive trials between most every type was held back by the need to front, an immediate invasion of this country
rival prototypes - the MAP would arrange for it evacuate the factory and re-establish produc- does not seem likely. Such a state of affairs
to be put into production at a selected GAl tion east of the Urals. The effort this entailed cannot be expected to last. .. there seems lit-
(State Aviation Factory) can be left to the imagination. It was not a tle doubt that Germany will be able to turn
Stalin was intensely concerned with mod- case of simply loading everything on trucks from Russia to the one other remaining front
ern weapons, such as aircraft. He took a close and driving off. East of Moscow most of the in Europe before the autumn is far ad-
personal interest in their design, and in the roads petered out and became mere tracks, vanced ... We must be prepared to meet and
designers. Though he was a hard man to thick mud in summer and rock-hard rutted defeat the full fury of the German onslaught,
work for, and often thought that designers ice in winter. Most of the evacuated factories turned from the East to the West. .. '
would work harder if they were put in prison, and OKBs found that they had been allocated This pessimistic belief stemmed from the
he did try to give the WS (air force) the best an unsuitable existing building, or a fine new colossal German victories of the first week of
aircraft, and he did try to build up the USSR's factory that was not yet half-finished. Barbarossa, which transcended anything
Once the evacuated design teams and the seen before in warfare. They strongly re-
production factories had actually been able inforced the previously-held opinion in West-
The I-15bis, continued development of the biplane
to resume work they had one big advantage. ern countries that Soviet weapons might be
fighter, but there was more to come from The Soviet Union was a gigantic country, and available in impressive quantity, but that they
Polikarpov. Philip Jarrett collection the new locations were beyond the reach of were generally inferior and obsolete.
7

7. SOVIET COMBAT AIRCRAFT - VOLUME ONE
Polikarpov's 1-153 could pose quite a handful to a
Bf 109E pilot. Philip Jarrett collection
Even the pilots often had only a rudimenta-
ry idea of how engines and aircraft systems
actually worked, and this handicap was
accentuated in the Great Patriotic War. Most
of the shattering losses in the first two weeks
were sustained not in air combat but on the
ground. This usually left the pilot intact but
unemployed, but such was the Luftwaffe's
command of the air that by 1942 over 70% of
the pre-war pilots had been killed or cap-
tured. WS flying training schools found the
only way they could cope with demand was
by shortening the period of instruction (this
policy was fairly soon reversed).
In general the Soviet fighters were not de-
signed for inexperienced pilots, and indeed
The requirements This posed severe problems to aircraft with were particularly challenging. Accordingly, by
Though Czarist Russia was home to a large liquid-cooled engines, and to the lubrication any standard the number of serious accidents
number of pioneer designers, in the 1920s of every moving part. It also meant that in win- was unacceptable.
most aircraft in the Soviet Union were of for- ter any aircraft, even a fighter, might have to
eign origin. Even those in production were to operate on skis. Aircraft design
a large extent based on foreign designs. How- Consideration of landing gear was made Any objective study of the aircraft in this book
ever, to a far greater extent than the outside more difficult by the fact that in a land war the must make it clear that the Soviet designers
world realised, these early types were re- battlefront is unlikely to stay in the same did not, as was commonly supposed by West-
placed by aircraft of totally Soviet design. place. Even the unique experience of static ern observers in June 1941, merely copy the
Though obviously constrained by the avail- trench warfare in the First World War did not creations of their foreign counterparts. Whilst
able engines - and to a considerable degree blind the Soviet commanders to this fact. In pursuing all the expected configurations, So-
the engines that were available for front line the Great Patriotic War the front often moved viet designers tried many others. For exam-
service did remain derivatives of foreign de- 30 miles (48km) in a day, and altogether ple, the Kozlov EI had a variable-incidence
signs even to the end of the Great Patriotic moved East 1,000 miles (1,600km) and then wing, and the Nikitin IS family had retractable
War - the Soviet designers were forced to cre- back again. In such an environment all com- lower wings. Several fighter prototypes had
ate aircraft able to meet a particularly chal- bat aircraft had to be able to operate from booster rockets (two, the La-7R and Su-7, are
lenging set of requirements. Merely copying hastily prepared airfields. featured here) and the BI rocket interceptor
Western aircraft would have been shortsight- Between September 1941 and April 1945 had no parallel elsewhere except the much
ed, as proved by the fact that many British and the WS construction battalions created 8,545 more tricky and dangerous Me 163 Komel.
American aircraft supplied in 1941-44 proved front line airfields (in addition to over 1,300 Polikarpov's last aircraft, left incomplete at
unable to stand up to the environment. much better ones elsewhere in the Soviet his death, was the Malyutka (little one), an at-
From its birth, the Soviet state was preoc- Union). Usually the surface of the front-line tractive rocket-engined fighter. Perhaps even
cupied by the idea of attack by a hostile neigh- airfield was grass, sand or earth, often freshly more advanced in technology, ramjet en-
bour (as indeed happened). The entire cleared of scrub or even trees. Over vast areas gines were tested on several Soviet fighters,
country was divided into Military Districts, the surface in summer was soft mud or bog, including the La-7PVRD included here.
and the Commander of each was an army of- and over four million straight treetrunks were The authors deliberately confined them-
ficer with authority over all arms in that re- used to make runways. Such surfaces were selves in this book to types that were actually
gion. The WS (air force) was thus from the too severe for Western fighters, such as the built. Had they included unbuilt projects they
outset seen as an adjunct to the army and Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire (the Bell P-39 could have added many more that nobody
other ground forces. Indeed, in the 1920s the Airacobra was a welcome exception). could ever have said were the result of plagia-
first Soviet air operations were in support of A major problem was the fact that in 1941- rism. For example, Belyayev's never-com-
forces brought against internal rebels, notably 44 more than two million men and women pleted EOI seated the pilot in a totally glazed
in Turkestan. Thus, the primary mission was joined the WS in various ground duties. A few nose with the engine behind him. Moskalyev,
close air support of ground troops. Air opera- had experience with trucks and tractors, but who had in 1935 actually flown his complete-
tions became polarised around the idea of a most had no technical training whatsoever. ly tail-less SAM-7 Sigma, almost completed
battlefront. Despite sustained attempts to rectify this situ- the push/pull SAM-13 (which had a tail) be-
Where fighters were concerned, the pri- ation, it had always been taken for granted fore having to evacuate to Omsk.
mary requirements were seen as speed, rate that the general level of training of servicing In 1941 the most experienced Soviet fighter
of climb and, especially, manoeuvrability in personnel would be extremely basic. Even as designer was Nikolay Polikarpov. In the mid-
close combat. Where Soviet aircraft differed late as 1943 many aircraft were unwittingly 1930s WS fighter pilots were no different
from most others was in the environment. rendered unserviceable by 'brute force and from those in other countries in liking agile bi-
Nowhere else might fighters have to operate ignorance' methods, and the basic design of planes with open cockpits, and hating mono-
in ambient temperatures ranging from 40° the aircraft always had to bear this possibility planes with enclosed cockpits. Caught in the
(104°F) in summer to -50° (-58°F) in winter. in mind. middle, our Nikolay did himself no favours by
8

8. INTRODUCTION
creating, in the TsKB-12, which led to the 1-16, particular national characteristics incorporat- These figures inevitably suggest that, having
an unnecessarily tricky monoplane. He prob- ed. These are examined under the following massive engines in small airframes, the Sovi-
ably was influenced by Boeing's P-26, which subheadings. et fighters must have had poor manoeuvrabil-
was tricky enough, but I can't help feeling one ity, very high take-off and landing speeds
only had to give the 1-16 a single glance to say Airframe (implying the need for a long run) and very
'Not for me!' Half a century later designers It seems common sense for a fighter designer short radius of action, suffering all these
began deliberately to create fighters that 60 years ago to have made his airframe the penalties in order to achieve fantastic speed.
were longitudinally unstable, but in 1933 such smallest possible structure that could still To some degree this assessment was indeed
aircraft were liable to crash, even without the house the engine, fuel, pilot and armament. true of the MiG, but the Lavochkin and the
assistance of an enemy. This tendency showed in Soviet fighters more Yakovlev had excellent manoeuvrability, and
In parallel, Polikarpov continued with his than in any other country. Of course, there could operate from the same kind of front line
biplane fighters, and took this technology fur- were a few exceptions, but in general the air- airstrip as any other wartime fighters.
ther than in any other country. Versions of his craft in this book were characterised by big Moreover, the most surprising thing is that,
1-153 not only had retractable landing gear but engines in small airframes. despite bolting huge engines into small air-
also 20mm cannon, rockets, a turbosuper- To get a lot of information into a small frames, the Soviet fighters were if anything
charger and a pressurised cockpit, though space the following table compares some slower than average. Of the aircraft picked
not all at once on the same aircraft! In the mass-produced Soviet fighters with impor- out for comparison, the slowest was the
hands of a skilled and aggressive pilot, the Po- tant counterparts in other countries. Japanese A6M, which at its best height could
likarpov 1-153 could pose quite a handful to reach 351 mph (564krn/h). This is because it
the pilot of a Messerschmitt Bf 109E, and was had the least powerful engine. At their opti-
Soviet Fighters and their Contemporaries
far superior to the Italian Fiat CR.42 which mum altitudes the three Soviet fighters had
stayed in production even longer. maximum speeds of 397, 375 and 401mph
Engine Capacity Wing Area
Despite the attractions of the biplane, by (638, 603 and 645km/h), whereas the Spitfire
in] (li/res) ff (m 2)
1935 it was fast becoming accepted all over IX and P-51 D reached 408 and 437mph (656
the world that the way to design a fighter was MiG-3 2,847 (46.66) 187.7 (17.43) and 703krn/h) respectively. This matter is dis-
to put the most powerful available engine in Spitfire 1,649 (27.0) 242.2 (22.5) cussed later under the heading 'Engines'.
the front of the fuselage, driving a tractor pro- La-S 2,514 (41.2) 186.0 (17.27)
peller, and put a monoplane wing in the low A6M 'Zero' 1,696 (27.8) 241.5 (22.43)
position, with an enclosed cockpit above the Yak-3 2,142 (35.1) 160.0 (14.86) The 1-16 took the Polikarpov small fighter
trailing edge. The vast majority of Soviet P-Sl Mustang 1,649 (27.0) 233.0 (21.64) formula into monoplane format, with equal
wartime fighters adopted this layout, but with success. Philip Jarrett collection
9

9. SOVIET COMBAT AIRCRAFT - VOLUME ONE
Apart from the basic characteristic of a big Engines Tempest II and Fury which were some
engine in a small airframe the most outstand- Despite sustained efforts by the engine design 50mph (80km/h) faster. In just the same way,
ing feature of the Soviet wartime fighters was bureaux and the central institutes, it was when a team under I G Lazarev hastily fitted
the widespread use of wood, and wood- probably in the matter of engines that Soviet an M-82 (ASh-82) into a MiG-3 the result was a
derived materials. This reflected the fact that fighter designers found it most difficult to great disappointment. Later in 1942 a proper-
the Soviet Union, while it had limitless forests compete. The most important engine family ly engineered installation was achieved in the
and quite a lot of iron ore with which to make for fighters in 1941-45 was that derived by VYa Aircraft Ye, or 1-211, and this was the fastest
steel, had very limited indigenous supplies of Klimov from the French Hispano-Suiza 12Y of Soviet fighter ever flown at that time.
bauxite with which to make aluminium. In 1934. This had 12 cylinders in V-form, and A particularly instructive comparison can
1942-44 the Western Allies shipped to Mur- though a refined engine with a 20-year her- be made between the LaGG-3 and the La-5.
mansk and Archangel over 250,000 tons of itage behind it, it was fundamentally unable The LaGG was a typical Soviet fighter of the
aluminium ingots, but this could not have to sustain the rotational speeds and boost 1939-40 era, with a small wooden airframe
been foreseen. Accordingly, even though the pressures of the British Rolls-Royce Merlin. In and a big M-I05 (VK-I05) engine. Despite
Soviet Union had made great strides in devel- 1941 the typical fighter Merlin (not the new frantic improvements it was indifferent in
oping a wide range of light alloys, fighter de- 60-series with a two-stage supercharger), of combat, and large numbers of LaGG pilots
signers were strongly motivated to use wood 1,649in3 (27 litres) capacity, had a maximum were killed during training. 'LaGG' was said at
as much as possible. power of 1,470hp (1 ,230kW) at 3,000 rpm. On the time to mean Lakirovannii Garantirovan-
By 1941 teams at the VIAM (All-Union Insti- fuel of 94/95 octane, the Soviet engine made nii Grob, meaning 'varnished guaranteed cof-
tute for Aviation Materials), and in several in the greatest numbers, the VK-I05, could fin'. After Lavochkin replaced the VK-I05 by
GAZ, had developed wood construction fur- not give more than 1,260hp (940kW) and usu- an ASh-82 the aircraft was transformed, even-
ther than in any other country. Apart from tra- ally only 1,150hp (858kW), at 2,700 rpm, de- tually becoming a fighter in which a skilled
ditional techniques with machined solid spite having a capacity of 2,141 in3 (35.09 pilot could rack up a good score even against
wood and ordinary ply, there were two new litres). ,109s and' 190s (Ivan Kozhedub scored 62).
techniques. One, called shpon, consisted of The only other family of liquid cooled en- One cannot help but be bemused by a
thin (typically 1mm) veneers, usually of birch, gines available from production were even widespread belief, even in the Soviet Union
wrapped to form a skin over a male die less suitable for small fighters. A A Mikulin's but especially in Britain and France, that fight-
(sometimes over the actual underlying struc- 'AM' series had the same V-12 layout, but ers had to have liquid-cooled engines. Prop-
ture of frames and stringers). A second sheet, used cylinder blocks derived from the Ger- erly installed, the air cooled radial was less
like the first - a long band perhaps 20-40cm man BMW VI, with a capacity of 2,847in3 vulnerable, lighter, offered roughly equal
wide - would then be glued over the first, with (46.66litres). Such a big engine ought to have drag, worked better in cold environments,
the grain running in a different direction. The been in the 2,000+ hp (1,490+ kW) class, but and probably was shorter and thus enhanced
finished structure might have as many as six in fact they were designed originally for dogfight manoeuvrability. Towards the end of
layers. bombers, and even at full throttle had low the war the British Hawker and Japanese
The other technique, delta drevesina (delta crankshaft speeds. Other things being equal, Kawasaki companies were surprised to find
wood), involved impregnating each layer of an engine's power is proportional to the the radial engine to be superior, while
veneer with resin adhesive. After this had speed of rotation of its crankshaft. The AM-35 Yakovlev put an ASh-82FN into a Yak-3 to cre-
soaked in, the plies were then bonded togeth- had a governed speed of only 2,050rpm ate - so he told the writer - the best of all the
er under pressure. This was used mainly for (compared with 3,000 for the Merlin), and wartime fighters.
stiff primary structures, such as wing spars. In thus despite its size and massive weight gave
about December 1940 the imported resin was only 1,200hp (895kW). The AM-35A was rated Armament
replaced by locally produced sheets of phe- at 1,350 hp (1 ,007kW). It always amazed the writer that, lacking nei-
nol-formaldehyde adhesive with a trace of One of the unexpected major success sto- ther money nor design and development ca-
borax. After bonding at 150°C the material ries was A D Shvetsov's 14-cylinder radial, pability, the British and Americans should
was called bakelite-ply. originally designated M-82 and in 1941 - in have fought their greatest war with aircraft
The operating environment of what was conformity with the new designer-based guns designed in the First World War. Even
called the Eastern Front in the Second World scheme - rechristened the ASh-82. This had stranger, the British selected foreign designs.
War was the harshest to which aircraft have air-cooled cylinders based on those of the The Soviet Union, like the Germans, recog-
ever been subjected. It is remarkable that American Wright R-1820 Cyclone (which had nised that it is not against the laws of nature to
wooden structures could stand up to it, espe- a single row of nine cylinders) but with con- design one's own guns, and try to make them
ciallyas they frequently had to spend long pe- siderable development by Shvetsov, in the the best in the world.
riods in the open. In winter great care had to course of which he reduced the stroke from Thus, designers had a large and growing
exercised to try to keep aircraft clean, be- 174.5mm to only 155mm. This resulted in a range ofweapons to choose from. In the 1930s
cause slush, mud and oil would freeze rock- compact engine with an overall diameter of the ShKAS was the rifle calibre weapon. This
hard, adding weight, causing aerodynamic only 49.6in (1,260mm). With a capacity of took a 0.30 cal (7.62mm) cartridge fed by a
turbulence and preventing landing gear re- 2,514in3 (41.2 litres), the ASh-82FN was quali- belt at the outstandingly high rate of 1,800
traction or control surface movement. fied in early 1942 at 1,630hp (1 ,215kW), rising rounds per minute. A British fighter of 1940
Of course, it was also essential to devise to 1,850hp (1 ,380kW) on 100 octane fuel. with five ShKAS would have had greater hit-
safe front line methods for repairing damage. A vital factor in any radial-engined fighter ting power and more strikes per second than
This was crucial where the damage was to was the way the engine was installed. For ex- with eight Brownings, besides saving over
primary structure, such as a delta wing spar or ample, even though the first Bristol Centau- 66lb (30kg) in weight. In 1937 the lightweight
a steel tube fuselage. Damage repair and the rus-engined Tornado in 1941 was faster than Ultra ShKAS fired at 2,700 rounds per minute,
quick return to operational service 9f combat any previous Hawker fighter, after a captured a remarkable figure for a single barrel gun,
aircraft was brought to a fine art, even in the Focke-Wulf Fw190 had been studied the in- but by this time it was recognised that heavier
front line in winter. stallation was redesigned, leading to the calibres were needed.
10

10. INTRODUCTION
First of the Soviet cannon, and the family of sible, RAF fighters would have six 20mm His- tested but used in action. The main reason for
related designs made in the greatest num- pano cannon. Later in 1941 it was decided such guns was to destroy tanks, but they were
bers, the 20mm ShVAK was introduced from that four would be adequate, and this re- also used in air combat. A single hit on a hos-
1936. The designation came from designers mained standard British fighter armament tile aircraft, even on a wingtip, was usually
Shpital'nyi and Vladimirov and Aviatsionnyi until 1955. This was impossible with the Sovi- enough.
Krupnokalibre (aviation, large calibre). Again, et fighters until late in the war, when three or In 1941 the Western Allies were intrigued to
this gun was dramatically superior to the four ShVAK, or even three or four of the new hear that Soviet aircraft were attacking tanks
RAF's ancient Hispano, firing projectiles of 23mm NS-23, were fitted to the La-7 and La-9, with rockets. Such weapons had been devel-
the same calibre at approximately the same but they were the exceptions. The problem oped in the USSR ahead of all other countries,
muzzle velocity, at a higher cyclic rate (800 was not so much shortage of guns as the fun- and by 1941 they had been made to fly in a
rounds per minute instead of 650), yet being damental difficulty was installing cannon in predictable manner, stabilized by spinning
much more compact and weighing 92.61b the small airframes. about the longitudinal axis. The commonest
(42kg) compared with 109lb (49.4kg). Vari- Most of the USSR's wartime fighters pow- pattern, the RS-82 (3.23in, 82mm, calibre),
ants of this extremely reliable gun were fitted ered by a single liquid cooled engine had a was used by the million. Most of the mass-
to something like 850/0 of all Soviet wartime cannon fitted in the traditional Hispano-Suiza produced Soviet fighters were cleared to
fighters. fashion between the cylinder banks of the en- launch these weapons, which were on occa-
To provide an intermediate calibre, the gine, with the barrel passing through the re- sion used against enemy aircraft. The Yak-9B
Beresin came into use in 1940. M Ye Beresin duction gear and propeller shaft. As this even had an internal bomb bay.
quickly developed it as the UBS for synchro- meant that the gun's recoil force was on the
nized installations, the UBK for wing mount- aircraft centre line, passing close to the cen- I have no hesitation in claiming that this
ing and also the UBT for bomber turrets. tre of gravity, it became possible to' install volume, together with the one dealing with
Though it had the same 12.7mm calibre as guns of tremendous power. twin-engined fighters, attack aircraft and
the '50-calibre' Browning, it weighed only The first move in this direction was the VYa bombers, are the first to cover the Soviet air-
47lb (21.4kg) compared with 64lb (29kg), and of 1940, a gun whose power was far greater craft of the Great Patriotic War comprehen-
yet fired projectiles weighing 1.7 ounces than the small change in calibre to 23mm sug- sively and without errors.
(48g) at the rate of 1,050 rounds per minute gests. Compared with the 20mm ShVAK, it
with a muzzle velocity of 2,789fVsec (850 fired a projectile more than twice as heavy
m!sec), compared with the Browning's 1.1 with higher muzzle velocity, at a cyclic rate of
ounces (33g) projectiles fired at 750 rounds 500 rounds per minute. Using AP ammuni-
per minute with a muzzle velocity of 2,749 tion, it could pierce 1in (25mm) of armour
fUsec (838m/sec). . even at a range of about 0.6 miles (1 km).
In the Great Patriotic War the Beresin and Soviet leaders always liked bigness, espe-
the ShVAK were overwhelmingly the most cially in weapons, and before the end of the
important fighter guns. The main problem war various fighters had tested guns of up to
was that the small Soviet fighters found it diffi- 2.24in (57mm) calibre. In my opinion, the
cult to accommodate them in numbers. In awesome 57mm guns were not practical, but Lavochkin La-7 with a Polikarpov UTI-4 lead-in
Britain in 1941 it was decided that, where pos- the 37mm and 45mm calibres were not only trainer behind. Philip Jarrett collection
11

11. SOVIET COMBAT AIRCRAFT - VOLUME ONE
Glossary
A-VMF Aviatsiya Voenno-Morskovo Flota NKTP Narodny Komissariat Tyazhyoloi Note:
- Naval Air Force. NKVD Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del Combinations of suffix letters can be used,
B Bombardirovschik - as a prefix, bomber. - People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. eg Yak-9PO, Yak-9TO.
BB Blizhnii Bombardirovshchik OGPU Obedinyonnoe Gosudarstvennoe See also Yak-900 on page 150.
- as a prefix, short range bomber. Politischeskoe Upravlenie
bis as a suffix, literally from the French or Latin - Amalgamated State Political Directorate.
'again' or encore, more practically, a OKB Opytno Konstruktorskoye Byuro
rethought or developed version, or even - experimental construction (but in effect,
Mk.2. The use of this form of designation design, see Introduction, page 6) bureau.
applied to only a few OKBs, P Pushechny - as a suffix, literally 'gunship',
MiG still used this with their MiG-21 jet. high calibre armed fighter.
cg Centre of Gravity. PVRD Pryamotochnii Vozdushno-Reaktivnii
D Dalny - as a suffix, long range. Dvigatel - as a suffix, pulse jet engine.
EI Eksperimentalyni Istrebitel R Reaktivny - as a suffix, literally, 'reaction'
- experimental fighter. meaning rocket or jet. Airframe and Engine Design Bureaux
F Forsirovanny - as a suffix, ShKAS Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Accepted abbreviations to denote airframe
enhanced, or literally 'boosted'. Skorostrelny - rapid-firing machine gun (surname only used for the abbreviation) or
GAl Gosudarstvenny Aviatsionny Zavod (designed by Shpitalny and Komaritski). engine design (first name and surname) ori-
- state aircraft factory. ShVAK Shpitalny-Vladimirova Aviatsionnaya gin within this volume are as follows:
GKAT Gosudarstvenny Komitet Aviatsionnoi Krupnokalibernaya
Teknniki - large calibre aircraft cannon AM Alexander Mikulin
- State Committee for Aviation Equipment. (design by Shpitalny and Vladimirov). ASh Arkadi Shvetsov.
GKO Gosudarstvenny Komitet Oborony SK Skorostnii Krylo - high speed wing. Gu Gudkov, Mikhail (see also LaGG).
- State Committee for Defence. T Tyazhelowooruzhenny II Ilyushin, Sergei.
GUPA Glavnoye Upravleniye Aviatsionnoi - as a suffix, heavily armed. La Lavochkin, Semyon.
Promyshlennosti TP Tyazhely Pushechny - fighter, heavy gun. laG Lavochkin and Gorbunov, Vladimir.
- Chief Directorate of the Aircraft Industry. See also ITP. LaGG Lavochkin, Gorbunov and Gudkov
HSU Hero of the Soviet Union. TsAGI Tsentral'nyi Aerogidrodynamichesky (see also Gu).
I Istrebitel - as a prefix, fighter, or 'destroyer'. Institut - Central Aerodynamic and MiG Mikoyan, Artyom and Gurevich, Mikhail.
IS Istrebitel Skladnoy Hydrodynamic Institute. Su Sukhoi, Pavel.
- as a prefix, literally 'foldable fighter', TsIAM Tsentral'nyi Institut Aviatsionnogo VD Viktor Dobryin.
see Nikitin, page 84. Motorostoeniya VK Vladimir Klimov.
ITP Istrebitel Tyazhely Pushechny - Central Institute of Aviation Motors. Yak Yakovlev, Alexander.
- fighter, heavy gun. See also TP. TsKB Tsentral'nyi Konstruktorskoye Byuro
K Krupnokaliberny - central, ie state, design bureau. Note:
- as a suffix, fitted with large calibre gun. U Uluchshenny - as a suffix, improved. Nikolay Polikarpov's designs did not carry his
KOSOS Konstruktorskii Otdel Opytnovo UT Uchebno-Trenirovochny abbreviated name as a suffix, except for later
Samolyotostroyeniya - as a suffix, trainer, ie primary trainer. versions of the U-2, which became the Po-2.
- Experimental Aircraft Design Section. UTI Uchebno-Trenirovochny Istrebitel In the perhaps unlikely role as a bomber (in
L Lyukovy - as a suffix, literally 'doors', - as a suffix, training fighter. which it was widely used) it is featured in
fitted with an internal bomb bay. V Vysotnyi - as a suffix, literally height, or Volume Two.
LII Letno-Issledovatel'skii Institut high altitude. See also V- vyvoznoy.
- Ministry of Aviation Industry V Vyvoznoy - as a suffix, introductory, or in
Flight Research Institute. Western terms, advanced or conversion
M Modifitsirovanny - as a suffix, modified. trainer. See also V- vysotnyi.
Ministerstvo Aviatsionnoi Promyshlennosti VIAM Vsesoyuzny Institue Aviatsionnykh
- Ministry of Aircraft Production. Materialov - All-Union Institute for Aviation
NIl Nauchno Issledovatelyskii Institut Materials.
- scientific and research institute. VNOS Vozdushnogo Nabludeniya, Opovescheniya,
NKAP Narodny Komissariat Aviatsionnoi Sviazy - Air Observation, Information and
Promyshlennosti - State Commissariat for Communication Service.
the Aviation Industry Promyshlennosti WS Voenno-vozdushniye Sily
- People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry. - air forces of the USSR.
12

12. SINGLE-ENGINED FIGHTERS 1939-1945
Notes
Measurements Designations of German aircraft
In the narrative, all measurements are given m2 square metre - area, multiply by 10.764 Is it 'Bf' or 'Me' for the Messerschmitt designs?
in Imperial figures (of British FPSR - foot, to get square feet (fF) This work has used official documentation
pound, second, Rankine) and then decimal mm millimetre - length, the bore of guns is and Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM - Reich
units (or SI - Systeme International d'Unites, traditionally a decimal measure (eg 30mm) Air Ministry) nomenclature has been adhered
established in 1960) second in brackets. The and no Imperial conversion is given. to. The RLM transition from 'Bf' to 'Me' occurs
states that comprised the Soviet Union mph miles per hour - velocity, multiply by 1.609 between the unsuccessful Bf162 Jaguar (whose
embraced the decimal system from the ear- to get kilometres per hour (km/h). number was subsequently allocated to the
liest days, although it should be noted that He 162 Volksjager) and the Me 163 Komet; all
power was measured up to the Great Messerschmitt types below the RLM number
Patriotic War, and beyond, using the estab- 162 being prefixed 'Bf' and all those from 163
lished Western horse power measurement. and upwards being prefixed 'Me'.
The following explanations may help:
aspect ratio wingspan and chord expressed as a Russian Language and Transliteration Design and Illustration considerations
ratio. Low aspect ratio, short, stubby wing; Russian is a version of the Slavonic family of In this work we have utilised our well-proven
high aspect ratio, long, narrow wing. languages, more exactly part of the so-called format, aiming as always to provide a high
ft feet -length, multiply by 0.305 to get 'Eastern' Slavonic grouping, including Russian, level of readability and design.
metres (m). For height measurements. White Russian and Ukrainian. As such it uses A conscious decision was made to include
involving service ceilings and cruise the Cyrillic alphabet, which is in turn largely peripheral details where they appear on the
heights, the figure has been 'rounded'. based upon that of the Greeks. original illustrations; photographs have not
ft2 square feet - area, multiply by 0.093 The language is phonetic - pronounced as been printed across the fold and cropping
to get square metres (m 2). written, or 'as seen'. Translating into or from virtually eliminated.
fuel measured in both gallons/Htres English gives rise to many problems and the Unfortunately, in this instance, many of the
and pounds/kilograms. vast majority of these arise because English photographs were obtained from copies of
The specific gravity (sg) of Soviet fuel is not a straightforward language, offering those from official sources and have proved
varied considerably during the war many pitfalls of pronunciation! to be lacking in definition and tonal range,
and conversions from volume to weight Accordingly, Russian words must be trans- and although no effort has been spared to
and vice versa are impossible without lated through into a phonetic form of English achieve the highest standard of reproduc-
knowing the sg of the fuel at the time. and this can lead to different ways of helping tion, priority for inclusion has, of necessity,
gallon Imperial (or UK) gallon, multiply by 4.546 the reader pronounce what he or she sees. been given to historical significance over
to get litres. (500 Imperial gallons Every effort has been made to standardise technical perfection.
equal 600 US gallons.) this, but inevitably variations will creep in.
hp horse power - power, measurement While reading from source to source this
of power for piston engines. might seem confusing and/or inaccurate but
Multiply by 0.746 to get kilowatts (kW). it is the name as pronounced that is the con-
kg kilogram - weight, multiply by 2.205 stancy, not the spelling of that pronunciation!
to get pounds (lb). The 20th letter of the Russian (Cyrillic)
km/h kilometres per hour - velocity, alphabet looks very much like a 'Y' but is pro-
multiply by 0.621 to get miles per nounced as a 'U' as in the word 'rule'.
hour (mph). Another example, though not taken up in
kW kilowatt - power, measurement this work, is the train of thought that Russian
of power for piston engines. words ending in 'y' are perhaps better spelt
Multiply by 1.341 to get horse power. out as 'yi' to underline the pronunciation, but
lb pound - weight, multiply by 0.454 to it is felt that most Western speakers would
get kilograms (kg). Also used for the have problems getting their tongues around
Overleaf' The Soviets produced millions of posters
force measurement of turbojet engines, this! and displayed them widely as a constant reminder
with the same conversion factor, This is a good example of the sort of prob- of the importance of Soviet air power. This
as pounds of static thrust. lem that some Western sources have suf- particular, design, which featured stylised
litre volume, multiply by 0.219 to get fered from in the past (and occasionally Polikarpov-type aircraft, was released in 1941,
just as the Soviet counter-offensive against the
Imperial (or UK) gallons. some get regurgitated even today) when German invasion was getting underway.
m metre -length, multiply by 3.28 they make the mental leap about what they The message translates as 'Glory to the Heroes of
to get feet (ft). see approximating to an English letter. the Patriotic War - Glory to Stalin's Falcons'.
13

13. SOVIET COMBAT AIRCRAFT - VOLUME ONE
14

14. BEREZNYAK-!SAEV
Bereznyak-Isaev
BI port: '...during take-off and in flight the engine of rocket interceptors, designated BI-1, was
operated normally. In-flight engine shut-down produced at one of the plants.
The liquid-propellant rocket motor had been did not cause any lateral deviation, and the Aversion of the BI with spherical fuel tanks,
designed in the USSR before the outbreak of aircraft performed stable decelerations, glid- giving a 300/0 increase in flight endurance, was
the Second World War, and by the early 1940s ing and handling like any ordinary aircraft'. also under development, as was another with
a number of such powerplants had been Both the first prototype of the BI (for ramjets installed on the wingtips to double
developed and were successfully used on Bereznyak and Isaev), as it was designated, endurance. A version of the BI with an ar-
rockets. In the spring of 1941 the Viktor Bol- and the following machines were rocket moured cockpit was developed in early 1943.
khovitinov Design Bureau began to design an powered. The interceptor was very light, hav- On the whole, the flight tests bore out the
aircraft powered by the D-1-A liquid-propel- ing an empty weight of 1,7741b (805kg) and a designers' estimates. However, during a test
lant rocket motor, which delivered a thrust of take-off weight of 3,6371b (1 ,650kg). It was fit- flight on 27th March 1943, while undergoing
224:11b (1,1 OOkg) The programme leaders ted tailplane endplate fins and an additional horizontal acceleration up to 497mph (800
were Alexander Bereznyak and Alexey Isaev. dorsal fin. There was no unnecessary materi- km/h) at 6,500ft (2,000m), the third prototype
The extremely high fuel consumption of al used in its structure; this was a true 'austeri- entered a dive from which it failed to recover.
the rocket motor predetermined the combat ty' fighter. The fuselage was a fabric covered Captain Grigory Bakhchivandzhi died, and
application of that aircraft, which was to be plywood semi-monocoque structure, of was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet
an interceptor fighter operating on a ground- which the fin was an integral part. The wing Union for heroism displayed during the air
alert system. Its high thrust-to-weight ratio en- and tailplane had two wooden spars and ply- combats at the beginning of the war and dur-
dowed it with high speed and climb rates. wood skins, while the control surfaces were ing the testing of the first rocket-powered
To accelerate the design of the interceptor, made of duralumin and fabric covered. aeroplane. Testing was continued by Kon-
work on the airframe, armament and engine Kerosene was used as fuel, with concentrat- stantin Gruzdev and Boris Kudrin.
was conducted in parallel. The airframe was ed nitric acid as an oxidiser, the engine being The development and testing of different BI
developed and tested in towed flight with the fed by means of high pressure air bottles. A re- versions allowed the designers to gain valu-
engine inoperative, the armament was tested tractable landing gear was fitted, and arma- able experience which was later used in jet
by pilot Boris Kudrin, and the powerplant was ment consisted of two 20mm guns in the fighter design.
ground tested on a test-bench. forward fuselage. The maximum design
A year after design had begun, the fir~t in- speed was 559mph (900km/h). The maxi- For technical data, see Table E, page 177.
terceptor fighter was complete. On 15th May mum climb rate achieved during the test
1942 it took off for its first powered flight, with flights was three times greater than that of the
test pilot Captain Grigory Bakhchivandzhi at best piston-engined aircraft, and the landing A view of the fifth BI, fitted with a retractable ski
the controls. Bakhchivandzhi wrote in his re- speed was 91.9mph (148km/h). Asmall batch landing gear.
15

15. BEREZNYAK-ISAEV
Top left: A view of the fifth BI, fitted with a retractable ski landing gear.
Centre left: Soviet test pilot Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, giving scale to the BI
rocket fighter. Bakhchivandzhi was killed when a BI failed to recover from
a dive on 27th March 1943.
Bottom left and top right: Two views of the BI experimental fighter, showing
nose guns and ski undercarriage.
Above right: One of the BI prototypes following a crash-landing.
Bereznyak-Isaev BI
16

16. BEREZNYAK-ISAEV / BISNOVAT
A BI, tufted to show flow patterns, in the Central Aerodynamic and It was intended to equip the sixth BI with a mixed powerplant with a ramjet
Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) wind tunnel in Moscow. engine on each wingtip. TsAGI wind tunnel tests illustrated.
Bisnovat
SK SK-2 tion and configuration as many of the mono-
plane fighters of the early 1940s. It was planned
Two high-speed prototypes were designed The second prototype, designated SK-2, was to arm the SK-2 with a pair of 12.7mm UBS
and built by a team headed by Matus Bisnovat really a back-up aircraft for the first, but had a synchronised machine guns and thus convert
during 1939-40. The first, designated SK, sko- slightly different structure. It had a conventional it into a fighter. Such a version was tested, but
rostnoye Krylo - high speed wing) was intend- cockpit canopy and the same engine installa- due to the series production of Lavochkinl
ed for flight investigations of different wing
configurations and aerodynamic characteris-
tics such as stability and controllability. High
speed was obtained with a production
1,100hp (820kW) Klimov M-1 05 engine and a
very clean aerodynamic configuration, with
high wing loading and a retractable cockpit
canopy which did not protrude above the
fuselage contours in flight, but was opened
during take-off and landing to form a wind-
shield. The pilot's seat was raised hydraulical-
ly to improve his view during these phases.
The aircraft was built in early 1939, and it
was tested on a ski undercarriage in February
1940 and on a wheeled one in May. No infor-
mation regarding the test results has been
found, and only the following estimated data
is available: maximum speed 370.9mph (597
km/h) at sea level and 441.1 mph (710km/h)
at 17,200ft (5,250m); service ceiling 34,300ft
(10,450m); take-off weight 4,6291b (2,1 OOkg).
Side view of Matus Bisnovat's SK fighter prototype
showing the 'buried' cockpit, behind the trailing
edge of the comparatively small wing.
Just visible above the leading edge of the wing,
the SK's cockpit in landing and take-off mode,
with a retractable windshield to protect the pilot
when his seat was raised to provide a better view.
17

17. BISNOVAT AND BOROVKOV-FROLOV
Gorbunov/Gudkov, Mikoyan-Gurevich and Research Institute) in the winter of 1940-41. climbed to 16,400ft (5,000m) in 4 minutes 20
Yakovlev fighters the SK-2 remained only a At a take-off weight of 5,0701b (2,300kg) seconds. All of the test flights were conducted
prototype. It is known that it underwent flight without armament it had a maximum speed by G Shiyanov.
testing at the Letno-Issledovatel'skii Institut of 363.5mph (585km/h) at sea level and 410.1
(LII - Ministry of Aviation Industry Flight mph (660km/h) at 16,000ft (4,900m), the SK-2 For technical data, see Table E, page 177.
Above left: Trials were undertaken with skis replacing the
retractable undercarriage on the SK.
Left and above right: Two views of the SK-2, with a more
conventional cockpit placed even further back on the fuselage.
Unlike the SK, the SK-2 was armed with a pair of 12.7mm BS
machine guns.
Borovkov-Florov
1-207 1-15 biplane and 1-16 monoplane in climb rate also out of date, and for these reasons the
and service ceiling, and were superior in ma- type did not go into production.
In 1935 young engineers Alexey Borovkov noeuvrability to the 1-15 but inferior to the 1-16. For technical data, see Table E, page 176.
and Ilya Florov proposed an original biplane During flight tests in 1940 the third prototype
fighter, and this was produced in 1937 as the reached a speed of 301mph (486km/h) at Front view of the second prototype 1-207 showing
'Type 7211'. Later, in 1938-39, new biplane 17,400ft (5,300m), which for that period was the exceptionally clean lines and the unbraced
fighter based on this machine and designated inadequate. Moreover the configuration was biplane wing.
1-207 (I - istrebitel, fighter, or literally 'destroy-
er') was developed.
By the spring of 1939 the two prototypes
had been built, the first powered by a 900hp
(671kW) Shvetsov M-62 and the second by an
M-63 of the same power. The third prototype,
powered by an ungeared M-63, was ready by
the autumn. The first two had a fixed under-
carriage, while the third had retractable gear.
All three had open cockpits.
In the spring of 1941 the fourth 1-207 proto-
type, powered by a geared M-63 and fitted
with an enclosed cockpit with a sideward-
hinged canopy was completed. All of these
aircraft had four 7.62mm ShKAS machine
guns, and two 551lb (250kg) bombs could be
carried beneath the lower wings.
When tested, they bettered the Polikarpov
18

18. BOROVKOV-FROLOV
Above: The second prototype Borovkov-Florov
1-207 with open cockpit and fixed undercarriage.
Right: The third prototype 1-207 featured
retractable undercarriage. Note the bombs
carried underwing.
Bottom left: Close up of the neat spinner and
cowling of the geared M-63 on the fourth
prototype 1-207.
Bottom right: Main undercarriage on the fourth
prototype 1-207. Retraction was upwards into the
fuselage sides.
19

19. GUDKOV Gu-37 / ILYUSHIN
Gudkov
Gu-37/ Gu-l dominated. The forward fuselage was a 37mm cannon provided with 81 rounds, firing
welded truss of steel tubes with duralumin through the propeller boss, and six fuselage
In 1940 well-known designer and engineer skinning, while the rear fuselage, wing, and and wing-mounted machine guns.
Mikhail Gudkov began design of the Gu-37 tail were made of wood, although the wing Upon completion the fighter was painted
(later re-designated Gu-1), which was to have centre section spars were metal. The wing red and buffed to a high gloss finish, and on
the water-cooled Mikulin AM-37 engine. Its had a automatic slats and the main radiators 12th June 1943 test pilot A Nikashin took it on
configuration was similar to that of American were also mounted in the wing. An intermedi- its maiden flight, which ended in disaster.
Bell P-39 Airacobra, with a nosewheel under- ate water/air cooler with a separate surface After a long take-off run the aircraft climbed
carriage and the powerplant mounted be- intended for cooling the centrifugal blower to 650ft (200m), stalled and dived into the
hind the cockpit, driving the propeller via a was mounted between the engine cylinders. ground, killing the pilot. As a result, all devel-
long shaft and gearbox. The 20mm diameter The oil coolers were installed in the engine opment work on the Gu-37 was halted.
shaft also doubled as the cannon barrel. The bay on both sides of the fuselage over the
Gu-37's structure was mixed, but wood pre- wing. The armament consisted of Ya Taubin For technical data, see Table E, page177.
Ilyushin
11-21
Of all the many and varied duties performed
by Sergei Ilyushin's 11-2 attack aircraft during
the war, the most unusual was its operation
as a fighter. While this large Soviet attack air-
craft was inferior to the Messerschmitt Bf109
and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in dogfights, it outper-
formed all other Luftwaffe aircraft. At the very
beginning of the war Luftwaffe front line units
equipped with the Henschel Hs 126 suffered
most of all from the ravages of Il-2s, and they
often attacked close formations of Junkers
Ju87 dive bombers, knowing that the 7.92mm
machine guns of the German aircraft were in-
effective against the Soviet armoured attack
aircraft. Once their close formations were
broken up and their concentration of fire was
Above and below: Two views of the Ilyushin 11-21 anti-bomber fighter - during state trials at the NIl WS in lost, the Ju 87s became easy prey to Soviet
the summer of 1943. Opposite page: The II-I, a refined and improved follow-up to the 11-21. fighters and even to Il-2s.
20

20. ILYUSHIN
In the winter of 1941-1942 Il-2s were used mance of the updated single-seat aircraft was had an estimated maximum speed of 372
against Luftwaffe transport aircraft, and slightly better, the speed having increased by mph (600km/h) and sufficient manoeuvrabil-
became the most dangerous threat to the 8.6 to Ilmph (14 to 18km/h). It was noted that ity to allow it to engage in dogfights with
Junkers Ju52 tri-motor. The initiative was held the Il-21 could be used against some types of Bfl09s and Fw190s.
by the pilots of the 33rd Guard Attack Air Regi- low speed bomber and transport aircraft at al- In accordance with a government decision
ment, but no less successful were the 11-2s titudes up to 13,000ft (4,000m). the II-I was designed to have the new AM-42
operated against German transport aircraft Bearing in mind that the Junkers Ju88 and liquid-cooled engine designed by the Alexan-
near Stalingrad. Their targets were not only Dornier D0217 high speed bombers could be der Mikulin Design Bureau, delivering 2,000
Ju 52s but also the Heinkel He III sand successfully attacked by 11-2s only by chance, hp (1 ,492kW) at take-off. The pilot's position,
Focke-Wulf Fw200s which supplied the Ger- and that the aircraft's attack capabilities were engine, engine cooling and lubrication sys-
man troops encircled in that region. inferior to those of the standard 11-2, the com- tems and fuel tanks had to be armoured like
As a result of the combat experience thus mander-in-chief of the Voenno-vozdushniye those of the II-2I.
accumulated, the government decided to ini- Sily (WS - air forces of the USSR) considered From the outset Sergei Ilyushin did not
tiate production of a fighter version of the Il-2, its further production unnecessary. agree with the concept of a dedicated ar-
and in response to a request by the State moured fighter, and the II-I was therefore de-
Defence Committee, Sergei Ilyushin's team signed to be capable of the additional role of a
produced a modified 11-21 anti-bomber fighter high speed and manoeuvrable attack aircraft.
(I - istrebitel, fighter, or literally 'destroyer'). 11-1 The main design object was to make it aero-
This was a single-seat 11-2 powered by a dynamically efficient, and this was achieved
Mikulin AM-38F engine, modified from a pro- To counter the latest high speed German by using high speed aerofoil sections of differ-
duction two-seater as produced by a majority bombers and fighters the Ilyushin Bureau de- ent thicknesses; the deepest in the wing cen-
of the aircraft factories. signed a new aircraft, the II-I armoured low tre section, where the wheels of the main
The ShKAS machine guns, internal bomb and medium altitude single-seat fighter. It undercarriage retracted, and the shallowest
load and the attachment points for rocket
launchers were removed, leaving only two
Wa guns, each provided with 150 rounds and
having a weight of fire of 4.0kglsec. This was
considerably greater than the firepower of all
the modern Soviet production fighters. More-
over, each of the II-21's external bomb racks
could carry bombs of up to 551lb (250kg).
In July-August 1943 the Il-21 underwent
state trials at the Air Force Nauchno Issle-
dovatelyskii Institut (NIl - scientific and re-
search institute) under the charge of pilot
Major A Dolgov and engineer V Kholopov.
Compared with the two-seater, the perfor-
Ilyushin II-I
I o
o
21

21. ILYUSHIN / KaZLaV / LAVaCHKIN
0
in the detachable outer wing panels. Consid- ing through 90 during retraction. As a result 10,700ft (3,260m). Its manoeuvrability was
erable attention was paid to improving the the drag of the undercarriage fairings was good; it took only 20 seconds to complete a
0
shape of the armoured fuselage, and this was greatly reduced compared with those of the 360 turn and climbed 3,000ft (900m) in a
achieved by housing the water and oil coolers II-2. Overall, drag was reduced by 300/0. combat turn. All manoeuvres were per-
in the fuselage, behind the front spar of the The II-I had metal wings and empennage, formed smoothly and easily.
wing centre section. Cooling air was passed while its tail was made of wood. Its attack ar- Although it was a worthy challenger to the
through the fuselage and emitted through a mament was similar to that of the II-21, but its German aircraft, the II-I could not compete
controllable slot in the fuselage underside, tail was protected from hostile fighter attacks with the new generation of aircraft that ap-
the size of the opening being regulated in ac- by an AG-2 aerial grenade launcher. After re- peared in summer of 1944, such as the Lav-
cordance with the engine's operating mode. lease the grenades exploded while suspend- ochkin La-7 and the Yakovlev Yak-3 and -9U.
Consequently the fuselage contours were ed beneath a parachute, damaging the
smoother than those of the II-2, and the di- attacking fighter. The II-I had no bomb load. For technical data, see Table E, page 177.
mensions of the coolers were reduced. Test pilot Vladimir Kokkinaki undertook
A new system was devised for the main un- the maiden flight of the II-Ion 19th May 1944.
dercarriage legs, which retracted rearwards During production tests at 11,7281b (5,320kg)
into the wing centre section, the wheels turn- it reached a speed of 360mph (580km/h) at
Kozlov
EI the Nikolay Zhukovskii Air Force Engineering under design at that time. The aircraft was not
Academy in Moscow. The EI was a low wing completed by the agreed time, and because
In 1939 the new EI (Eksperimentalyni Istrebi- monoplane with a variable incidence wing, of the start of the evacuation of Moscow in
tel - experimental fighter) single-seat proto- and it was intended to install Alexander mid-October 1941 it was destroyed together
type was designed by Sergei Kozlov's team in Mikulin's new M-I07 engine, which was still with its drawings.
Lavoehkin
The destiny of one of three fighters put into designers. In the spring of 1939 the group re- use promised certain advantages compared
series-production in the Soviet Union before ported the results of their work to the then with ordinary wood.
the Second World War was unusual. Vladimir People's Commissar of the Aircraft Industry, The interests of Ryzhkov and the triumvi-
Gorbunov was chief of one of the depart- M Kaganovich, who is often criticised, not rate coincided, and it was therefore no sur-
ments of the People's Commissariat of the without good reason, for making incompe- prise that the Kuntsevo plant became the first
Aircraft Industry and because of his position tent decisions. This time he very quickly re- production facility of the new design bureau.
took part in many meetings and was well in- alised the advantages of the design. After The project approved by the People's Com-
formed of the situation in the aircraft industry. receiving his approval, Vladimir Gorbunov, missariat could be considered only a concep-
His concept, forwarded in 1939, was an air- Mikhail Gudkov and Semyon Lavochkin were tual design. Only the centre of gravity (cg)
craft having an all-wood structure, realising appointed the heads of a newly established position had been calculated and the maxi-
the necessity of greatly increasing the output Opytno Konstruktorskoye Syuro (OKS - ex- mum speeds were estimated; the prospect of
of combat fighters as soon as possible, and perimental design bureau) in May 1939. the intensive task ahead had resulted in the
the limitations that might be imposed on this The use in the aircraft's structure of a mate- establishment of the nucleus of the future de-
process by the lack of aluminium. 'Even if rial hitherto unavailable in the USSR, a phe- sign bureau. The personnel of this bureau
only one small grove of trees is left in Russia,' nol-impregnated modified wood similar to were largely those of the A Silvanskii OKS, re-
thought Gorbunov, 'even then we shall be wood plastic which had been examined dur- formed after the failure of the 1-220 fighter.
able to build fighters.' ing investigations of German wooden pro- Eventually the conceptual design was com-
The main contributor to the design study pellers, was to give impetus to the new pleted and generally approved. In late June
for the new aircraft was Semyon Lavochkin, fighter. At that time Leonty Ryzhkov, the chief 1939 the Government had already issued a
who carried out the work under Gorbunov's engineer of the propeller and ski production decree calling for the urgent manufacture of
direction. He had already gained extensive plant in Kuntsevo, a district of Moscow, had two prototypes of the new fighter. To accom-
practical experience when working under of been developing a process for the fabrication plish this, an appropriate production plant
P Rishar, Vladimir Chizhevsky and Dmitry of modified wood impregnated with birch ve- was required, as the Kuntsevo factory was to-
Grigorovich. neer tar. Such impregnation made wood tally unsuitable for aircraft production.
During the preparation of conceptual stud- heavier, much stronger and more fire-resis- Plant No.301 (GAZ - state aircraft factory),
ies one more engineer from the department tant. The co-designers of the project offered to which the new bureau was transferred,
of the People's Commissariat of the Aircraft to use the modified wood for primary load- had not been set up for aircraft production ei-
Industry, Mikhail Gudkov, joined in the re- bearing structural elements such as the wing ther, having formerly been a factory making
search, thus creating a triumvirate of aircraft spar caps and fuselage longerons, where its furniture for the Palace of the Soviets. The
22

22. LAVOCHKIN
plant was already re-oriented in 1938, and lie acid and irritated workers' skin. Extensive ment of the structure. The two spar wing
was preparing to manufacture variously mod- and urgent work was carried out at Plant comprised a centre section attached to the
ified Caudron aircraft under a French licence. No.301 by the All-Union Aircraft Materials De- fuselage and two detachable outer panels.
To set up the necessary engineering for these velopment Institute (VIAM), and the neces- Three self-sealing fuel tanks were located be-
aircraft, an OKB headed by A Dubrovin had sary handling instructions for the adhesive tween the spars of the centre section and the
been established there. were drawn up. panels. Riveted metal split flaps and ailerons
When Gorbunov, Gudkov and Lavochkin There were also pleasant surprises. The with a metal framework and fabric covering,
arrived at GAZ-30 1 in the summer of 1939, the new adhesive made it unnecessary to fit sur- like the elevators and rudder, were arranged
programme for the French licence-built air- faces precisely, even allowing a clearance of in the wing trailing edge. The tailplane includ-
craft had been cancelled and Dubrovin had up to ~in (3mm), as it penetrated deep into ed two panels attached to the fuselage. Arma-
been sent to Kharkov. However, most of the pinewood and the strength of bonded joints ment consisted of a Ya Taubin MP-6 23mm
design bureau staff were retained and joined proved to be high. cannon mounted in the 'vee' of the engine
the design programme for the new fighter. The fighter was completed in March 1940, cylinders and two synchronised M Berezin
Plant director Yu Eskin made an effective about 12 months after the work had begun. 12.7mm large calibre machine guns. Later,
contribution to this work. The 1-301 was aerodynamically clean, and this armament was supplemented by two
was covered with deep cherry paint and pol- ShKAS 7.62mm synchronised machine guns
ished to a lustre finish. I Rabkin, NIl WS chief installed beneath the engine.
engineer, recalled: 'The open-work wooden The 1-301 's structure was well designed,
1-301 (LaGG-I) parts of the 1-301 's structure looked durable and its airworthiness as a fighter seemed to
and fine at the same time. They were a plea- cause no special concern. Perhaps no mod-
The final version of the preliminary design, sure to behold owing to their design and the ern designs have undergone so many investi-
designated 'Type K', was approved by the harmonious combination of their elements, gations and checks, but in many instances
Nauchno Issledovatelyskii Institut Voenno- and perhaps because of this they did not ap- unfortunate events have revealed unforeseen
vozdushniye Sily (NIl WS - scientific and re- pear strong, though in realitytheywere'. shortcomings!
search institute of the air forces of the USSR) The 1-301 was a single-seat, low wing Successful completion of a task always re-
in January 1940. While the aircraft was under monoplane. Its fuselage was a wooden semi- quires an element of luck. In OKB-301 's case
construction it was referred to in documents monocoque structure, skinned with birch ve- it was undoubtedly associated with the ap-
as a 'high-speed armed fighter with structure neer and plywood, like the wings. Phenol- pointment of A Nikashin, a leading engineer-
featuring compressed wood', but after it was impregnated modified wood was mainly ing test pilot, to conduct the manufacturer's
approved by the design bureau of Plant used for the wing spars and local re-inforce- tests. He performed his task very well, and the
No.30 1 it was given the designation 1-301: ef-
fectively fighter from GAZ-30 1 (I - istrebitel, The first 1-301 was painted in a deep cherry red colour. Its clean lines are evident.
fighter, or literally 'destroyer'). The 1-22 fight-
er, to which reference has been made in pre-
vious accounts, is not mentioned at all in
contemporary documents, and it can be ar-
gued that it never existed.
Design studies of the 1-301 advanced with
difficulty. Although the bureau had 93 work-
ers in December 1939, it was still disorgan-
ised. Unlike the Yakovlev OKB it had not
gained experience by producing trainers, and
it did not enjoy the support of a production
plant, like Mikoyan's OKB. Other designers
were using used new and advanced compo-
nents, but in the case ofOKB-301 the aircraft's
basic structural material was still experimen-
tal, not having been tried under normal condi-
tions for any length of time.
There were unavoidable conflicts between
the three leaders; frequently their decisions
were far from being mutually agreed. For ex-
ample, in the course of manufacturing the air-
craft, Gudkov insisted on a metal tailplane,
and other problems arose during the work.
For this reason the Administration of the Peo-
pie's Commissariat urged that one of the
three designers be appointed to take respon-
sibility. Semyon Lavochkin was chosen as
being the most competent.
Development of the aircraft was difficult.
The VIAM-B-3 adhesive used was still in the
experimental stage, and produced an un-
pleasant surprise. It contained much pheno-
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23. LAVOCHKIN
not examined, and despite the efforts of ar-
mament engineer V Berezin its weapons sys-
tem was not improved. It was decided to
proceed with updating and developing the 1-
301 while simultaneously building a small
batch of 25 to 30 aircraft for operational trials.
The prototype's test report concluded:
'In terms of design, the problem of creating
an aircraft utilising re-inforced wood has
been mainly solved in the 1-301. People's
Commissariat of the Aircraft Industry Alexey
Shakhurin is requested to ask the Commis-
sariat to devote more attention to the prob-
lem of refining, testing and building the 1-301.'
Although the new fighter was obviously of
interest to the Red Army Air Force, 115 de-
fects and deficiencies, not including the ar-
mament, were detected, 14 of them being
eliminated during the tests. Among the main
faults mentioned in report were:
• the cockpit was hot,
• the canopy transparency was sub-
standard,
• the stick forces when operating the
ailerons and elevators were too great,
• longitudinal stability was inadequate,
• at the aircraft's flying weight the wheel
loads were limited, preventing normal
operation of the undercarriage.
Development work continued. An accident
occurred on 11 th August 1940, when the low
sun dazzled Nikashin during a landing and
the aircraft was seriously damaged. It was de-
cided to speed up construction of the second
example while the first prototype was re-
paired. On 2nd October 1940, as both aircraft
were about to be rolled out, the government
issued an edict that all new fighters should
have a range of 621 miles (l,OOOkm). One of
personnel led by Semyon Lavochkin became Two views of the 1-301 prototype following the the bureau's leading designers, Semyon Alex-
much obliged to this short, reserved man; a accident of 11 th August 1940. eyev, remembered how this decree shocked
great professional and a pilot with a high de- the personnel. Reworking the aircraft might
gree of engineering knowledge. km/h) at sea level and 363.5mph (585km/h) delay the work by several months and give
The first flight of the 1-301 fighter prototype at 15,400ft (4, 700m), and it reached 16,400ft their competitors an unassailable lead. It was
was made on 30th March 1940. Having per- (5,000m) in 5.85 minutes. not easy to modify the fuel system on the air-
formed several more flights, Nikashin found Analysing the results, Tarakanovsky noted craft already built, but, led by Yuly Sturtsel, the
the behaviour of the aircraft satisfactory and that the 1-301 's service ceiling was 330ft team resolved the problem in the best possi-
its handling simple and within the capabilities (100m) less than that of the Yakovlev fighter ble way. Two torsion boxes accommodating
of pilots of average and below average skill. prototype tested shortly before. It transpired additional fuel tanks were incorporated in the
Failures were inevitable during these flights that the area of the 1-301 's inlet pipe opening detachable outer wing panels.
(the engine had to be removed twice, the hy- was too small, and Lavochkin agreed to en- Although this modification was prepared
draulic system failed three times), but there large it. In addition, the exhaust pipes were for production aircraft, it was impossible to in-
were no serious accidents. On 1st May 1940 reworked, the flaps were locked (for one corporate it in the prototype because static
the 1-301 was among other new Soviet aircraft flight), and the radiator shutters were closed tests of the reworked wing were required.
taking part in the flying parade over Moscow's completely. As a result the aircraft attained a This would have taken about two months, but
Red Square. speed of 375.9mph (605km/h) at 16,250ft the time could not be spared. An additional
The flight tests proceeded at a good pace, (4,950m), making the 1-301 the fastest Soviet tank of about 3.29 gallons (15 litres) capacity
and were completed on 12th June. Two days aircraft powered by the Klimov M-l 05. was therefore positioned behind the pilot's
later the aircraft was sent for its official state The flight tests of the 1-301 prototype lasted cockpit on the second prototype, the fuel
tests, for which M Tarakanovsky was as- only ten flying days, during which 42 flights from this tank flowing into the three tank fuel
signed leading engineer and Peotr Stefanov- were made. Many defects and problems system by gravity. In accordance with the
sky and Stepan Suprun were to be the pilots. were eliminated, but many others were left as wishes of the designers, the Air Force officials
During these tests, at a flying weight of 6,5431b they were owing to a lack of time. The fight- took into account the results of a flight made
(2,968kg), the fighter attained 320mph (515 er's spinning and diving characteristics were on 29th October 1940, and believed that the
24