Hello All !
While searching for pictures and informations regarding the use of La-7 in the postwar Czechoslovak AF I noted that at least one machine was painted with a clear lightning as you can see here
on the third one.
Looking for more about this deco I pushed a little bit forward and found on Valka.cz another picture with equally a white lightning marked aircraft. This time is possible to associate a "bort" with a machine wearing this kind of deco
It seem that this picture come from Slovak archive.
Then I remember from my MBI lecture that Czech received some 3 guns La-7 (5 according to the La-7 monograph of MBI and Aero), and I would like to know if "09" could be one of them.
As I understood (maybe erroneously) only Zavod 381 built 3 guns La-7 and the serial nb for the aircraft delivered to the Czech (2nd Czechoslovak Fighter Air Regiment) from this plant were
3810565, 3810965, 3811165, 38111465, 3812764
If we apply the rule that the bort is composed by the last two or three digits of the serial nb, the "09" should be a "normal" La-7 with two guns, as no Zavod's delivered machine contain a last two digits in "09".
In addition to this I found in the serial nb list a potential candidat with the number 45210809 (delivered to the 1st Czech Fighter Air Regiment).
And then come the sand grain.
This link contain a pdf file
http://www.mil.sk/data/att/28259_subor.pdf with an intersting picture reproduced below
I think that this last picture also shows the "09" (cover on wheels, armament cowl removed and hanging steel belt).
For me, the part which is placed on the wing looks like the armament cowl, and it seems to be as the one used on 3 guns La-7 (oblong bumps along the entire length of the cowl) instead of standard 2 guns one.
I will be very curious to learn more about this machine if anyone knows more.
My second concern will be about the colours (of course
).
We can see on the wings that the "09" probably still wear his two colours upper livery, and that the fuselage was probably retouched to remove the red stars.
However, I'm still annoyed by the color of the bort (definitely not white) and the color of the spinner.
Thanks for reading and for any info or comment.
Dric