Hi,
I had a look to the latest page of Him at
http://www.redbanner.co.uk/History/Update_2020/Recent_Updates.html.
One of his 'discoveries' is that the plane 01 of Popkov was a La-5FN, and not a F as, according to Him, everyone described it since the beginning of time.
For years and years I have maintained that HSU Popkov's rather famous La-5 "White 01" was an La-5F model.
Now, look this topic of 2007:
http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/board/index.php?topic=201.0All previously existing profiles, decals sheets etc show it always as a La-5FN!
Where is his 'discovery' then?
There is something Rechkalov's P-39 42547, He 'discovered' that the plane had machine guns on the wings.
Rechkalov's last wartime P-39, s/n 42547, is virtually always quoted as having been a -Q model.
Compare to this page of Misos:
http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/lendlease/p-39/misos/rechkalov/rechkalov.htmA third comment of Him is about Yak n.930:
Many felt certain that this was a late Moscow built Yak-7B model, but most versions of the photograph depicting this example have the extreme left edge cropped-- thus hiding the wing tip. The upper cowling suffers from an unfortunate light glare, and so with these and other problems on the image, some contended that must be looking at a Yak-9.
However, a better example of the original photo has now been found and this includes the port wing tip. Today we can say without doubt that "930" is indeed a Yak-7B. Now if we could only work out the tactical number colour! [A profile of this aircraft will appear in the Second Edition of Yakovlev Yak-7 In Profile & Scale].
Now I had a look to the well known book Red Stars of Geust, Keskinen, Stenman, of 1995, and the photo of plane 930 is there, uncropped. The wingtip is visible and so it was 25 years ago. I can't see light glares on the nose.
I am not so expert of Yaks, but the tip and the position of the navigation light seems of a Yak-9 to my eye.
What to say?... Nothing more, it's better.
Regards
Massimo