La-5 Walkaround - New Image

[John Thompson]

Here's the well-known "walkaround" of the remains of the only known original La-5 still in existence, which is in storage in the US:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/AWA1/501-600/walk544_La-5_Abbott/walk544.htm

Here's a new (to me, anyway) image of this artifact, which I found today in a thread on Scalemodels.ru; I wonder if there are any others from the same unknown photographer:



John

[KL]

I have also (erroneously) believed that there were no preserved La-5 fighters in museums.  But, this is what Pilawski says:

For years and years, we were all subjected to various drawings of La-5s in Czech aviation journals depicting a cylindrical cowling. This was to include all La-5s, from the -5 to the -5F to the -FN, to the extreme irritation of many VVS researchers. The shape of the La-5 cowling was thought not to be in doubt. After all, there were surviving specimens in the various Soviet Museum collections, available photographs of the La-5 from above (notably from TsAGI testing), and other evidence. The cowling was 'onion' shaped, not cylindrical.

However, perhaps a bit more charity was in order. Obviously, the Czechs had examples of the -FN in their Air Force. They had surviving specimens of the -FN in their Museum (Kbely).

Entire text at: http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/Research/SAFFC/New/Part1/index.php


So, according to Pilawskii there are surviving specimens in various Soviet Museum collections and in Kbely.  It?s really odd that there are so many photos of the Kbely La-7 and not a single photo of their several ?FN specimens? And don?t forget Krakow Museum ? everything is possible there!

[learstang]

There are no fully preserved La-5's anywhere?  That kind of surprises me, but then again, the Soviets never thought to preserve a single Shturmovik from the GPW (I believe all the Il-2's in Russia are rebuilt wrecks or mockups).  Are there any La-5's reproductions or examples restored from wrecks?  I have an La-5 model in the mail so it's time to start (re-)learning about the Lavochkins.

Regards,

Jason

[John Thompson]

My understanding is that the partial fuselage in the Fighter Factory in Virginia (the walkaround posted in my previous message) is the only original relic of a La-5/La-5F/La-5FN anywhere in the world, either whole or in pieces. I'm certainly curious to know how this last La-5 fragment ended up in Virginia, by the way!

There does exist a somewhat crude La-5 replica on display in Victory Park in Moscow, but this is not a genuine La-5:
http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1114674/

By the way, I found the original source of the extra image I posted yesterday:
http://www.mga.ru/Lavochkin_LA-5.html

Given the number of La-7 walkarounds on the Internet and the general enthusiasm for the La-5 variants among VVS fans, if a real La-5 or La-5FN had been preserved in Russia or the Czech Republic, I'm sure we'd know about it!

(And if the topic of cowling shape is up for discussion again, I vigorously deny that any of them were "onion-shaped"!)

John

[learstang]

Thank you for the links, John!  Don't worry about my getting involved in the La-5 cowling discussion, I spend too much time as it is discussing various questions regarding the Shturmovik (not that I mind - I've learned a lot in those discussions).

Regards,

Jason

[John Thompson]

Okay, now I've done it - by "onion-shaped", I mean tapered in plan view, as shown in the Voronin drawings, not slightly bulged, as shown in Milos Vestcik's MBI book. Sorry - I misunderstood EP's use of the phrase until I thought about those TsAGI photos which clearly show a bulged cylinder, not an onion!  

(If Jason won't argue about it, I'll argue with myself!!! )

John

[Massimo Tessitori]

There does exist a somewhat crude La-5 replica on display in Victory Park in Moscow, but this is not a genuine La-5:
http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1114674/

Hi John,
it doesn't look too bad, if you exclude the conical spinner and a piece of door mounted in the wrong way.
Massimo

[learstang]

I was thinking the same thing, Massimo.  The Russians (or Soviets) did a reasonably good job with this La-5 mockup.  You should see some of the IL-2 mockups in comparison!  I would think that with its largely wooden construction it wouldn't be too hard (hard being a relative term) to build a flyable reproduction of the plane.  Then again, it did have a rather unusual wooden construction, with the fuselage being a type of Bakelite-plywood composite (I can't recall if the wing had the same type of "delta drevesina" construction).  Still, it'd be nice to see one flying, as with the Polikarpov restorations/reproductions and the Yak reproductions.  I'll start passing the hat around to see if the members of this forum can scrape up enough money to commission one (wouldn't that be great!).  Oh well, it's a nice dream.

Regards,

Jason

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Jason,
if you want to see an unaccurate reply of a MiG-3, you have to look at the one of Monino. They have recently repainted it in a more interesting scheme, unfortunately the shape shortcomings are unrecoverable.
Massimo