Lavockin La-5

Lvochkin La-5 –In early 1942 the Lavochkin Design Bureau was facing up to a bleak future, its primary fighter design the LaGG-3 was performing poorly against the might of the Luftwaffe and their great design rival Yakovlev was scheming against them with his chief supporter, none other than Stalin himself. To remain in the fighter game they needed to solve the problem of improving their design’s performance; the solution to mate the airframe with the Shvetsov M-82 radial engine was viewed with some alarm by Lavochkin. The result however was a series of wartime fighters culminating in the Lavochkin La-7, arguably the finest piston-engined fighter aircraft designed in Europe during WW2. This title looks at the development of the La-5 from the LaGG-3 M-82 prototype, through the La-5 and La-5F to the ultimate, (pre La-7), La-5FN version of the aircraft and at the training and experimental versions accruing from it. The profile also covers operational service with the Soviet Air Forces and its use by their Czechoslovak allies, especially during the Slovak National Uprising of 1944. Post-war use by the newly re-constituted Czechoslovak Air Force is also covered. The book includes a discussion on the controversial subject of Soviet Wartime camouflage and markings as applied to the La-5 and also looks at the colour schemes used post-war by the Czechoslovaks. A technical analysis of the aircraft rounds of this profile. This expanded 109 page book is packed full of photos, detail and line drawings of the aircraft. 4 pages of 1/72 scale drawings and scrap 1/48 views, 12 pages of colour artwork, including cockpit colour artwork being a highlight of this title.

The text is fully bi-lingual in Czech and English and is printed on good quality art paper with glossy laminated covers, softcover.

Softcover 109pp colour and b&w photos, scale drawings and colour plates.