Modern-Aviation

In 1938 the design bureau of Semyon Lavochkin, Vladimir Gorbunov and Mikhail Gudkov (LaGG) began work on a new fighter built of a type of plastic-impregnated wood. The smoothly polished prototype had reasonable speed but exhibited terrible handling, and poorer range, ceiling and maneuverability than promised. The roughly finished aircraft delivered to the frontline units were even worse, proving slower than the open-cockpit Polikarpov I-16 they replaced. There was no time for a redesign, so improvements were made progressively during production.

The LaGG-3 was essentially the series production LaGG-1, but was still not right. Nicknamed the 'Mortician's Friend', pilots joked that LaGG stood for 'Lakirovannii Garantirovannii Grob' or 'varnished, guaranteed coffin'. Despite its poor record, the LaGG-3 did excellent work in the defense of Leningrad, which was under siege from September 1941 to January 1943. In fact, many Soviet fighter pilots preferred it to the Hawker Hurricane, which was delivered to the Northern Front in some numbers from late 1941. The LaGG was more manoeuvrable than the Hurricane, and its cannon armament was more effective than the British fighter's machine guns.

Without Gorbunov or Gudkov, Lavochkin went on to design the La-5FN and La-7, both very successful radial-engined fighters based on diminishing amounts of LaGG, and the all-new La-9 and -11. The LaGG-3 was essentially the series production version of the LaGG-1 with a revised outer wing incorporating fuel tanks, and an armament of one 20mm and two 7.62mm weapons. Fixed wing slats - later replaced by automatic slats - were introduced and balance weights were added on the elevators and rudder, but were later discarded in favour of statically and dynamically balanced surfaces. Weight was reduced as a result of a structural analysis. LaGG-3 deliveries commenced in the spring of 1941, initially with the M-105P engine, but, from late in the year, with the M-105PF affording 1260hp at 800m. Provision was later made to replace one or both machine guns by weapons of 12.7mm calibre, the 20mm hub-mounted cannon being replaced by one of 23mm calibre in some cases, and a pair of 12.7mm underwing guns was sometimes fitted. Three aircraft were each fitted with a 37mm cannon and referred to as LaGG-3K-37s, and one example was fitted with the 1650hp Klimov M-107A engine. Production of the LaGG-3 was completed in the late summer of 1942 with a total of 6,528 built.

The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 (Лавочкин-Горбунов-Гудков ЛаГГ-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a refinement of the earlier LaGG-1, and was one of the most modern aircraft available to the Soviet Air Force at the time of Germany's invasion in 1941.

Overweight despite its wooden construction, at one stage 12 LaGG-3s were being completed daily and 6,528 had been built when factory 31 in Tbilisi switched to Yak-3 production in 1944.

The prototype of the LaGG-3, I-301, was designed by Semyon A. Lavochkin, Vladimir P. Gorbunov and Mikhail I. Gudkov. It was designated LaGG-3 in serial production. Its airframe was almost completely made of timber, with crucial parts processed with Bakelite lacquer. This novel wood-laminate construction was more durable than regular timber, incombustible, and didn’t rot. It was, however, much heavier and pilots joked that rather than being an acronym of the designers' names (Lavochkin, Gorbunov, and Gudkov) "LaGG" stood for lakirovanny garantirovanny grob ("(the) varnished guaranteed coffin" - лакированный гарантированный гроб). The full wooden wing (with plywood surfaces) was analogous to that of the Yak-1. The only difference was that the LaGG’s wings were built in two sections. The fuselage was the same as the MiG-3’s. But the LaGG-3’s armament was considered formidable. It consisted of a large-calibre BK machine gun, which was installed between the "V" of the cylinders of the engine and two synchronized ShKAS machine guns. Consequently the weight of fire was 2.65 kg/s, making the LaGG superior to all serial Soviet fighters, as well as the 1941 version of the Messerschmitt Bf 109.

The Soviet air force fighter specifications issued in 1938 for a less specialized tactical machine optimized for combat at around 11, 483 ft, led to proposals being submitted by the design bureaux of Lavochkin and Yakovlev. These were selected for further development, with the respective designations I-22 and I-26.

The I-22 used the 1100-hp Klimov M-105P engine, with provision for a cannon to be mounted between the cylinder banks, and while the low wing monoplane configuration was conventional, the all-wood construction used an unorthodox compound birch ply. Metal was used only in the nose, which housed two 12.7-mm (0.5-in) machine guns, and on movable control surfaces.

The first of a number of prototypes, soon to be designated LaGG-1, flew for the first time at the end of March 1940. It gave a maximum speed of 373 mph at 16,404ft but other aspects of performance as well as general flying qualities were extremely poor. However, the pressing need for new fighters, and the fact that the bureau had already established a production line for its design, led to a programme of improvements to salvage the design rather than scrap it.

Amendments to the control systems, lightening of the structure, the use of 7.62-mm (0.30-in) machine-guns and the replacement of the original 23-mm (0.91-in) VYa cannon with a 20-mm (0.79-in) ShVAK, as well as the incorporation of extra fuel tanks in the wings cured the worst of the problems. Production of the revised design designated LaGG-3 began in January 1941.

By the end of the year 2463 examples had been completed, and another 4065 followed before production ended in the second half of 1942. A number of changes were introduced, the major improvement being the 1260-hp M-105PF.
Armament was subject to numerous variations, the original 23-mm cannon often being used, and one or both of the 7.62-mm machine-guns being replaced by the 12.7 -mm BS. Standard external stores attachment points allowed six RS-82 rockets, up to 441lb of bombs or an additional pair of machine-guns to be carried under the wings, with the alternative of drop-tanks for escort missions. At one stage a new version mounting a 37- mm (1.46-in) cannon was considered. Other abortive developments included using more powerful Klimov engines and fitting a ramjet booster.

The LaGG-3 rapidly replaced the LaGG-1 although the new fighter was too heavy for its engine. In fact, Lavochkin, Gorbunov and Gudkov had originally designed their prototype for the powerful Klimov M-106 engine. But it proved to be unreliable. So they were obliged to install the relatively weak Klimov M-105P. As a result, the LaGG was slow; its top speed was just 474 km/h, while its rate of climb at ground level was as slow as 8.5 meters/second. The LaGG-3 proved to be somewhat hard to control as it reacted sluggishly to stick forces. In particular, it was difficult to pull out of a dive, and if the stick was pulled too hard, it tended to fall into a spin. As a consequence, sharp turns were difficult to perform. A more powerful engine was installed, but the improvement was little so, the only solution was to lighten the airframe. The LaGG team re-examined the design and pared down the structure as much as possible. Fixed slats were added to the wings to improve climb and manoeuvrability and further weight was saved by installing lighter armament. But the improvement was slight and without an alternative powerplant thus, when the LaGG-3 was first committed to combat in July 1941, it was completely outclassed by the Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Later in 1941, the LaGG-3 appeared with new armament options, an internally balanced rudder, retractable ski landing gear for the winter, retractable tailwheel and wing pipes for drop tanks. The result was still not good enough. Even with the lighter airframe and supercharged engine, the LaGG-3 was underpowered.

The LaGG-3 proved immensely unpopular with pilots. Some aircraft supplied to the front line were up to 40 km/h (25 mph) slower than they should have been and some were not airworthy. In combat, the LaGG-3's main advantage was its strong airframe. Although the laminated wood did not burn it shattered when hit by high explosive rounds.

The LaGG-3 was improved during production, resulting in 66 minor variants in the 6,528 that were built. Experiments with fitting a Shvetsov M-82 radial engine to the LaGG-3 airframe finally solved the power problem, and led to the Lavochkin La-5. The major LaGG-3 construction plant in Gorky switched over to the La-5 in 1942 after having completed 3,583 LaGG-3. All further LaGG-3 development and production was done by factory 31 in Taganrog as the sole LaGG-3 manufacturer.

Soviet pilots generally disliked this aircraft. Pilot Viktor M. Sinaisky recalled: "It was an unpleasant client! Preparing the LaGG-3 for flight demanded more time in comparison with other planes. All cylinders were supposed to be synchronized: God forbid you from shifting the gas distribution! We were strictly forbidden to touch the engine! But there were constant problems with water-cooled engines in winter: especially as there was no antifreeze liquid. You couldn't keep the engine running all night long, so you had to pour hot water into the cooling system in the morning. Furthermore, pilots didn't like flying the LaGG-3 - a heavy beast with a weak M-105 engine - but they got used to it. Even so, we had higher losses on LaGG-3 than on I-16s."

Even with its limitations, some Soviet pilots managed to reach the status of ace flying the LaGG-3. G.I. Grigor'yev, from 178.IAP, was credited of at least 11 air victories plus two shared. But pictures of his LaGG-3 "Yellow 6", in November–December 1941, show 15 "stars", so his score was probably higher.