| Lavochkin Lagg-3 |
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Information About ™Lavochkin Lagg-3 |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT LAVOCHKIN-GORBUNOV-GOUDKOV LAGG-3 | |
| soviet fighter aircraft 1940-1949 | |
| la-03 | |
| world war ii soviet fighter aircraft | |
| lavochkin | |
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The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Goudkov 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. The main deficiency of the LaGG-1 design was power. A more powerful version of its Klimov M-105 engine was tried. The improvement was poor and without an alternative powerplant, 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 Slat s were added to the wings to improve climb and manoeuvrability and further weight was saved by installing lighter armament. The LaGG-3 replaced the LaGG-1 immediately. The result was still disappointing, as even with the lighter airframe and Supercharged engine, the LaGG-3 was underpowered and proved immensely unpopular with pilots. The novel, wood-laminate construction of the aircraft continued to be poor quality (as with its predecessor) and pilots joked that rather than being an acronym of the designers' names ( Lavochkin , '''G'''orbunov , and '''G'''oudkov ) "LaGG" stood for '''''la'''kirovanny '''g'''arantirovanny '''g'''rob'' ("guaranteed varnished coffin" - лакированный гарантированный гроб). 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, LaGG-3's main advantage was its strong airframe. Although the laminated wood did not burn it shattered severely when hit by high explosive rounds. The LaGG-3 was improved during production, resulting in 66 minor variants in the 6,258 that were built. Experiments with fitting a large Radial Engine to the LaGG-3 airframe finally solved the power problem, and led to the superb Lavochkin La-5 . Operators
SPECIFICATIONS (LAGG-3 SERIES 66)
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