Lavochkin La-9

Lavotškin La-9 (ven. Лавочкин Ла-9, NATO-koodi Fritz) on neuvostoliittolainen trapetsi-siipinen ja mäntämoottorikäyttöinen potkurihävittäjälentokone. La-9:ssä oli sama moottori sekä siiven muotoilu, kuin sen seuraajassa. 
Aseistus käsitti 4x 23 mm Nudelmann-Suranov NS-23 tykkiä.
La-9:n saavuttama lakikorkeus oli 10 800 metriä sekä huippunopeus 690 km/h.


Tuotantovuodet olivat 1946-48. Valmistusmäärä ylitti 1 500 lentokonetta. La-9:ää käyttivät myös Neuvostoliiton ohella, niin Romania, Kiina, kuin Pohjois-Koreakin. Kaksipaikkainen koulutusversio kuului näihin.
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The Lavochkin La-9 (NATO reporting name Fritz) was a Soviet fighter aircraft produced shortly after World War II. It was a piston engined aircraft produced at the start of the jet age.

La-9 represents further development of the Lavochkin La-126 prototype. The first prototype, designated La-130 was finished in 1946. Similarity to the famous Lavochkin La-7 was only superficial – the new fighter had all-metal construction and a laminar flow wing. Weight savings due to elimination of wood from the airframe allowed for greatly improved fuel capacity and four-cannon armament. 

Mock combat demonstrated that La-130 was evenly matched with La-7 but was inferior to Yakovlev Yak-3 in horizontal planes. The new fighter, officially designated La-9, entered production in August 1946. A total of 1,559 aircraft were built by the end of production in 1948.

Like other aircraft designers at the time, Lavochkin was experimenting with using jet engines to augment performance of piston-engined fighters. One such attempt was La-130R with an RD-1Kh3 liquid fuel rocket engine in addition to the Shvetsov ASh-82FN piston powerplant. The project was cancelled in 1946 before the prototype could be assembled. 

A more unusual approach was La-9RD which was tested in 1947 -1948. It  was a production La-9 with a reinforced airframe and armament reduced to two cannons, which carried a single RD-13 pulsejet (likely of the German V-1 flying bomb origin) under each wing. The 70 km/h increase in top speed came at the expense of tremendous noise and vibration. The engines were unreliable and worsened the handling. The project was abandoned although between 3 and 9 La-9RD were reported to perform at airshows, no doubt pleasing the crowds with the noise.

General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.63 m 
Wingspan: 9.80 m 
Height: 3.56 m 
Wing area: 17.6 m² 
Empty weight: 2,638 kg 
Loaded weight: 3,425 kg 
Max. takeoff weight: 3,676 kg 
Powerplant: 1 × Shvetsov ASh-82FN air-cooled radial engine with a two-stage supercharger and fuel injection, 1,380 kW (1,850 hp)
Maximum speed: 690 km/h (428 mph) at altitude
Range: 1,735 km 
Service ceiling: 10,800 m 
Rate of climb: 17.7 m/s 
Wing loading: 195 kg/m² 
Power/mass: 0.40 kW/kg 
Armament: 4 × 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannons, 75 rpg