Lavochin at Courtesy a/c

[T J Johansen]

Just saw the ex OFMC Lavochin on sale at Courtesy. In the text (originally published in Classic Wings) it is said that the La-9 is one of three owned by private collectors in the English-speaking world. Where are the other two?

T J

[JDK]

TFC & Fantasy of Flight. Might have changed since.

[Dave Homewood]

How much do they want for it, out of interest. In crowd-pleasing factor it's worth every cent they charge. A magnificent machine to see in the air, especially last year at Wanaka paired with an L-39 that struggled to keep pace.

I wonder what it's like for maintenance though, probably not too many parts around for them.

Is the TFC's example planned to be a flyer? OFMC's is still the only flyer isn't it?

[Firebird]

Wow.....only $850k as well........crikey......that's way cheaper than what I was expecting for such a rare as well as high performance beast....

Seen it in the air in the UK, and as Dave says, it's a real hot rod

Surprised it hasn't been snapped up by FHC by now........

[Robbo]

TFC's Lavochkin is an La 11

http://www.fighter-collection.com/pages/aircraft/la11/index.php

[planenutti]

With the inventory of USSR fighters over at Fighter Factory, I am kind of surprised that they have not made a playy for it.

[Mike]

TFC & Fantasy of Flight. Might have changed since.

Can anyone confirm that there is in fact a Lavochkin at Fantasy of Flight?

[bdk]

Wow.....only $850k as well........crikey......that's way cheaper than what I was expecting for such a rare as well as high performance beast...

Rarity does not equal value unfortunately. Does seem like a great plane for the money though.

[JDK]

Sorry for the brief post earlier, I was just 'passing through'.

Here's an extract of some of the data on all the listed Lavochkin's in the Warbird Directory 4th Ed. The dash at the start f the entry indicates no known construction or original service ID for that a/c. Nothing later than 2002 here.

LAVOCHKIN LA-5
- • LA-5 Central War Museum, Moscow 97/00
- • LA-5 Confederate Air Force, Midland TX 98
(rep. acquired ex Russian museum)


LAVOCHKIN LA-7
- • LA-7 Letecka Expozice Vojenskeho Muzea,
Kbely AB, Prague, Czechoslovakia 68/02
(displ. as Soviet AF "White 77")

- • LA-7 Russian AF Museum, Monino AB Moscow 98/02
(displ. as Soviet AF "White 27")


LAVOCHKIN LA-9
- • LA-9 Central Military Museum, Bucharest, Romania 90/02
(displ. Bucharest-Banease as Romanian AF "66")

6201 • LA-9 Beijing Aeronautical Institute, Beijing China 87/02
(displ. as "7504")

- • LA-9 People's Liberation Army Air Force Museum,
Changping, China 91/02
(displ. as North Korean AF "06")

828 • LA-9 Beijing Aeronautical Institute, Beijing China 96
Old Flying Machine Co, Duxford .96/01
(shipped ex China, arr. Duxford 8.5.96)
G-BWUD Classic Aviation Ltd, Duxford/ OFMC 14.6.96/02
(stored Duxford 98/00, shipped to Auckland NZ 8.00,
arr. Auckland-Ardmore 2.11.00 for rest. to fly)
ZK-LIX Ray Hanna & Garth Hogan/ Hanna-Hogan Ltd,
Auckland-Ardmore 5.3.02
(rest. Ardmore as Chinese AF "8", due ff 02
powered by ASH 82 engine ex Czech Republic)

- • LA-9UTI People's Liberation Army Air Force Museum,
Changping, China 91/02

LAVOCHKIN LA-11
- • LA-11 (to Soviet AF as 20)
The Fighter Collection, Duxford UK .93/02

10142 • LA-11 (to Chinese AF as ....)
China Xinxing Corp
N2276Y Aero Trader Inc, Chino CA 5.94
Weeks Air Museum/ Fantasy of Flight,
Polk City FL 10.94/02
(under rest. Polk City FL 99/01)

- • LA-11 (to Chinese AF as ....)
Beijing Aeronautical Institute, Beijing China 87/01
(displ. as "7505")

- • LA-11 (to North Korean AF as 24)
People's Liberation Army Air Force Museum,
Changping, China 91/02
(displ. as "North Korean AF 24")

- • LA-11 (to AURI /Indonesian AF as F-911)
Indonesian AF Museum, Adisutjipto AB,
Yogyakarta .86/02

[DaveM2]

La 5s, no originals are known to exist. The Moscow example is a replica, and the CAF apparantly didn't acquire the Russian types reported at the time ( perhaps someone can elaborate more on that?). This included a supposed La-5.which according to my Russian friends doesn't exist ( maybe why it wasn't acquired )
Fighter Factory has some substantial original parts of la-5
There is an La 9 on display in Pyongyang, Nth Korea.

Dave

Last edited by DaveM2 on Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[JDK]

Thanks Dave.

[Michel Lemieux]

Firebird wrote:

Wow.....only $850k as well........crikey......that's way cheaper than what I was expecting for such a rare as well as high performance beast...

Same thing.......not that I could afford it

But the price REALLY seems low for a bird of this rarity.

Now to the point of saying a sacrilege.......Do you think this would make a sexy racer or what

[Canso42]

How durable is the airframe for that kind of flying? I like the Yak -11's with the Pratts personally. I heard there was a Cyclone 3350 powered Yak that showed up at Reno but other than that, I haven't heard much about it. Can anyone comment on that one?
Canso42

[Neal Nurmi]

Well there's a well-sorted R-2800 Yak-11 development that does race regularly and fairly reliably, at up to about 440 mph lap speeds. A few years ago there was a turbo-compound (I think) 3350 mod that was almost unflyable with the original stock tail. It came back a year later with a T-33 tail and showed promise but ended up badly damaged in a one gear up and one down crash landing with an overheating engine due, supposedly, to an undiscovered vandal's bullet in the boil-off cooling system. It was flown that year, by the way, by the well known test pilot Neil Anderson. It was very badly torn up -- a crop duster named Jack Frost in Arkansas or somewhere down south has the remains, but nothing's been heard about it for many moons...

[Scotty G]

Neal,

Good recollection.

While the bullet story is popular, that wasn't really the cause of the accident. It may have, however, been a factor. "Mr. Awesome" was the R-3350 PRT Yak-11 mod'd by Joe Kasparoff and his talented crew, including Matt Jackson.

I've spoken to Skip about flying it, and while the qualities were poor, it was a fast SOB. I hear the T-33 tail made it a really good racer and a much better flier.

When Neil flew it, the racer had a boil-off cooling system for the oil. Before takeoff, the oil was already too hot (the bullet in the way?). He thought he had to get airborne to get some oil cooling. It doesn't work that way... The system does not use air at all for cooling. The cooler sits in a bath of water/alcohol and boils it overboard as it heats and turns the fluid to steam.)

Anyway, he took off hot, it got hotter, and he came back for an emergency landing as the engine was failing. That Yak had a two-handle gear system. If I recall correctly, he got the gear handle down before he got the door handle down. So, at that point, the gear was messed up and out of sequence.

Here's the kicker... THEN tower told him to go around.

He began to... The engine had juuuuuuust enough life left to impart a burst of power and energy into the aircraft. Too hot to land and too sick to fly. He crashed it and tore it up.

Lots of mistakes were made. The benefit to this is it has become one of the emergencies always briefed at Reno's PRS, at least for the unlimited guys.

Know your systems. Don't let anybody else fly your airplane via radio.

My memory is also subject to the ravages of time and such. Please feel free to add or correct as necessary!