Was The La7 Really That Good????

[stantond]

Is the La7 modeled right?  Does it matter?  In my opinion, I doubt it.  Any plane that good would have been copied by the allies, and the USSR *was* on the winning team.

So, why isn't the La7 in the history books as a really great fighter? Probably because it wasn't.  AH is fun, but I stopped expecting WWII plane performance from the game.

For example, the pilots flight manual for a F4U-1 (12,000lb plane) specs out a deck to 20k time of 8 min using Mil power.  That's never going to happen in AH.  But, I still fly the plane.

My $.02

Ledz

[Kweassa]

They ARE in the history books.

 The allies from the West fought a very different type of air battle from the allies in the East. They didn't need to copy a plane that lacked performance over 15k when they already had planes that performed well at over 25k, where the opposing forces were also putting up planes, to drop buffs also at this alt.

[Kweassa]

Oh, and did a quick test..

 Started a F4U-1 with full fuel, level flight of 200 mph at 500 feet... started climbing and began timing.

 Reached 17,700 feet in 8 minutes.
 
 Kind of curious at which altitude and speed the actually test began. AH F4U-1 reached 20k in 9min 15 sec.

[HoHun]

Hi Leds,

>Any plane that good would have been copied by the allies, and the USSR *was* on the winning team.

British test pilot Eric Brown commented:

"The La-7 was to me a complete revelation with regard to its handling characteristics and performance, which were quite superb."

(from "Testing for Combat")

The Western Allies needed a long-range, high-altitude fighter, which the Lavochkin was not. Even if they'd have decided to copy it, its composite construction wouldn't have matched Western mass-production techniques.

>So, why isn't the La7 in the history books as a really great fighter? Probably because it wasn't.

The La-7 was very similar to the Fw 190A, but it weighed a ton less and had a smaller frontal area as well. Obviously, performance should be expected to be remarkable.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[Karnak]

If the western Allies were prone to copying Russian equipment that was vastly better than what they were using, they would have copied the T-34/76 and T-34/85.

But they didn't.

[GRUNHERZ]

The LA7 in AH is overrated, either that or the LA7 pilots I came up against in the past were very poor. I find the FW190A5 and Bf109G6 to be more than capable of outfigting the LA7. Its just very fast, which is nice as it encourages them to run away once I get tired of doging their awful gun passes.

[Suave1]

Didn't the La-7 have a fairly elaborate fire extinguishing system ? I wonder if that is modeled at all in AH, although crappy soviet manufacturing isn't modeled either . Also don't forget the top scoring allied pilot flew the La-7 . It could be argued that the war in europe was won on the eastern front . It's certainly true that the vast majority of the Nazi military was destroyed there . But that's something we never saw in the John Wayne movies .

[J_A_B]

Also keep in mind that by mid 1944 the best Allied fighter for short-range work was the Spit 14, which isn't modeled in AH.  The Spit 14 was as good or better than the LA7 in almost every respect (with the exception being deck speed).

J_A_B

[Darkglam]

Soda I agree 100% whit you.

[MrLars]

Originally posted by Tac:
Right now an la7 takes more bullets to kill than a b17.

< cough > roadkill!....Major roadkill!