I have never found any actual test data with respect to Lavochkin roll rates.
Obviously some crude assumptions can be made when looking at the wing profile, the size, position and total deflection of the aelerons
Few pilots flew both western and Russian planes and the only anecdotal evidence I have is from those Czech pilots who left their RAF Spitfires in January 44 to fly La5FN's later in July of the same year.
By comparison the Lavochkins instrumentation suffers heavy critique (no artificial horizon no gryo compass etc etc) but apart from its bounce during landing the Czech pilots hailed the la5Fn as highly (excellent) manouverable in all plains and a delight to fly.
This is hardly a description of roll rate but one would expect a roll rate at least superior to the Spit from such a comment.
It is possible that the Czechs flew later La5FN's which were fitted with all metal (steel /dural composite) aelerons with improved linkages to the same. But I would doubt it. Indeed these were newly trialed on the La7 prototype in March 44 and fitted to the first la7's in production in early May. It would be surprising if the Czechs were given brand new La5FN's after their initial training.
I mention this because the new design of aeleron reduced total aeleron weight by 100kgs and radically reduced the stick forces required between the former la5Fn (wood /metal/cloth composite aeleron) and the later la7. The la5fn had a two handed (Spitfire type) control stick whilst the La 7 had a single handed (messerschmidt type ) joy stick. Hence from a pilots perspective stick forces during roll were significantly reduced during the development of the la7.
In summary this (admitedly very anecdotal evidence) would support the view that the La5Fn rolled at least as well as the Spitfire during normal combat manouvering and that the reduced stick forces of the la7 allowed the pilot to roll the la7 better still where the stick forces of the la5Fn were found to be restrictive. (presumably at higher speeds)
The question would be which Spitfire?
One of the pilots to give this account was Frantisek Faitjl DFC who was a squadron leader in 313 squadron.......
http://cz-raf.hyperlink.cz/bio/fajtl.htmlYou will note that until his departure this squadron flew latterly the Mk V (C & B) with a few Mk VII.
http://cz-raf.hyperlink.cz/units/313.htmlIf as this page suggests Faijtl is still alive then he may be an invaluable source of comparitive data few persons have experienced he also flew the la7 after the war.
The other pilot to compare the two aircraft was W/O Ladislav Valousek who flew with 310 Squadron
http://cz-raf.hyperlink.cz/units/staff310.htmlThey had similar experience of the MkV ( C & B ) with some HF Mk VI
http://cz-raf.hyperlink.cz/units/310.html
