Captured German La-5 flight test

[F4UDOA]

Here is a report of the La-5 captured by the Germans.

Notice at rated power flight time is 40 minutes and the performance especially at 20K is much lower than ours.

[Sakai]

Originally posted by F4UDOA
Here is a report of the La-5 captured by the Germans.
Notice at rated power flight time is 40 minutes and the performance especially at 20K is much lower than ours.

Does ours carry 200 rounds per gun?

Sakai

[Arlo]

Originally posted by Sakai
Does ours carry 200 rounds per gun?

Sakai

Yes.

[Virage]

good read.  Is there a site with these Rechlin reports?

[Kweassa]

Thx posts, F4U.. good read.

[F4UDOA]

No prob guy's. I luv this kind of stuff.

I picked this off a WW2 message board. This is the only one of it's kind I have seen.

[ra]

I don't fly the La-5 much.  Anyone have an opinion how the AH La-5 matches up to this document?

[Karnak]

Originally posted by ra
I don't fly the La-5 much.  Anyone have an opinion how the AH La-5 matches up to this document?

It is faster than the Fw190A-8 at low altitudes.  Slower than the Bf109G-10, which is our only 109 with MW50.

Like all aircraft in AH it lacks the individual quirks such as not being able to use WEP in a climb, the poor oxogen system or the fumes in the cockpit.

[HoHun]

Hi F4UDOA,

>I picked this off a WW2 message board. This is the only one of it's kind I have seen.

According to "Testpilot auf Beuteflugzeugen" by Rechlin test pilot Hans-Werner Lerche who prepared the above report, it's the only one of his reports that survived.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[bigjava]

interesting F4UDOA nice post!!:)

[Mister Fork]

That's the La-5FN correct?

I think I'm one of the few Aces High pilots who flies the La-5 on a regular basis in the MA.  It's a beast below 9000 feet. Above that and she's an easy target for 109's, 190's and P-51's.  WEP is useless above 8500ft.

For me, it's the acceleration it has at low altitude. You can turn fight with it as well and out accelerate and out climb just about everything, except the uber La-7.

Spit's and Nik's can turn inside you, but the 5 has a higher sustained turn rate speed and accelerates nicely if you need to extend to reposition for another merge.

It's one of the diamonds in the rough...

[F4UDOA]

Heya HoHun,

Flight test done on captured A/C are definitely the most interesting reads around.

The Germans and the Japanese both captured F4U's. I wish one of those reports would pop up on the web.

BTW, have you read an interview with this man or do you have a contact with him??

[Tilt]

Thanks F4UDOA.

very interesting................

The report is dated March 45 and the plane type is refered to as La5 FNV.

The last La5fn's came off production lines in October 44. They had FNV engines from about July onwards and most a metal main spar for most of the 44 production period.

The 8mm rear plate was reduced to 7 mm on the La7.

This then would most likely be the last and probably the best of the La5 FN's. The 2nd stage of boost on the FNV was slightly better suited to higher altitudes.

Given the report was dated March 45 what 190's and 109's would it have been compared against?

I cannot think what gave a 50kg weight displacement over one wheel.


The statement re WEP again (for me) confuses the use of WEP in the La 5FN (V). I have other documents that infer that its WEP was not of the duration that could be used on the La7 (Albeit for earlier La5FN models.) And only safely used for 2 mins.

However this quotes the manifold pressure at 2500rpm at 1180......I thought it was higher than this at  2500rpm (1200 ). Indeed at 2600 rpm the pilots notes claim that manifold should be 1260 but his could only be used at take of for no more than 30 secs!

Roll data!......at last .........wtg

Stall data..........I wonder what weight this AC was at? I wonder what the effects of prop was would bring if / when full throttle was applied.  However given all that it seems to me that AH's stall model is nearer these figures than I would have initially surmised..........wtg HTC.

Landing data is again zero throttle and they seem to miss the actual landing speed other than "throttle should be used for level flight below 112Km/hr".

Galloping landing has been quoted elsewhere...........ps it was worse in the la7 which had slightly longer gear to clear the slightly bigger prop.

Fumes in the cockpit bedeviled all lavochkins

[HoHun]

Hi F4UDOA,

>BTW, have you read an interview with this man or do you have a contact with him??

I've merely read his book. Lerche passed away in 1994.

>The Germans and the Japanese both captured F4U's. I wish one of those reports would pop up on the web.

Well, in the appendix to his book Lerche's son mentions that their research was hindered by some archives that simply were uncooperative for unknown reasons. That could mean that as soon as these archives make more of their material available, one of Lerche's reports could reappear - if we're lucky :-)

(The appendix is dated 1997, so it probably wasn't just the normal cold war non-cooperativeness.)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[HoHun]

Hi Tilt,

>Roll data!......at last .........wtg

Didn't I provide you with a translation of the German version a while back? Unless I worked sloppily, the roll data should have been in there, too :-)

The German version has some gaps in the "A stall in a steep turn ..." paragraph, which the English version has pasted over with neither obvious contradiction nor additional information. I can't tell if they had a clearer copy of the report or if they just relied on guessing.

>The 8mm rear plate was reduced to 7 mm on the La7.

Thanks, that's interesting information!

>Given the report was dated March 45 what 190's and 109's would it have been compared against?

The 8-... designation is an RLM habit - every aircraft (and engine, and propeller ...) seems to have had an 8- designation for some reason. This doesn't give away the version, though.

The use of MW50 tells us that the Me 109 had 1800 HP at least. On the other hand, the poor initial climb attributed to the Fw 190 tells us that is probably was a radial-engined model without the boost increase introduced mid-1944.

(The La-5's climb rate actually is given as 16 - 17 m/s, not as 16.17 m/s as in the above quote.)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)