La-9

  • Yes!
  • No!
0 voters

Shortly after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in 1949, the Soviet Union had planned to quickly militarize the nation. To acomplish this, an airforce was needed, which resulted in the forming of the KVP (Kasernierte Volkspolizei), a militarized police-force. Already in 1950, it was planned to have a total of 220 German pilots be trained in the operation of the MiG-15 fighter-jet from 1952 to 1954.

To achieve this, the VP-Luft was founded in 1950, and the initial training of ground-personnell and the import of small piston-trainers begun in 1952. One of the plane-types were five La-9 piston-fighters, which were not meant to be flown by the Germans, instead serving as training planes for ground-based engineering-teams.

Nontheless I want to suggest this plane for Germany, as the planes were owned by the VP-Luft, and are even mentioned in the inventory report from 1953, which specifically shows five La-9 fighters to be present.

Furthermore, the planes do not seem to have been disarmed, retaining their cannon-armament, and additionally, with the introduction of the F-16AJ, the German La-9 would seem to hold more water than the Japanese F-16, considering Germany was actually in possession of the type

Images / illustrations:

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The planes did not receive any German markings, instead retaining the Soviet ones, however, a case could be made for a semi-historical LSK skin, which retains the base-coa color, and replaces the Soviet airforce stars with the German diamond in it’s first, 1955 itteration:

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image

At the same time, we already have a plane with foreign markings in the game, the French F-6C, which has an alternative skin with USAF markings:

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Because of these facts, I would still like to suggest this plane for Germany, as it would be an excellent top-tier piston-engine fighter, something Germany is otherwise quite lacking in.

Specifications:

Crew: 1
Length: 8,63m
Wingspan: 9,8m
Height: 3,56m
Empty weight: 2.638kg
Gross weight: 3.425kg
Max take-off weight: 3.676kg
Powerplant: Shvetsov ASh-82 (1.850hp)
Max speed: 690 kph
Range: 1.735km
Service-ceiling: 10.800m
Armament: 4x NS-23 23mm cannons (75 rpg)

Conclusion:

I personally thing the La-9 would be an excellent fighter for Germany, as it is a high-performance interceptor / escort fighter with great low-altitude performance, something Germany doesn’t really have at the higher propeller-fighter battle-ratings. Especially with a semi-historical skin with East German roundels, this would be a good pick to flesh out German top-tier propeller planes.

Sources:

Spoiler

Lavochkin La-9 - Wikipedia
Chronik der LSK/LV der DDR
Die Flugzeuge der NVA: Ein kleiner Überblick über die Luftfahrzeuge der NVA - JetJournal
La 9 der KVP Luft der DDR Umbau „Mikromir“ 1/48 - janhimmelreichs Webseite!
https://home.snafu.de/veith/Texte/Chronik-der-Luftstreitkraefte.pdf

3 Likes

I don’t think La-9 is really needed as of now in the German tree. I would much rather prefer more WW2 planes they had.

7 Likes

The problem is, Germany has no real counterpart to the La-9 in terms of raw low-altitude performance. All German props were tuned for mid to high altitude and also the overall performance of German WW2 propeller fighters is lacking when compared to allied late- and post-war props. The La-9 would most likely be the best performing low-altitude prop-fighter Germany can get.

2 Likes

La-9 is not that good in itself. Maybe it has good top speed at Sea level but is subpart when it comes to maneuvering. Bf-109K4 is not that bad at low altitude. Most planes in the game are tuned for mid-high altitudes aside from Yak series of props.

1 Like

-1 from me. I don’t feel that there is a good enough of a reason to include it gameplay-wise, and the story behind the aircraft in German “service” isn’t interesting enough where I would want to see it’s inclusion. It would just end up being more unnecessary copy-paste that would be better off not existing at all.

3 Likes

-1 Honestly not interesting. Germany produced so many unique propeller aircraft that there is no gaps to cover up in ranks 1-4, or no gaps large enough to warrant a copy-paste.

2 Likes