Lavochkin La-176

Combining a fuselage essentially similar to that of the Lavochkin La-168 with wings sweptback 45� at quarter-chord, the La-176 was flown in September 1948 with a 2270kg RD-45F turbojet, and armament comprising one 37mm N-37 and two 23mm NS-23 cannon. Re-engined with a Klimov VK-1 turbojet of 2700kg, the La-176 was claimed to have exceeded Mach=1.0 in a dive from 9050m to 6000m on 26 December 1948. It was initially believed that an ASI error had been involved, but the process was repeated six times during January 1949, 1105km/h being recorded at 7500m, this being equivalent to Mach=1.02. The La-176 thus became the first Soviet aircraft to achieve supersonic flight. Further development was abandoned shortly afterwards when the canopy locks failed at high speed, resulting in test pilot � V Sokolovsky losing his life.

3-View

A three-view drawing (1657 x 1093)