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Post by elephantshampoo on Sept 27, 2014 11:49:30 GMT 12
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Post by Brett on Sept 27, 2014 15:23:45 GMT 12
Aeroplane Monthly, December 2004, page 49.
"Almost 15 years later my first impression after I flew the La-9 was that it was superior in every respect to the Hawker Fury and Grumman Bearcat, which were produced at the same time. Now that I have flown it about a dozen times I maintain my initial thinking, purely from the performance point of view. The La-9 is on top of the Fury and Bearcat for max speed at low level, acceleration, rate of climb, rate of roll and turning performance. Because of its laminar-flow wing you would expect it would not turn better than the Fury and the Bearcat. That is not the case. It also has far better control harmony than its Western counterparts."
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 27, 2014 21:57:54 GMT 12
It was also much more robust. Keith Skilling told me every pilot who flew the LA-9 including Ray and himself had groundlooped it as it was like that, but no-one had actually done any damage in said ground loops.
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Post by elephantshampoo on Sept 28, 2014 6:51:46 GMT 12
Wow, that's quite a mouthful. Thanks Brett & Dave.
Eric brown's 2 cents on Sea Fury & Bearcat...
Captain Eric Brown, who flew both, sums it up rather neatly:
“In the case of the Bearcat I found myself inevitably comparing it with the Hawker Sea Fury, and there really was very little to choose between the two. The Bearcat probably had the edge on climb and manoeuvrability, but was not such a good weapons platform nor as good in instrument-flight conditions as the Sea Fury
Later Bearcats had the same 20 mm cannon setup as Sea Fury.
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Post by elephantshampoo on Sept 29, 2014 11:15:09 GMT 12
I always thought the Yak's were the better Russian design-s. Barkhorn seemed to think so. It is interesting the Russians put forward 1 great radial & I great V-12, same as Germans. Gerhard Barkhorn (301 victories) " I fought against all types of Soviet fighter, including those supplied under Lend-Lease (spitfire, hurricane, P-40, P-39, P-51), and the Yak-9 was the best". In mock dogfights with aircraft supplied by the Allies, the Yak-9 bested all. Skip Holm, a very experienced pilot was very impressed about the performance and said about this Yak “This airplane will smoke a Mustang”. He equated the Yak-3 with the Grumman F8F Bearcat. www.dorst-freiburg.com/index.php/beispiele/yakovlev-yak-3/yakovlev-yak-3-d-fafl |
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