Chasing the Luftwaffe-2. 1941 th, Willy Messerschmitt against the Soviet galaxy
Having analyzed the opposition of Polikarpov and Messerschmitt fighters in the first part, we proceed to the so-called “Soviet triad”, new generation aircraft that appeared at the beginning of the war and, together with the Polikarpov fighters, accepted the first strike of the Luftwaffe.
Since we are talking about aircraft operating in the 1941 year, there will be not three, but five.
Let's start with the fact that as early as 1939, the leadership of the Red Army Air Force realized the level of Soviet aircraft lagging behind the examples of fighting with Japan, and that is why a whole cohort of our aircraft designers began work on new generation aircraft.
Polikarpov Nikolay Nikolaevich
Mikoyan Artem Ivanovich
Gurevich Mikhail Iosifovich
Yakovlev Alexander Sergeevich
Lavochkin Semen Alekseevich
Gorbunov Vladimir Petrovich
Gudkov Mikhail Ivanovich
As a result, a “triad” appeared: Yak-1, MiG-1 and LaGG-3.
All three fighters have a lot in common, both purely and conceptually. It is quite characteristic that they all turned out to be much more similar to the "Messerschmitt" than the I-16. This similarity is not accidental. This is a practical rejection of the Poly-Karp model of the “speed-maneuverable” fighter embodied in the I-16.
All three aircraft were focused on speed, all are equipped with two-row water-cooled engines, all of them have elongated "sharp-nosed" fuselages with enclosed cabins, smoothly turning into garrote. The geometrical dimensions of the cars are very similar, as well as many constructive solutions, such as the landing gear cleaning scheme or the placement of gas tanks in the wing, and the water radiator under the pilot's cabin.
Unfortunately, the characteristic feature of all three fighters was the wide use of wood and plywood in them. The mass production of all-metal fighters in the right quantities was beyond the power of the USSR industry in those years. And the planes were necessary, as there was confidence in the inevitability of a future war.
In general, by the beginning of the 40s of the 20th century, the USSR was the only one in the world aviation power, which built its fighter aircraft on the basis of wood, as the main structural material. On the one hand, this simplified and reduced the cost of production, on the other hand, wood has lower specific strength and greater specific gravity than duralumin. As a result, wooden strength elements with equal strength inevitably turned out to be noticeably heavier and bulkier than duralumin ones.
Some authors of studies on this topic reproach the fact that the construction of aircraft was carried out according to the “faster, easier, cheaper” scheme. To a certain extent it is. But it was justified, because it would be unrealistic to ensure the quality of in-line production, even if it was German, American or English, in those conditions.
Too much was missing in the country. And first of all - qualified engineering personnel and workers. Alas, it is. Plus the volumes of duralumin produced were not able to satisfy the demands of the aviation industry.
Therefore, the aircraft of the new generation were wooden on 60-70%.
MiG-1
The prototype was the model of Polikarpov I-200, which Mikoyan and Gurevich refined and brought to mass production.
A lot has been said about this car. And mostly unflattering. Quite heavy (3 tons) aircraft with a very heavy, albeit powerful AM-35A engine (weight 830 kg). For comparison: the engine M-105P, which stood on the Yak-1 and LaGG-3, weighed 570 kg.
AM-35A was considered a high-altitude engine. Highest rated power - 1200 l. with. he gave out at altitudes of five kilometers, and the power at small and medium (to 4 km) altitudes was approximately 1100 — 1150 l. with.
It was believed that the 200 was created as a high-altitude fighter. However, there is no mention of such a target in the documents of the CB. The plane there is called a high-speed fighter, and the maximum speed is easier to achieve at high altitude, that is, where rarefied air is less resistive.
For the MiG-1, such an optimum height provided by the engine was 7500 - 8000 m, and on them he demonstrated his highest speed. On tests, the prototype was able to accelerate to 651 km / h at an altitude of 7800 meters. But, the closer to the ground, the worse its characteristics became.
Armament, too, was frankly weak. 1 × 12,7 mm BS machine gun with b / c 300 ammunition and 2 × 7,62 mm ShKAS machine gun with b / c 375 ammunition each.
All machine guns were synchronous, which did not improve combat capability. Shooting long bursts did not allow both meager ammunition and the proximity to the engine. Machine guns overheated and began to falter. To increase the ammunition did not allow the size of the engine compartment.
All were released about a hundred MiG-1. 89 machines were transferred to the flight units of the Red Army Air Force, but their service was very short.
MiG-3
In fact, this is the work on the bugs carried out with the MiG-1. Many of the shortcomings of the MiG-1 were resolved, although heavy piloting remained. A third gas tank appeared in the center section, which increased both the range and the considerable weight of the car.
Strengthened and weapons.
On the MiG-3 began to put two machine guns BC in underwing containers. To mount machine guns with ammunition directly in the wing did not allow its wooden structure with very voluminous power elements. That also did not increase the flight characteristics, the containers increased not only the mass of the car, but also its frontal resistance.
In this photo is clearly visible machine gun under the wing in the fairing.
In addition, in the first months of the war, the machine gun of the BC was not enough, and it came to the point that the underwing machine guns were removed and sent to the factory for installation on new aircraft. Pokryshkin wrote about this in “The Sky of War”. It is worth noting that until the dismantling of Pokryshkin weapons were quite enough to shoot down the Germans.
At the end of the 1941 of the year, shortly before the cessation of release, the MiG-3 weapons were nevertheless decided to be strengthened. 315 machines were built with two UBS synchronous machine guns, and 52 pieces even with two ShVAK cannons.
However, such amounts, as they say, have not done the weather.
Serial MiG-3, produced in the first half of the 1941, were a kind of compromise between more or less satisfactory flight performance and firepower.
Opponents in the face of Me-109 and Me-109F MiG-3 lost in everything. At altitudes of up to five kilometers, the MiG-3 lost both in speed and climb. According to this indicator, at low and medium altitudes, the MiG-3 was one and a half times lower than the Emil, and almost twice as far from the Friedrich. Then, when the power of the motor with the height of the "Messers" began to decline, the gap gradually reduced, but did not completely disappear until reaching a practical ceiling.
In horizontal maneuverability, the MiG-3 also lost heavily, especially the early series of cars that did not have slats. Depending on the height of the "Messerschmitt" even without deviating flaps performed turns for a few seconds faster and with a smaller radius.
Few equipment and weapons of the MiG-3 also caused a lot of complaints. The absence of the artificial horizon and gyrocompass instruments made it difficult to fly in the clouds and in the dark. The collimator sight PBP-1 was, to put it mildly, not the height of perfection. Well, machine guns placed close to the hot engine, which could not shoot in long bursts due to the risk of “burning” the barrels, did not constitute something that could be countered with the Messerschmitt weaponry of any modification.
The MiG-3 was inferior to its German opponents in almost all parameters, with the possible exception of the acceleration characteristics of the dive. At the peak, the much heavier MiG-3 picked up speed faster than the Messerschmitt, and then, due to inertia, it could make a higher and steeper slide. The generalized assessment of the fighter by combatant pilots, test assistants at the Air Force Research Institute and the aviation command as a whole was negative.
This is one of the reasons that the production of the MiG-3, having reached its peak in August 1941, then sharply declined. But the decision of the State Defense Committee about a sharp increase in the release of Il-2 attack aircraft equipped with AM-38 engines put an end to it. And these engines were manufactured by the same factory as AM-35A. In October, the production of "35-x" engines ceased in favor of "38-x", and in December, the release of the MiG-3. A total of 3278 machines were built.
Nevertheless, the MiG-3 was the most popular Soviet fighter of a new generation on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. In the first half of 1941, they were built on an 1363 instance. By June 22, in five border districts there were 917 "MiGs" (almost 22% of the total number of fighters). True, according to the reports, after two days only about 380 remained.
LaGG-3
“The Ugly Duckling,” which Lavochkin did make a swan. But about the events of 1942-43's later, but for now it is about LaGG-3.
The glider of this aircraft was almost entirely made of wood, in the most important structural elements the wood was plasticized with bakelite varnish. This material is called "delta wood".
“Delta-wood” had a much higher strength than usual wood, reluctantly burned and did not rot. But it was heavier than ordinary plywood.
Another disadvantage in the then conditions was that the chemical components of the plasticizer were not produced in the USSR, and they had to be imported. At the beginning of the war, this immediately caused great difficulties.
The armament on the first series was quite powerful, consisting of a large-caliber machine gun, the BK, which fired through the shaft of the gearbox, two synchronous machine guns, UBS, and two also synchronous ShKAS. The whole "battery" was placed under the hood. The mass of a second salvo was 2,65 kg, and by this indicator the LaGG-3 surpassed all Soviet serial fighters produced at the beginning of the war, as well as all the modifications of single-engine Messerschmitts.
Since September, 1941-th began production LaGG-3 with a motor-gun ShVAK instead of a machine gun BK. To save weight, the right-hand synchronous UBS was removed, leaving one large-caliber machine gun and two ShKAS. The weight of a second salvo dropped slightly to 2,64 kg.
But the flight performance of the LaGG-3 was, to put it mildly, not very. The heavy aircraft, which, by the way, like the Yak-1 was developed for the M-106 engine, was equipped with the M-105P.
The take-off weight of the gun LaGG-3 was equal to 3280 kg, that is, 330 kg more than the Yak-1, with the same engine in 1100 hp As a result, the plane was quite inert, slow and difficult to manage. He sluggishly reacted to the actions of the pilot, with difficulty coming out of the dive and had a tendency to break down into a corkscrew while “pulling” the handle, because of which steep turns on it were impossible. According to its flight data, the serial LaGG-3 of the sample of the second half of 1941 of the year could not be compared with the “Messerschmitt” of the F series, in many respects yielding even to the “Emil”. And he lost to the “yak” in all respects, except for firepower.
The rate of climb at the ground was only 8,5 m / s, and the maximum speed 474 km / h. At the height of 5000 m. LaGG-3 accelerated only to 549 km / h. The turn of the aircraft not equipped with slats (and on LaGG-3 they were started to be installed only from August 1942), was 24-26 seconds.
Such fighters first entered the battle in July 1941, often causing annoyance and irritation to their pilots who openly envied their colleagues on the Yak-1.
It is clear that the Yak-1 was not a “magic wand”, but the heavy and slow LaGG-3, which earned the pilots the unflattering nickname “iron”, turned out to be much worse than the “yak”.
All further story its development, up to discontinuation in 1942, was accompanied by a constant desire to reduce weight at any cost. So, starting with the 10 series, the Shkas machine guns were no longer installed on the plane, due to which the LaGG-3 lost its advantage in firepower over the yak, but it still didn’t compare with it in flight data.
On the 11 series, they abandoned their console gas tanks, sacrificing their range for the sake of ease. But it was all in vain. The “inherent” severity of the design and poor quality of production at the serial factories “ate” all the efforts of the developers.
The situation was further aggravated by the fact that, due to the cessation of imports of synthetic resins at the beginning of the war (we note that they used to come to the USSR mainly from Germany), the production of delta-wood fell sharply. Pre-war stocks quickly dried up, and from 1942, this material had to be replaced with ordinary wood. This means that the mass of the LaGG-3 glider increased even more.
The tests of one of the serial machines, armed only with a ShVAK cannon and one BS machine gun, showed the maximum speed of the entire 1942 km / h in the spring of the 539 in the spring at the Scientific Research Institute of the Air Force. For those times it was no good. Nevertheless, 1942 LaGG-2771 was released in 3 in addition to the 2463 instances built a year earlier.
Among the few positive qualities of LaGG-3, we note higher combat survivability and relatively low flammability when hit, due to the increased safety margin of the airframe and the presence of a filling gas tank with inert gas. On LaGG-3, such systems were mounted from the beginning of serial production, and they appeared on “yaks” only at the end of 1942 of the year.
In addition, already in 1941, most of the LaGG-3, in contrast to the Yak-1, was equipped with radios, and every tenth - with a transmitter, the quality of which, however, left much to be desired.
The installation of the M-105PF engine allowed only a slight increase in flight data. LaGG-3 with such a motor showed on tests the speed of 507 km / h near the ground and 566 km / h at the height of 3850 m. The take-off weight of the car with two gas tanks was 3160 kg. It became clear that in its current form, the fighter is unpromising, and with any modifications it will lose to the “yak” equipped with the same engine. In April, 1942 of the year issued an order to remove the LaGG-3 from production at the large Gorky aircraft factory number 21 and transfer this plant to the construction of the Yak-7.
Yak-1
The fighter was the first of three brethren to be tested in January 1940 of the year, and passed in subsequent modifications from beginning to end the entire war.
The Yak-1 had a mixed design, in which wood and metal were approximately equally represented. From the duralumin, only rudder and aileron frames (cladding - canvas), removable engine hoods, water radiator tunnel, wing and tail feathering, manhole covers, landing plates, as well as flaps covering the landing gear in the retracted position were made. For its time, the design of the car was very archaic.
Initially, the 26 was designed for an 1250-strong M-106 engine, but the engine builders did not manage to bring it to the required degree of reliability. Yakovlev had to install on the prototype of his fighter a less powerful, but more reliable and engine-tested M-105P engine that developed the 1110 l. with. at a height of 2000 meters and 1050 l. with. - on 4000 meters.
The same serial engine (or M-105PA of the same power) was equipped with the first serial copies of the Yak-1. Of the positive qualities of the Yak-1, which favorably distinguished it from the I-16 and Mig-3, in addition to a significant increase in flight data, it is necessary to note the good stability, lightness and ease of piloting, which made the aircraft accessible even to low-flying pilots.
Yakovlev managed to find a balance between maneuverability, stability and control, it was not without reason that before the war he specialized mainly in training and sports cars.
The YK-1 of the 1941 model of the year had a take-off weight of 2950 kg (without a radio station and equipment for night flights - about 2900 kg). Thus, even without radio communications, the aircraft turned out to be noticeably heavier than the Me-109E and F, lagging behind them in terms of power supply due to the greater weight and less powerful engine.
The speed at the height of 5000 meters was 569 km / h, on the ground no more than 450 km / h. Me-109-2 gave 575 km / h and 480 km / h, respectively.
As a result, the Yak-1 lost to the Messerschmitts in the climb rate over the entire altitude range, and to the more aerodynamic Bf 109F - also in speed, although not as fatally as the I-16. Such was the inevitable payment for simplicity and cheapness.
However, the Yak-1 turned out no worse than the German fighter, and the combat speed was also about the same.
For the first time, the Yak-1 had a lot of flaws caused by design and manufacturing defects. You can read about this (for those who like aviation history) in the book of the Y. Fighter Yak, design engineer A.T. Stepants.
There were many children's diseases, but they were gradually coped with in factories and the aircraft as a whole and its individual units became more reliable and reliable, although some defects, for example, ejection of oil from the shaft seal of the gearbox, poisoned the lives of pilots and mechanics for a long time.
But the state of the radio on the Yak-1 was at first sad. The first 1000 copies of the fighter had no radio stations at all. Only since spring 1942, the installation of radio equipment has become more or less common, and since August - mandatory.
At the same time, at the beginning, only every tenth machine had transmitters, since August 42 - every fifth, and since October - every fourth. Only receivers were placed on the rest.
The armament of the Yak-1 was similar to the Messerschmittou Me-109F - one 20-mm ShVAK motor-gun (ammunition kit - 120 shells) and two synchronous ShKAS machine guns above the engine (750 cartridges for each).
The mass of a second salvo (1,99 kg versus 1,04 in Me-109F) is due to the higher rate of fire of the Soviet weapons exceeded that of the German fighter.
By the beginning of the war, the Soviet aircraft industry launched the 425 Yak-1 fighter. 125 machines managed to arrive in the air regiments of the western border military districts, 92 of them were in combat readiness, but almost all of them were lost in the first days of the fighting.
Until the end of 1941, 856 units of the Yak-1 were built. In the autumn of the same year, its modification appeared, which received the designation Yak-7.
Yak-7 - single version of a double training fighter UTI-26. The weight and dimensions, equipment and armament of the Yak-7 was similar to that of the Yak-1, however, it was originally equipped with an M-105P engine, which, to improve the temperature regime, reduced its speed by changing the reduction from 2700 to 2350. / min
Because of this, the climb rate of the machine has noticeably deteriorated, although the other characteristics remain unchanged. The rate of climb of the Yak-7 of the 1941 model of the year was even worse than the machine gun modifications of the I-16.
On the proper competition with the Me-109F no longer talking.
The Yak-7 (aka UTI-26) was also used as a scout, as shown in the photo plane. The single rooms simply removed the second chair.
Nevertheless, it is quite possible to say that the Yak-1 was in fact the first aircraft capable of fighting the “Messers”, if not on equal footing, then not at the limit of its capabilities. Yak-1 yielded a battle both horizontally and vertically in some indicators of the "Messerschmitt", and even surpassed Me-109F in armament (power of the volley).
Subtotal. 22 June 1941, the Red Army Air Force, met with the Luftwaffe, possessing numerical superiority. German planes, being faster, lighter and more maneuverable, had not only excellent radio communications, but a ground guidance system, a more advanced, and, most importantly, tactic.
Nevertheless, to say that the Luftwaffe conquered the air, having dispersed the Red Army air force "with one hand on sleeping airfields", means to say nonsense.
And, before continuing to consider the fighters participating in the battles in the sky of World War II, we make one small retreat. And consider some points that, as it were, are not customary to cover in generally accepted history. And then we will be waiting for 1942 and 1943, the continuation of the duel “2 on 2” Yakovlev and Lavochkin against Messerschmitt and Tank.
It was then that new aircraft appeared in the arms of both countries, and the war for the sky made a new round.
Chasing the Luftwaffe. 1941 year, Polikarpov against Messerschmitt
Sources:
Shavrov V. B. The history of aircraft designs in the USSR 1938 — 1950.
Kondratyev V.V. Comparative analysis of the structures and flight data of Soviet and German fighters who took part in the Great Patriotic War.
Shunkov V.N. Luftwaffe Aviation.
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