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Learn more about the history of a famed Soviet warplane.

For some reason, the LA-5 reminds me of the buffalo, even though that would be the I-16

From the (very good) article, this airplane will need some serious fantasy adjustment to be playable.

I hope that the planes are more customizable than the tanks at wot

The_Dutch_Oven, on 02 March 2012 - 03:43 PM, said:

Buffalos are a lot "bulkier in my opinion", it looks nothing like the Buffalo. Without paint it reminds me of The Spitfire.  

It is a very interesting plane.  They have chosen some very interesting models for us to fly on all fronts.  I can not wait to fly them!

I loved this plane in the IL2 series. Lots of fun as it was very manueverable and the cannons could punch holes in almost anything. The roll rate was the key.

Just like the soviet tanks. pieces of junk with ok firepower but no respect for their crews. exhaust had a tendency to get into the cockpit due to poorr ventilation. wow, yeah i would not want to fly that plane. im kinda scared to go into the ussr tech tree now.

HTRK74JR, on 04 March 2012 - 02:41 PM, said:

Don't worry, it'll likely be like in WoT that crew conditions are ignored, and only the plane's performance (in perfect condition I might add) will matter.

Fro the more hstorically acurate sims out there, I am looking forward to the LA-5. Sturdy,agile, and packs 2 punches in the form of nose cannons.

Another inferior aircraft that will be "balanced" of course for the Soviets to be comparable.  One weakness of it was altitude, and iirc, this game will have a limited ceiling.  It begins.

EaterofPork, on 02 March 2012 - 09:19 PM, said:

No bufallos are just plain fat, got it?  

I look forward to flying it.

But one line from the article horrified me leaving me aghast.

"canopy that was impossible to open at speeds over 350 km/h"

I cannot help but imagine how many doomed pilots died as a result of this deficiency.


I think the La5 along with the T34 typified the Soviet approach to engineering that can be summed up as:

"Not enough thought given to the humans that must crew these vehicles."

Which IMHO is the reason behind continual failure vs. contemporaries in combat despite typically excellent hard stats.

I know a lot of people finger point poor returns from the VVS during WW2 at the pilots and their lack of training.
To me that cannot be the main cause because Luftwaffe training was pitiful as well (90 hours) yet right up to the end VVS planes were still being hacked out of the sky.

The only airforce during WW2 that had a perfect training system throughout was the USAF.

But i digress.

Belrick, on 05 March 2012 - 09:39 PM, said:

You have to remember how little stalin cared for the indivdual soldier.

But since bailing out isn't simulated, it shouldn't really be an issue as much as it is in Sim games in which it makes bailing out pretty much impossible.

Я русский!

Самолёт классный

Weren't most of the airplanes on the eastern front used in tactical battles (air support from il2-s, stukas, etc)? Aren't tactical battles usually at lower altitudes? Remember, we aren't talking about bombers at 20,000 ft like the western front.

The_Dutch_Oven, on 05 March 2012 - 09:41 PM, said:

Better something than nothing.
Stalin itself ordered to design plane with "canopy that was impossible to open at speeds over 350 km/h" & "exhaust had a tendency to get into the cockpit due to poor ventilation"? Any promptly designed vehicle have some flaws, so La-5 have. And its need a time to cover all the flaws, what USSR have not. A plane compared with Bf 109 was needed urgently, so "By July, Stalin ordered maximum-rate production of the aircraft, now simply known as the La-5 and the conversion of any incomplete LaGG-3 airframes to the new configuration. The prototype was put in mass production almost immediately". and of course, modernization, covering all flaws, lasts during all production time. also plants in USSR in this time was not compared with plants in the US or UK or Germany and even prewar itself because mass mobilization. workers on plants mainly was low qualified woman and teenagers, so quality was often poor (until '44 at least).

Belrick, on 05 March 2012 - 09:39 PM, said:

USAF wasn't formed until 1947, and no training is perfect. Better sure, but the US had the luxury of training their pilots for longer amounts of time. Germany, USSR, and England did not. There was a war waging over there where pilots were lost on a daily basis.