Semyon Alexeyevich Lavochkin

Semyon Lavochkin ( Russian Семён Алексеевич Лавочкин ., Scientific transliteration Semen Alekseevic Lavockin ; born August 29, ^jul. / 11. September  1900 ^greg. In Petrovichi ; † 9. June 1960 in Moscow ) was a Soviet aircraft designer and the head of OKB Lavochkin . He gained fame primarily through his fighter types, which were used in large numbers during the Second World War .

Live and act

Semjon Lavotschkin came from a family of teachers in Smolensk and attended the local grammar school. After graduating in 1918, he enlisted in the army. In 1920 he began studying at the Moscow Technical University , which he graduated in 1927. This was followed by a two-year internship in Andrei Tupolev's design department at the Central Aero- and Hydrodynamic Institute , where he was involved in the series preparation of the TB-3 heavy bomber . During the internship in 1928, Lavochkin also worked briefly in the department of the French Paul Richard , who was active in the USSR and who designed seaplanes. There he came into contact with other designers who would later become famous, for example Sergei Koroljow , Michail Gurewitsch and Nikolai Kamow . In 1929 he received his diploma. In the following time Lavochkin changed design departments several times and was also involved in the development of a large aircraft at Zhukovsky University . At the beginning of the 1930s he went to the central design office in the department of Vladimir Tschischewski , which developed stratospheric planes and balloons as well as pressure cabins. Since Lavochkin became increasingly interested in the construction of fighter aircraft, he switched to Dmitri Grigorowitsch . There he was involved in the IZ and “LL” hunter projects. The latter, however, only existed as a dummy. He was then transferred to the headquarters of the aircraft industry.

When it became clear in 1938, after the experiences in the Spanish Civil War and on the Chalchin Gol , that the Soviet fighter designs had lagged behind international standards, the development of new types was commissioned. Lavochkin took part in the tender and, in his design office founded in 1939, developed the LaGG-1 and LaGG-3 fighters, which were produced in several thousand copies, together with Michael Gudkow and Wladimir Gorbunow . This resulted in the two successful types La-5 and La-7 , which were among the best Soviet fighters of the Second World War. From 1941 to 1945 a total of over 22,000 Lavochkin hunters were produced.

In the post-war period, however, Lavochkin's aircraft lost their importance. The successor models La-9 and La-11 from 1944/45 and 1947 respectively were the last Soviet fighters with piston engines and were still in limited production, but they were replaced by the new jet aircraft after a short period of service. Lavochkin's design office also switched to jet aircraft construction after it had carried out tests with rocket and ramjet engines during the war. Of the new developments, only the La-15 was taken over into service, but the OKB paved the way for other types through experiments with the new type of propulsion. The successful MiG-15 was equipped with the swept wing that Lavochkin had tested on the La-160 . The La-176 reached supersonic speed on December 26, 1948 as the first aircraft in Soviet history. The last model developed by Semyon Lavochkin was the La-250 interceptor from 1956. Then, starting with the La-350 Burja , the focus of the design office shifted to cruise missiles , surface-to-air missiles and space projects.

Lavochkin died at the age of 59 years during the testing of the S-200 -Flugabwehrsystems in Sary-Schagan to a heart failure . The NPO Lavochkin, which emerged from the OKB, is now primarily active in space technology.

Lavochkin had held the rank of major general of the engineering service since 1944 and was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR since 1958 . In 1943 and 1956 he became a hero of socialist labor . He received the Stalin Prize four times in 1941, 1943, 1946 and 1948 as well as three times the Order of Lenin and once the Order of the Red Banner .

literature

• Wilfried Copenhagen : Lexicon Soviet Aviation . Elbe-Dnjepr, Klitzschen 2007, ISBN 978-3-933395-90-0 .
• P. Bork: From the planes of Semyon Lavochkin . Part 1. In: Fliegerrevue . No. 4 , 1986, pp. 121-123 .
• P. Bork: From the planes of Semyon Lavochkin . Part 2. In: Fliegerrevue . No. 5 , 1986, pp. 146-150 .

Web links

Commons : Semjon Alexejewitsch Lavotschkin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilfried Bergholz: Russian fighter planes since 1934. Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2019, ISBN 978-3-613-04226-1 , p. 154