Midland Publishing

Lavochkin's Last Jets Red Star Volume 32

by  Yefim Gordon

Reviewed By  Phil Pignataro, IPMS# 17254

MSRP: $36.95 ISBN: 1-85780-253-5 Distributed by Specialty Press Publishers and Wholesalers www.specialtypress.com The plane on the cover of this book really caught my eye. It looked like a meld of a Mig-15 and a pod racer from a Star Wars movie. I had to read further to find out what it actually was. When I hear Lavochkin, their piston-engine, WWII fighters come to mind. It isn't a name I usually associate with jet fighters. What do I know? This volume of the growing Red Star series of books covers their jet aircraft during the late 1940's and early 1950's. The story of the first Lavochkin jets is in Volume 4 of this series, while their final machine, the La-250 Anaconda, is in Volume 19. Mr. Gordon goes into great depth in his coverage of the La-15, La-176, and La-200 series aircraft in this 128 page, softbound book. The chapters are as follows: Introduction: A brief history of Soviet jet fighter development soon after WW II 1. "Little Arrow": Lavochkin's first swept winged fighter, the La-160. 2. Chasing Mach 1: Traces the development of the La-168, a Rolls Royce Nene powered prototype fighter. 3. The Production Jet: La-174 derived from the La-168 turns into the production version, the La-15. This aircraft was a contemporary of the Mig-15, but did not enjoy extended production. 4. The La-15 in Detail: An extensive look at the structure and systems of this machine. 5. Supersonic - At Last: A further refinement of the La-15, the La-176 experimental fighter achieves supersonic flight in a dive. 6. Mismatch: La-190 is an experimental interceptor powered by the Lyul'ka AL-5 turbojet. This was a marriage that proved fatal for the project. 7. Gruesome Twosome: Story of the two-seat interceptor, the La-200 -- the aircraft pictured on the cover of the book! It also had two engines: one in the aft fuselage and one in the forward section with its exhaust angled down under cockpit. I can only imagine how noisy that must have been for the crew. Line Drawings Colour Artwork I've read several of the Red Star series books and have often remarked the drawings of the aircraft are never to scale which would be valuable to the modeler. Here, however, the author does present drawings with scales beside them. Unfortunately, there is no explanation as to what size they represent. I think they are metric. Some progress has been made, but we're not quite there yet. All the aircraft mentioned in the text have drawings. The numerous pictures throughout the book are black-and-white and show a lot of detail. Gordon does provide, however, two color photos of the La-15 along with two pages of color profiles. As with other books in this series, Yefim Gordon presents a wealth of information along with many photographs (250). There is something in this volume for the historian, Russian aircraft enthusiast, as well as the modeler. Coopertiva produces a 1/72 model of the La-15 and this book would be very helpful in getting the details right. You can order Volume 32 directly from Specialty Press at 1-800-895-4585 or at www.specialtypress.com. I want to thank Marie Norton of Specialty Press and John Noack of IPMS for the review copy.

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