Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitya  Yes is not present. Business was so.
In the spring of 1942 one fighter have stolen from Transbaikalia in supervised then Japanese Manchuria. The plane has made an emergency landing on a field with the removedchassis. After repair Japanese have decided to test LaGG-3. Flights have begun from September, 29. Definition of the basic characteristics of the machine was carried out{was spent} and educational fights with the Japanese fighters were conducted. The further destiny of this plane is unknown... |
The book "Japanese Army Captured Aircraft-Secret Files" by K. Oshio and S. Nohara adds:
the a/c was tested by the CO of the 85th Fighter Regiment G. Yamamoto and a Sgt Yoshida. The a/c had to be repaired from the belly landing, and again when Japanese ground troops mistook it for an intruder and hit it with ground fire. This was in test in the Mudanjiang area in Manchuria. The a/c was later flown to Japan but wrecked in a landing accident along the way.
The book gives performance figures which presumably come the tests, since not the same as standard sources, but I'm not 100% sure, and some numbers look a little strange:
max speed 493 km/h at s/l
518km/h at 2,400m
(the book lists an alt of 4280m but then doesn't give the speed, typo in the book?, it's also possible the other two speeds are for 2.4km and 4.3km)
time to 3,000m: 3 min-40 sec
to 5,000m: 7 min-6 sec
to 8,000m: 17 min-13 sec
Some other accounts say this LAGG-3 was tested head to head v captured P-40 and Type 3 ('Tony'), all somewhat similar in basic arrangement and appearance, but this seems doubtful based on above account. The a/c based in Manchuria at the time, for informal tests, were Type 97 ('Nate') Type 1 ('Oscar') and Type 2 ('Tojo').
Bergstrom and Mikhailov in "Black Cross Red Star" Vol 1 discuss how individual examples of Soviet fighters produced ca. 1941-42 could have real performance much less than theoretical, more plane to plane variation than would usually be expected.
Joe
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