Lavochkin La-9/La-11

Armada, 1999
ISBN 5-85729-016-3
40 pages

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

The La-9 was designed as a replacement for the superb La-7 fighter and utilized an all-metal construction rather than the wooden construction of the La-7. The performance was very similar to the La-7 and production started immediately. One aspect of the La-9 that wasn't the best was its range, and after entering service it was soon discovered that it couldn't match the range of the Tu-4 (B-29 copy), so a long range version was developed to provide escort duties. This ended up becoming the La-11. Both planes were excellent fighters of their times, and actually ended up being the last of the Soviet piston-engined fighters when they were replaced by jets in the 1950s.

This book on the La-9 and La-11 is roughly in the same proportions as an In Action title, although the paper quality isn't quite as good. The pictures, though, are very good and amazingly clear. Not only are there plenty of service pictures, but there are also lots of detail shots as well. While all of the text is in Russian, the picture captions have English captions as well as Russian ones, so you can understand at least what the picture is supposed to be of. This is especially useful on some of the detail shots.

Scale drawings are also included, and show both the La-9 and La-11, as well as scrap drawings of the interior, landing gear, canopy differences, and more. Color profiles adorn the inside front cover and both sides of the rear cover, depicting some typical Soviet examples as well as a couple foreign operators of the La-9.

For only 40 pages, there is a lot of information crammed in here, and if I could read Russian I would no doubt be very impressed with the text. As it is the photos and drawings alone make this an excellent buy. If you need reference on the La-9 and/or La-11, you won't go wrong with this book.