The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 fighter was one of the most popular Soviet fighter aircrafts in the beginning of the World War II. Its solid wood mockup was recreated without the traditionally used frame due to the poor preservation of such aircrafts.
According to Vladimir Berns, Aviarestavratsiya CEO, Professor of Aircraft Strength Department, NSTU NETI, the airplanes which Aviarestavratsiya had recreated earlier, such as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3, Polikarpov I-153 Chaika, Polikarpov I-16 and others, had a preserved frame which served the basis for the airplanes restoration. In this case, the airplane was made mostly of solid wood. Metal parts constituted about 20 per cent of the entire structure.
"The fact that the wood had rotted is clear, but the difficulty is also that these planes easily caught fire. There was not much left even of metal. Moreover, the steel in it was oxidized and destroyed, and aluminum-magnesium alloy was burning just like wood. So there was no frame," said Berns.
The LaGG-3 was to be moved to the Museum of military equipment. Solid wood airplane has become the fifth of the six planned exhibits for the Museum. All six objects have been restored simultaneously for 5 years. The LaGG-3 active reconstruction began six months ago. On April 23, the Aviation Museum in Pyshma (Sverdlovsk Oblast) received the plane.
Previously, specialists often had to restore aircrafts using the ones that were shot down. For example, they needed to study six downed Ilyushin Il-16 and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 airplanes as well as four Polikarpov I-153 Chaika to restore their drawings. LaGG-3 was restored with the help of documentation found in the archives due to the lack of well-preserved airplanes. The restorers relied on technical descriptions, field repair albums, and photographs of aircraft wreckage.
"In this case, it is important that everything not only outside, but also inside was identical to the original. And now it is. Engineers in cooperation with aviation historians looked through a huge amount of documentation across the country. In particular, they received a lot of photos of the aircraft wreckage. However, they [the planes] were in such a state that not every aviation expert would recognize then", said Vladimir Berns.
The LaGG-3 is a single-seat monoplane fighter aircraft that the Air Force of the Red Army actively used from 1941 to 1944. In 1941 and 1942, it was one of the most widely spread Soviet fighter aircrafts. In total, four factories across the country produced about 6.5 thousand of these aircraft.