La-11 (China)
| This page is about the fighter La-11 (China). For the Soviet version, see La-11. |
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Contents
Description
The ␗La-11 is a rank IV Chinese fighter with a battle rating of 5.3 (AB/RB) and 5.7 (SB). It was introduced in Update "Winged Lions".
General info
Flight performance
Owners of La-11 pack or La-9 will soon find themselves home: La-11 found in Chinese tech tree is identical to the Soviet one, which again is a long-range and upweighted version of La-9. So a noticeable difference between the two Lavochkins is the maneuverability, due to the weight increase with higher capacity of fuel, at full load, La-11 performs nowhere like a La-9; while bringing 30 minutes worth of fuel, or at lighter weight as stated in original flight tests conducted by test pilots, it starts to have similar handling to a La-9.
Since both the Chinese one and Soviet one are identical, they shared the same M-82FN air-cooled piston engine; which was specialized at below 4,000 m, This engine, at 1,650 hp when spaded, could push the La-11 up to 680 km/h at 6,800 m albeit its worse performance to liquid-cooled engines at such altitude. So keeping yourself below 4,000 m is suggested, which might become a problem when being suppressed by late WWII propellers at higher altitudes.
| Characteristics | Max Speed (km/h at _,___ m) |
Max altitude (metres) |
Turn time (seconds) |
Rate of climb (metres/second) |
Take-off run (metres) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB | RB | AB | RB | AB | RB | |||
| Stock | ___ | ___ | 10250 | __._ | __._ | __._ | __._ | ___ |
| Upgraded | ___ | ___ | __._ | __._ | __._ | __._ | ||
Details
| Features | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat flaps | Take-off flaps | Landing flaps | Air brakes | Arrestor gear |
| _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Limits | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wings (km/h) | Gear (km/h) | Flaps (km/h) | Max Static G | |||
| Combat | Take-off | Landing | + | - | ||
| 0 | 320 | ___ | ___ | ___ | ~__ | ~__ |
| Optimal velocities (km/h) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailerons | Rudder | Elevators | Radiator |
| < ___ | < ___ | < ___ | > ___ |
Survivability and armour
Equipment-wise, like the Soviet La-11, the aircraft did retained the same nitrogen generator in all fuel tanks, used to minimize the possibility of enemy hits set the plane ablaze.
While the protection of La-11 is still nowhere to be proud of; while two bulletproof glass plates and a steel plate behind the pilot can stop machine gun bullets, anything that is considered an autocannon can finish off the pilot with ease.
- Steel plate
- Rear of cockpit, behind the seat- 8.5 mm
- Bulletproof glass
- Windshield- 55 mm
- Rear of cockpit, behind the headrest- 66 mm
Modifications and economy
| Flight performance | Survivability | Weaponry | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Offensive armament
The La-11 (China) is armed with:
- 3 x 23 mm NS-23 cannons, nose-mounted (75 rpg = 225 total)
La-11 was designed to be an interceptor, thus only three NS-23 cannons were mounted on the nose, which can do very little to armored ground targets.
For those who were familiar with Yakovlev Yak-9 family or the Lavochkin duo of propellers which used NS-23 as their cannon of choice, players can get used to La-11 fairly quickly; even new players can handle this cannon thanks to its devastating firepower and straight ballistic. A short burst with air belt can send even the heaviest of interceptors straight back to the hanger with ease. Although it has one less cannon than a La-9 and the ammo pool is nowhere healthy to be trigger-happy, some practice on conserving ammo can certainly enhance the odds to shoot enemies down with fewer rounds used.
Usage in battles
Since both La-11s are identical, their playstyle is the same; while in Chinese case, this plane would come before its predecessor, La-9 in the tech tree, so it would also become the trainer aircraft for La-9 with similar performance.
A common feature of Lavochkin aircraft is the air-cooled engine and the La-11 is no exception: the same M-82FN engine is retained from its predecessor so in terms of speed and acceleration; while having more fuel is a good thing, this costs La-11 quite something in terms of the overall maneuverability; therefore, in most cases, 30 minutes worth of fuel is more than enough to handle the battle while giving it the performance of a La-9. The stat card marked that it can go 680 km/h at 6200 m, although it might sound good at the first place, once players got their hands on it, La-11 couldn't go beyond 4000 m without severe power loss at higher altitude; to make things worse, enemy fighters are very likely at least a kilometer above of you and sometimes even 3 km. To utilize La-11 to the greatest extent, players should keep themselves below 4000 m and look for any enemy who has been baited into lower altitudes; this is where it start to shine, thanks to its acceleration, even if your hit-and-run or boom-and-zoom failed, it can run away with relative ease; those three 23 mm cannons can make sure the enemy won't see another day if the shots landed on their aircraft. It can also serve as a head-on fighter thanks to its straight ballistics, with trick moves, La-11 is more likely to survive a head-on and claiming the victory of the battle, with some damages to the fuselage of course.
But keep in mind that the La-11 suffers from subpar, or sometimes even inferior directional control when the plane is at around 700 km/h, which can be common if you have to chase down fighters which have been baited down, so it is essential to learn how to compensate the directional control with your ailerons.
Overall, La-11 provides Chinese aviators an alternative to ROCAF's US-built aircrafts with better performance at lower altitudes and high acceleration when needed; but also quite challenging due to most of the enemies are at higher altitude- sometimes even a Yakovlev from Lavochkin's homeland, Soviet Union, if they are one of the foes.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- The Nose-mounted guns are easy to aim, providing highly concentrated thus deadly fire
- The 23 mm cannons can be fired separately, allowing for good ammo conservation
- High rate of fire and great 1-second burst mass make short bursts very lethal. Suitable for deflection shots
- Admirable low-altitude performance below 4,000 m
- Light grey paint scheme is effective at hiding within clouds or close to a foggy ground
- Fantastic rear view with minimal obstructions
- Has a gyro gunsight
Cons:
- Low ammo count (75 rpg) requires strict trigger discipline and limits its fighting time
- Performance worsens above 4,000 m, making it vulnerable to high-altitude fighters like the Bf 109 G-6
- Extremely inadequate forward visibility due to the long nose and low gunsight mount. Can lead to the player losing track of the target
- No suspended weapons like bombs, limiting its roles to air superiority fighter only
- Subpar control surface responsiveness at higher speed
History
See also: La-11
Although the La-11 (NATO: Fang) was among the very last propeller fighters and it contributed very little to VVS, they were still an inexpensive supplement for the Soviet allies including the newly born PLAAF who were in dire to expand its fighter fleet with imported fighters.
Like its predecessor La-9, La-11 was first sent with pilots of VVS to aid the defense of larger cities in Mainland China like Shanghai, which was still under air raids from Nationalist forces; these 39 fighters were then transferred to PLAAF in March of 1950 and there were 139 La-11s in total handled to PLAAF between 1950 to 1953.[1] While some victories were scored at the southeastern coast of China, the first remarkable victory was after the outbreak of the Korean War.
Fierce Bloodbath over Taehwa-do （大和島/대화도）
On 1951/11/30, fleet 9 of PVAF Tu-2 bombers were escorted by 16 La-11s from 3rd Regiment, 2nd PVAF Division for an ground attack run to US forces on Taehwa-do Island on Yellow Sea; the fleet of bombers was originally planned to be escorted by a few MiG-15 as well, the fleet missed the rendezvous point and thus have to move on with only propeller fighters as escorts.
The fleet was then assaulted by a fleet of 30 F-86 jet fighters; thanks to La-11's smaller turning radius and better low-altitude performance, Xu Huaitang (徐怀堂) of PVAF managed to shot down a F-86 during the fight and 3 more were damaged.
While PVAF lost 4 bombers, 15 crews and 3 La-11s to USAF, this battle also marked the very first propeller fighter victory over jet fighters for the Chinese and Xu Huaitang was then received a Battle Award, 1st Class for his victory over Taehwa-do Island.[2][3]
The Infamy
While La-11 scored some victories over ROCAF and USAF during the 1950s, it might perhaps be the most infamous aircraft in PLAAF due to a shot down incident.
On 1954/7/23, a DC-4 passenger plane (VR-HEU, named Silver Wing) operated by Cathy Pacific of British Hong Kong was being shot down accidentally by two PLAAF La-11s, piloted by Zhao Xu and Han Guangrong (赵旭; 韩光荣, both from 85th Regiment, 29th Division) offshore of Hainan, 10 out of the 18 people onboard was killed during the incident (DC-4 shared the same airframe as C-54 Skymaster, a military transporter which was also used by ROCAF and CAT [Civil Air Transport] of Nationalists); on 7/26, during an USAF operation offshore of Hainan, two La-11s was shot down by AD-4s and both pilots were KIA.[4]
While the incident was controversially and punishments were issued to both PLAAF commands in Hainan and the pilot duo, as well as payments to the victims; this also marked the most infamous page of PLAAF history and further heated up the turmoil over the skies of East Asia. [5]
Late life of La-11
The rising of jet fighters during Korean War also marked the very end of propeller fighters and La-11s, among with its predecessor La-9, were quickly withdrawn from the frontline and were only used as trainers or sometimes suppressing rebels at southwestern China. PLAAF stopped the repair of La-11s in 1956 and some of them served as spare parts for Tu-2 (shared the same engine); when the newer jets eventually replace all the propeller fighters, the last 18 of La-11s were decommissioned in 1968, putting a full-stop of the usage of propeller fighters in Chinese history.[6]
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the aircraft;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| Lavochkin Design Bureau (Лавочкинa Опытное конструкторское бюро) | |
|---|---|
| LaGG-3* | I-301 · LaGG-3-4 · LaGG-3-8 · LaGG-3-11 · LaGG-3-23 · LaGG-3-34 · LaGG-3-35 · LaGG-3-66 |
| La-5/7 | La-5 · La-5F · La-5FN · La-7 · Dolgushin's La-7 · La-7B-20 |
| La-9/11 | La-9 · La-11 |
| Jet Fighters | La-15 · La-174 · La-200 |
| Export | ␗La-9 · ␗La-11 |
| Captured | ▀La-5FN |
| *Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov (Лавочкин-Горбунов-Гудков), head designer V. P. Gorbunov | |
| China fighters | |
|---|---|
| British | ␗Gladiator Mk I |
| French | D.510C |
| Japanese | ␗A6M2 · ␗Ki-27 otsu · ␗Ki-43-III ko · ␗Ki-44-II hei · ␗Ki-61-I otsu · ␗Ki-84 ko |
| American | CW-21 · Hawk III · P-66 · ␗P-40E-1 · H-81A-2 · ␗P-43A-1 |
| ␗P-47D-23-RA · ␗P-47D-30 · ␗F-47N-25-RE · ␗P-51C-11-NT · ␗P-51D-20 · ␗P-51K | |
| Soviet | ␗I-15bis · ␗I-153 M-62 · ␗I-16 Chung 28 · ␗I-16 type 5 · ␗I-16 type 10 · ␗I-16 type 17 · ␗La-11 · ␗La-9 |
