POSTCARD N.101 - RUSSIA

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 18th January, received on the 8th February 2023

Postcard image: Lavochkin La-7
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Thanks again Julia for a lovely postcard of  a beautiful famous aircraft, which was lurking inside cover #210 

Looking at such amazing industrial contraptions (and I always look at them with the eyes of a visitor in a art museum) it is easy to forget that they were built with a discomforting  purpose in mind, but as history has been proving time and time again, it pays to be prepared to defend oneself from the lunacy of those who think the world is but a playground and people just images on the screen of a videogame....

The Lavochkin La-7 was the sibling of the La-5, a reliable workhorse for Russian fighter pilots in WW2, which entered service in mid-1942, from which he got the general looks, and the penultimate in line from the LaGG-1, before the end of the run  achieved with the La-9, all products of the Lavoschkin design Bureau.

Even though powered by the same engine - Shvetsov ASh-82 FN - as the definitive version of the La-5, the La-5FN, the La-7, first flown in 1943, was lighter, faster, and climbed better than his brother, due to the streamlining refinements in design like the total  sealing of the engine cowling or the relocation of the air intake, and also to the use of metal alloys for important structural parts like the wing spars, which in the La-5 were wooden and heavier due to the shortage of strategic materials in wartime.

The La-7 had a top speed of  411 mph at 6,000 m, a range of 413 mi and  was equipped with 2  ShVAK or 3 Berezin B-20 20mm cannons mounted on the cowling, being also capable of carrying 2 44olb bombs.

The postcard painting depicts the image of the La-7 of Ivan Kozhedub (1920-1991) a remarkable pilot who would be honoured  three times with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and which had already been featured in one stamp used on another of Julia's letters to me.