Lavochkin La-7

La-7
La-7 in the Central Air Force Museum, Monino, Russia
Role	Fighter Type of aircraft
National origin	Soviet Union
Design group	S.A. Lavochkin Design Bureau
Built by	Plant No.21 (Gorky), Plant No.381 (Moscow), Plant No.99 (Ulan-Ude)
First flight	1 February 1944 (La-5 mod. 1944)
Introduction	June 1944
Retired	1952 (Soviet Air Forces)
Status	Retired
Primary users	Soviet Air Forces Czechoslovak Air Force
Produced	May 1944 - August 1946
Number built	5,753 (+ 582 trainers)[1]
Developed from	Lavochkin La-5
Variants	Lavochkin La-9

The Lavochkin La-7 (Russian: Лавочкин Ла-7; NATO reporting name: Fin)^[2] was a piston-engined single-seat Soviet fighter aircraft developed during World War II by the Lavochkin Design Bureau. It was a development and refinement of the Lavochkin La-5, and the last in a family of aircraft that had begun with the LaGG-1 in 1938. Its first flight was in early 1944 and it entered service with the Soviet Air Forces later in the year. A small batch of La-7s was given to the Czechoslovak Air Force the following year, but it was otherwise not exported. Armed with two or three 20 mm (0.8 in) cannon, it had a top speed of 661 kilometers per hour (411 mph). The La-7 was felt by its pilots to be at least the equal of any German piston-engined fighter. It was phased out in 1947 by the Soviet Air Force, but served until 1950 with the Czechoslovak Air Force.^[3]