- Fake La-17
On December 26, 1948, the experimental aircraft Lavochkin La-176 overcome the speed of sound.
The information was filtered to the Western press and in January 1949
Popular Mechanics published a speculative cutaway, which was very different from the La-176, with the description “New type turbojet fighter with side air intakes”.
The illustration had four nose mounted guns, semicircular air intakes mounted on both sides of the fuselage and a delta T-tail plane inspired by that of the MiG I-270 rocket prototype.
When the DFS 346-1 experimental rocket plane made its first flight on September 30, 1949, reports of the new supersonic prototype were confused with those of the La-176.
In November 1949
Flying published the illustration of a “Soviet Transonic Research Plane”, with 35-degree (at leading edge) swept wings and T-tail plane, described as “One of the Red’s most advanced planes, reconstructed from three authentic photos”.
At that time some photos of the MiG I-270 were already known, these were low-resolution images taken from a film about the flight tests of the I-270 J-1 and J-2 prototypes carried out in February and October 1947. They were taken at angles from which it was not possible to see that the planes lacked air intakes.
Most likely the third photo used by the
Flying cartoonist was taken on December 29, 1948 during the flight tests of the British prototype Supermarine 510 (VV106), surely it was a deliberate fraud in which the photo was cut to prevent the British markings from being seen, leaving only the front of the fuselage with the air intakes and part of the swept wings.
In 1951
Air Trails published a three-view drawing based on
Flying information, but with a tear drop canopy similar to that of the Lockheed P-80 located above the air intakes and a straight tailplane, described as “High-speed research jet plane”.
In February 1952
Ali Nuova published the same illustration as
Flying described as “La-17”, an aircraft that never existed.
At that time, it was already known in the West that the Soviet supersonic prototype was the Lavochkin La-176 and the Italians assumed that the operational version would be called La-17 as a successor to the La-15.
In March 1955
Air Trails published a strange illustration in which structural elements of several previous illustrations had been mixed. The airframe of a Lavochkin La-15 was used, the solid nose and the lateral air intakes of the
Flying drawing and the canopy of a P-80, described as “La-17, one of the more recent Red jet attack planes, two men crew, four 23 or 30-mm cannon”.
It seems that the author of the article thought that it was an all-weather version of the La-15.
