The air confrontation on the Soviet-German front at the beginning of Great Patriotic War viewed through the prism of rivalry of the fighter aircraft designer engineers

Based on materials from domestic archives and other sources this paper deals with issues faced by the Red Army Air Force in 1942 due to the increased German fighters’ preponderance in some technical features. The delay in speed and climb rate of similar type of Soviet aircraft defined their own defensive posture enemy dominance in air battle. To solve the problem of improving the flight data of domestic fighter aircraft, a set of measures was taken by the leadership of the country – the People’s Commissariat of the Aviation Industry (PCAI) and aircraft design engineers. The decision to install the engine M-82 on the LaGG-3 fighter designed by S.A. Lavochkin, V.P. Gorbunov and M.I. Gudkov, which had put into serial production before WW II breaking out, happened to be advanced. However, the German designers had been also developing. They developed another modification of the Messerschmitt Me-109 – «G». Moreover, a new enemy of military aircraft fighter appeared at the front – the Focke-Wulf FV-190. The created La-5 did not have parity in flight data with these enemy aircraft. Boosting the M-82 engine and installing a direct fuel injection unit on it made it possible to increase engine power and significantly improve the flight data of the La-5. As a result of overcoming a complex of issues, Soviet design engineers managed to create and launch into mass production a competitive La-5FN aircraft that met the requirements of the armed struggle on the Soviet-German front of WW II.