Laville DI-4

DI-4
Role	Fighter
National origin	Soviet Union
Designer	Henri Laville
First flight	4 January 1932
Number built	One

Laville DI-4 (Russian: Лавиль ДИ-4) was a prototype two-seat fighter aircraft developed in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The chief designer Henri Laville was one of several French aviation specialists invited to work in the Soviet Union and not surprisingly the DI-4 layout was typical of the French trend at the time with a high-mounted gull wing (first for a Soviet aircraft) and all-metal construction. Test flight program was completed in 1933 but despite good performance the aircraft did not enter mass production, in part because Soviet Union had no plans to purchase the Curtiss V-1570 engine.^[1]

Specifications (DI-4)

Data from Shavrov 1985^[1]

General characteristics

• Crew: Two
• Length: 8.5 m (27 ft 11 in)
• Wingspan: 13.3 m (43 ft 8 in)
• Height: ()
• Wing area: 23.9 m² (257.3 ft²)
• Empty weight: 1,448 kg (3,192 lb)
• Loaded weight: 1,949 kg (4,297 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Curtiss V-1570 Conqueror V12 engine, 448 kW (600 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 266 km/h (144 knots, 165 mph)
• Range: 500 km (270 nm, 311 mi)
• Service ceiling: 6,440 m (21,129 ft)
• Wing loading: 82 kg/m² (17 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 230 W/kg (0.14 hp/lb)
  
• Time to altitude: 17 min to 5,000 m (16,400 ft)
• Horizontal turn time: 15 sec

Armament

• 2× 7.62 mm (0.3 in) synchronized PV-1 machine guns
• 2x 7.62 mm (0.3 in) turret-mounted DA machine guns

References

1. Shavrov V.B. (1985). Istoriia konstruktskii samoletov v SSSR do 1938 g. (3 izd.) (in Russian). Mashinostroenie. ISBN 5-217-03112-3.