Вот что написано в книге
"Luftwaffe test pilot. Flying captured Allied Aircraft of World War 2"
Hans-Werner Lerche
ISBN: 0 531 03711 8
про испытания обоих Ла-5ФН и Як-3, начиная со страници 121 до 127, где он начинает говорить про Tempest.
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On 6 March, 1944, I had the chance to fly the Fokker CVE, a narrow-winged sesquiplane which, I believe, had formerly been used for tactical reconnaissance. After the test flights with the Hawker Typhoon early in June, 1944, my programme included flights with the Mustang which I often took up to about 11,500 m (37,730 ft).
Having completed the test- and evaluation-flight series with the Avro Lancaster in August, 1944, as described in the first chapter, I received news in mid-September, 1944, that the first airworthy example of the well-known Soviet Lavochkin La-5 fighter had become available at Gross-Schimanen in East Prussia. This promised to be interesting, and I immediately set out for East Prussia — in the sleeping car of a train for a change.
Apart from everything else, this fighter was the first Soviet aircraft that I would he flying, because at the time of the I-16 Rata evaluation I had not yet joined the Rechlin team. Most of the Soviet aircraft that had fallen into our hands at the beginning of the Eastern campaign and later on, in so far as they were in airworthy condition, had been ‘used up’ by the local Luftwaffe units. And now, at long last, I had my chance to sample Russian produce.
The captured La-5 - actually an La-5FN - was powered by an M-82FNV twin- row radial engine with direct fuel injection. It was obvious from the start that this aircraft was no longer comparable with the earlier Soviet fighter types of sometimes rather primitive construction, and was a very serious opponent to our fighters in altitudes below 3000 m (10,000 ft). More detailed information as to its performance and flying characteristics will be found in my original test report, a copy of which is reproduced on p.155 of this book; unfortunately this is also the only such test report that has remained in my possession.
As was the usual procedure, I then spent some time getting acquainted with the array of instruments, levers and switches in the pilot’s cockpit. Naturally, I first required the assistance of Russian-speaking experts to decipher the inscriptions and indications before we could start. The engine was noisy, but seemed to be running all right, and the other devices appeared to be in order as well.
Having tried to get to I he bottom of all operational functions as usual, I took off from Gross-Schimanen at 1603 hrs on 15 September, 1944 and arrived at Rechlin at 1933 hrs according to schedule after a stop-over at Markisch-Friedland from 1712 to 1738 hrs. That evening I felt rather dizzy. I could not think of the reason why, but it could not be ruled out that I had breathed in some CO (carbon monoxide) with the exhaust gases while piloting this fighter, and my colleagues advised me to wear an oxygen mask on future flights with the La-5FN. I was aware, of course, that even small amounts of carbon monoxide can be deadly. A friend of mine had crashed with a Ju 87, and the accident had been ascribed to the presence of carbon monoxide gas in the cockpit after a new series of engine had been fitted in the aircraft. We had heard the screaming sound of the Stuka in a terminal dive and were unwilling eye-witnesses as it plunged into Lake Muritz. Although there was no hope, the motor boat went out without delay, but there was nothing one could do any more. A little later his wife was at the airfield gate to meet him for a swim during the lunch break. Life could certainly be cruel at times.
Although less dangerous, but by no means pleasant was the noisy running of the
La-5 engine, which had deafened me by the evening. On later flights I always tried to remember bringing along some cotton wool to plug my ears.
Be that as it may, the aircraft was of special interest to us. Experts were flocking
in from all quarters to have a close look at its engine and airframe, and we had a hard time preventing the machine from being dismantled there and then.
Not counting the air raids and bad weather, I met no difficulties on my test flights and my observations and conclusions were set down in a test report reproduced in this book. The reports on other captured aircraft were in principle similar. If, for some reason or other, the testing took longer than scheduled, preliminary reports were also made, and sometimes special performance measurements were laid down in separate performance reports. If flights at high altitudes had to be made in winter time or if tests were delayed by engine or airframe trouble, it was rather difficult not to delay the reports too much and at the same time base them on reliable performance measurements. Unfortunately the reproach that everything took too long was often justified. But the imputation that orders had been given from ‘above’ to detract from the performance of captured aircraft, was absolutely absurd. An interesting sidelight was that operational units frequently submitted requests that we should work out brief operating instructions for the most common types of foreign aircraft as a help to those shot down or taken prisoner to escape. I believe something of the sort was to be worked out for the Mustang at one time. But I was not quite convinced of the idea; the whole procedure seemed hardly suitable for such a ‘correspondence course’. And somehow I also could not imagine a poor POW on an enemy airfield with a file of operating instructions under his arm.
I completed the tests with the Thunderbolt and then took it to Oranienburg on 12 October. As I wanted to know more about the performance of the latest German aircraft, however, I made some high-altitude and measuring flights with the Fw 190 BG + KG and the Ju 388 high altitude bomber DW + YY in altitudes to about 11,000 m (36,000 ft) I was specially interested in the excellent performance of the Fw 190D-9 with theJumo 213 as a forerunner of the Ta 152. The Ju 88 with Jumo 213 engines was also on my programme. Then there was another new and interesting task coming up: I was asked whether I would be prepared to fly a Heinkel He 111 with an attached manned V-1 missile which was known under the cover name of ‘Reichenberg Re 2’. Of course I was! It seemed a most interesting combination. The manned V- 1 was suspended at the starboard side, and partly underneath the fuselage of the He 111, so that its windscreen was located somewhere behind the inner landing flap of the bomber. Although the word went round that certain difficulties with the automatic course control of the V-1 were the reason for these flights, the actual object of these tests was probably the intended use of such manned V-1 missiles for the so-called ‘self-sacrifice’ attacks. It was said that some well-known pilots had volunteered for these operations which did not offer any chance of survival, and certainly did not correspond to our mentality.
Our test programme envisaged a series of test launches with the manned V-1 to
prove the feasibility or otherwise of this concept. To start with, these launches were
to be carried out at an altitude of about 3000 m (10,000 ft) without power. In the
beginning everything went off quite well with three pilots whom I had known
since my gliding days. However, when on subsequent flights the V-1 pulse-jet engine had to be started, some critical incidents occurred. The first pilot had to
bale Out and was lucky to pass clear of the V-1 tail assembly. The second pilot
managed all right until just before landing, when the V-1 pulse-jet engine
suddenly started again during leveling-off, probably due to the inclined position
of the fuel tank. The thrust of the pulse-jet above the CG generated a moment of
nose-heaviness, which the pilot counteracted by vigorous pulling of the elevator
control. Then the pulse-jet stopped again, the V-1 stalled, and the pilot wrenched
his spine. The third pilot had no luck either: he was hit on the head by the cockpit
hood which had come off in flight, probably because it was not completely locked.
He suffered severe injuries but managed to land the V-1 with a fractured skull. The
first loss of a pilots’ life came during subsequent flights.
As far as I know further test flights with the manned V-1 were then continued by
Flugkapitan Hanna Reitsch.
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