4 weeks, 7 whifs #6: Alligator Detachment NoK-7 UBK

[comrade harps]

Belarus Defence Industries Cooperative NoK-7 UBK
Personal mount of Regiment Leader Nina Rusakova, 1st Aligatoro Taĉmentoj (Alligator Detachment), 194th Regiment, Smolensk Oblast, Socialist Union, 2 September 1941 (on the occasion of her 4th kill in the War Against Fascism)



The NoK-7 (named after the Belarus Defence Industries Cooperative's chief designers Uladzislau Novik and Alyaksandr Kulchywas) was produced in response to a 1936 Moscow Pact requirement for a fast, modern, monoplane fighter with a good climbing speed. Proposals came from design bureaus and manufacturers from across the Moscow Pact, resulting in the production of the Belarus Defence Industries Cooperative NoK-7 and the Ukranian production of the Kyiv Aviation Institute KAI-11. The Moscow Pact's largest military aviation operator, the Socialist Union Red Army Air Force, accepted deliveries of both types. 




The most significant difference between the KAI-11 and the NoK-7 was that the former featured an all-metal structure and the later was largely built of wood. Additionally, although the requirement called for armament to be centred around a 20mm cannon, various technical difficulties meant that early production versions of the NoK-7 were built without the cannon. The first 653 NoK-7s were powered by the M-103 engine and armed with 2 × 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns and a single 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Berezin BS heavy machine gun. These were followed by 1,378 NoK-7 UBK, which was propelled by the more powerful M-105 and armed with four 12.7 mm UBK machine guns. The 20 mm ShVAK cannon finally entered the production program with the NoK-7M, the weapon firing through the "vee" between cylinder banks of its M-105P engine; the outer pair of UBK guns were deleted. 3,568 NoK-7Ms were replaced on production lines in October 1942 by the NoK-7B, which featured a bubble canopy, a retractable tailwheel, improved engine cooling and the Klimov M-105PF engine: 3,645 were built. During the course of its production, the NoK-7 was manufactured by the Belarus Defence Industries Cooperative in Minsk until the factory was evacuated ahead of the German advance and relocated to the Saratov in the Socialist Union, where it remained in production until replaced by Yak-3 in March 1944.




Regiment Leader (R/L) Nina Rusakova was a leading test pilot and weapons instructor by the time of the June 1941 Axis invasion of the Moscow Pact nations. Twice awarded with Hero of the Socialist Union (in 1935 and again in 1940) for her 14-kill combat record during the Second Russian Civil War (aka, The War Against Stalinism), test flying and record-breaking flights, and with honours including Merited Test Pilot of the Moscow Pact Award and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, Rusakova was a living legend of socialist aviation. By 1940 she had earned a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Aeronautical Engineering. In June 1941 R/L Rusakova was a Chief Weapons and Tactics Instructor at Savasleyka in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and the Commanding Officer of the 148th Fighter Combat Training Center.




Concerned by the high rate of attrition among the Moscow Pact fighter pilots confronting the Luftwaffe, R/L Rusakova proposed a "frontline instructional intervention" to "update and evolve   tactics, decrease the combat and operational losses, increase the air combat kill ratio, improve airframe readiness  and improve [the] morale" of those serving in the combat units. To do this, she proposed the establishment of roaming deployments from training units such as her own to visit frontline units for "immediate and practical organic combat instruction."  This involved sending the best weapons and fighter tactics instructors, engine maintainers, airframe fitters and armament specialists on what she called Aligatoro Taĉmentoj (Alligator Detachments) to "sharpen the hunting teeth of our air defences."



There were 27 Aligatoro Taĉmentojs detachments between August 1941 and December 1942, each made up of between 4 or 6 pilots plus ground crew. They flew whatever the Regiments they were visiting flew, including BeSS-1s and -3s, I-16s and I-153s, KAI-11 and -13s, NoK-1s, Yak-1s and -7s, LaGG-3s and MiG-3s. Identified by the red-painted cowlings, wingtip under surfaces and tails of their aircraft and marked with alligator teeth and eyes, the Aligatoro Taĉmentojs led from the front and achieved their goals, reversing the kill-loss rate and improving overall combat effectiveness and morale wherever they deployed. By December 1942 the situation both with training and frontline effectiveness had stabilised sufficiently to end the Aligatoro Taĉmentoj detachments.



R/L Rusakova flew on 3 Aligatoro Taĉmentojs, flying the NoK-1 UBK White 79 during August-September 1941 with the 194th Regiment (as depicted here), a KAI-13 with the 212th Regiment in April 1942 and the Yak-1b with the 268th Regiment during May and June 1942. In her autobiography "Life with wings" she notes that White 79 was like most NoK-1 UBK planes flown by the 194th Regiment at the time in that it lacked undercarriage covers. This was partly due to mud build-ups due to operating from muddy grass and dirt airstrips during autumn and partly because there had been repeated, dangerous in-flight failures of the fasteners holding the covers to the undercarriage legs. White 79 is depicted here following Rusakova's fourth victory of The War Against Fascism (a Luftwaffe Bf 109F) on 2 September 1941; the 4 red stars were painted on to the port side bort number. During the Aligatoro Taĉmentoj deployments Rusakova was credited with 27 confirmed air-to-air kills.



Following these detachments R/L Rusakova went on to serve in several test flight programs, being among the first group of test pilots to fly turbojet-powered planes and becoming the Test Program Director for the Red Banner Air Force Research Institute. Following military retirement, Rusakova became a university lecturer and aviation consultant. Born in 1905, Regiment Leader Nina Rusakova died on 12 November 1987.

[zenrat]

Nice paint.

[Tophe]

  Beautiful aircraft, is it a scratchbuillt invention, or an Arsenal VG-33 kit in foreign colours?

[comrade harps]

Beautiful aircraft, is it a scratchbuillt invention, or an Arsenal VG-33 kit in foreign colours?

It's an Arsenal VG.33 in foreign colours.

3 Koala stamps for your expert plane spotting skills!

[The Rat]

Redefines 'colourful'! 

[zenrat]

I thought it was based on a Macchi MC202 or 205.  Shows what I know.

[comrade harps]

I thought it was based on a Macchi MC202 or 205.  Shows what I know.

It's funny that you should say that: see this VG.33 kitbash based on an MC205: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/51321-arsenal-vg-33-kitbash-at-132-scale/

By the way, if you're wondering about the lack of undercarriage covers, no, it wasn't the ol' vinyl flooring monster this time. It's just that I noticed them missing in several photos of the real thing. Only 19 were built, so they might be the same airframe, but I thought I'd go with it.