Among other things, the Cold War was replete with examples of the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics attempting to one-up each other in the arena of aerospace technologies. In the Space Race, the Soviets got bragging rights with the first artificial satellite launch into outer space—Sputnik 1 in October 1957—and the first human being into space, Yuri Gagarin in April 1961. Meanwhile, in the Supersonic Race, “good ol’ American knowhow” got first dibs, as the legendary Chuck Yeager and the Bell X-1 were the first pilot and plane pairing to break the sound barrier, doing so on 14 October 1947.

However, just as the Soviets’ first man into space bragging rights doesn’t prevent us from recognizing Alan B. Shepard Jr.’s accomplishment as the first American into space, for the sake of fairness and balance we should acknowledge the Soviet’s first aviator & airplane tandem to exceed Mach 1 speed. Say privyet to Polkovnik (Colonel) Ivan Federov and the La-176 jet fighter.

Ivan Evgrafovich Federov

Ivan Evgrafovich Federov was born in Kharkov, Russia (today Kharkiv, Ukraine) on 23 February 1914 and raised in a working-class family. Getting his first taste of aviation via the Lugansk (now Luhansk in disputed Eastern Ukraine) flight-glider school in 1929 at the tender age of 15, young “Vanya” was drafted into the Red Army in February 1932 and completed Voroshilovgrad aviation school the following year.

Federov was blooded in combat in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War (where he was known as “El Diablo Rojo [The Red Devil”]), and from there fought the Russo-Finnish War, World War II, and the Korean War. By some accounts, he may have tallied as many as 135 air-to-air kills, though this number in unconfirmed.

Back in happier times for Soviet-Nazi German relations (before Operation Barbarossa), Federov was personally awarded the Iron Cross by Adolf Hitler in 1941! His Soviet Awards include Hero of the Soviet Union—thus curiously making him a recipient of both the USSR’s and Nazi Germany’s highest military decorations—the Order of Lenin, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st Degree, the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Degree, and the Order of the Red Star.

Lavochkin La-176: Initial History and Specifications

The Lavochkin La-176 was a standalone variant of the La-168, which made her maiden flight on 22 April 1948 and had been designed in response to a 1946 request for an advanced swept-wing jet fighter capable of transonic performance

The La-176 had the following tech specs and vital stats:

• Crew: 1
• Fuselage Length: 36 feet (10.973 meters)
• Wingspan: 28 feet 2 inches (8.585 meters)
• Empty weight: 6,858.6 lb (3,111 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 10,210 lb (4,631 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Klimov VK-1 centrifugal-flow turbojer, generating 26.5 kN (5,957 lbf) of thrust
• Max Airspeed (level flight): 648 mph (1,042.85 kmh; Mach 0.84)
• Range: 621 miles (999.4 km)
• Armament:
  • 1 × Nudelman N-37 30 mm cannon
  • 2 × Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 23 mm cannon

The Performance

As described by Dr. Samir Khayat (Board Member of SpaceTIS):

“On December 26, 1948, test pilot Ivan Evgrafovich Federov (Ива́н Евгра́фович Фёдоров) became the first pilot in the Soviet Union to exceed Mach 1 when he flew the Lavochkin La-176 in a dive from 9,050 meters (29,692 feet) to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet). Initially, it was believed that the La-176's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned. However, during subsequent testing conducted in the first week of January 1949, Federov repeated the dive and reached Mach 1.02 six times, confirming the aircraft's supersonic capability…Tragically, the La-176 was later destroyed when its canopy failed during supersonic flight, resulting in the death of test pilot I.V. Sokolovsky.”

Where Are They Now?

No La-168s—nor that lone star-crossed La-176 variant, needless to say—survive today. That said, the La-168 and 176 did spawn the La-15 (NATO reporting name “Fantail”), which was eventually dropped by the Soviet government in favor of the far more famous and iconic MiG-15 “Fagot;” there is one surviving La-15 airframe on display at the Central Air Force Museum in Monino, Moscow Oblast.

As for Col. Ivan Federov, it is known that he left active-duty military service on 2 March 1954, entered the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, retired in 1974, and died on 12 February 2011, just shy of his 97th birthday. I have not been able to ascertain his burial location (if any of our dear readers have this information, it would be tremendously appreciated), but it would seem reasonable to presume that he was buried with full military honors.

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch , The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.