Thanks for the reply.
I have been having difficulty accessing the board, since I posted this question. Hope it is not a sign of disapproval
Attempts to add to it have so far failed, but I hope this one gets through, because the connection seems to be working normally today.
Now back to the wood. I noticed when reading Gordons and Khazanovs book about Soviet Combat Aircraft, vol. 1 fighters, that the origins of the Lagg fighter is attributed to the initiative of a ministry official, Gorbunov, to use non-strategic material, to ensure adequate supply of fighters. It also states that a certain Ryzkov, manager of a factory producing skys and wooden propellers according to a german process, (which you explain as emenating from a process invented by Lockheed) supplied the woodworking technology.
It then caught my attention that the Yatsenko project (I-28) seemed to exactly parallel the Lagg project, except it seemed to be a few months older. Now, Common, central directives, leading to parallel programs are a feature of Soviet programming. That led me to think of the french, which must have started their program at latest in 1936. The soviets had close ties with France, (as the engines are evidence of.) The strength of the french communist party would have made "industrial espionage" very easy there, not to mention the allegation that the french air-minister Guy la Chambre was a communist agent. (Does anybody know whether the truth about that has been ascertained from soviet sources)?
A side issue is whether De Havilands wooden technology was unique, or a part of established industrial process in the late thirties. Is there any expert out there that could comment on this.
Also, in view of the quality control problem that plagued Lagg production, was it , with the benefit of hindsight, a bad idea. That is, was such a wooden aircraft always destined to be structurally heavier than metal aircraft?
Birgir Thorisson.
Now