An experimental rocket interceptor with six 82mm spin-stabilized rockets in the nose.

AG-1 - Dolly release.

History:
This is the only known Lavochkin fighter project to have been powered by a rocket and, like many such designs, it was intended to undertake point defense duties close to important military and civil establishments and installations. Work on the design began in 1946 and the aircraft was to be powered by a Dushkin RD-2M-3V twin-chamber liquid-fueled rocket motor with the exhaust placed at the very end of the fuselage. ‘Aircraft 162’ had a straight wing and tailplane, but the fun was swept. Its armament, a battery of six Pobyedonostsev TRS-82 spin-stabilized rocket projectiles of 82mm caliber, was mounted around the lower nose in two arcs of three. Take-off would be made using a jettisonable two-wheel dolly and during the early stages of flight the fighter would be guided in by radio control. Close in, the enemy would then be attacked using the aircraft’s radar and a landing would be completed using the underfuselage skid and fixed tailwheel. The specified performance figures showed that the ‘162’ was expected to reach 16,404 ft (5,000 m) altitude in just two and a half minutes, have a service ceiling of 59,055 ft (18,000 m), and reach 684 mph at 16,404 ft (5,000 m). Data and material from OKB-2’s swept-wing Type 346 project was made available to the Lavochkin Design Bureau during the development programme and a full scale mock-up of ‘Aircraft 162’ was built. However, the project progressed no further.
- Tony Buttler & Yefim Gordon, Soviet Secret Projects Fighters Since 1945 (Midland Publishing, 2005), pp. #113-#114.