On September 11, five postage stamps dedicated to the 125th Birth Anniversary of Semyon Lavochkin, an engineer and aircraft designer was put into postal circulation

Semyon Lavochkin (1900-1960) was a Soviet engineer, an aircraft designer, a Major General of the aviation engineering service, a twice Hero of Socialist Labor, a winner of four Stalin Prizes. He was a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the designer of the first aircraft in the USSR (La-176), which reached the speed of sound in flight.

Semyon Lavochkin was born on September 11, 1900, in the city of Smolensk. He graduated from the city college in Roslavl, where the family had moved in 1908, and then from the Kursk Gymnasium. In 1927, he graduated from the Moscow Higher Technical College (nowadays, the Bauman Moscow State Technical University) and gained qualification as an aeromechanical engineer. Then he worked at the Bureau of New Designs, where, under the leadership of A. Lyavil, a DI-4 two-seat fighter was designed. Later on, he left for a job at the General Directorate of the Aviation Industry.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, under the leadership of V. Gorbunov in OKB-301, he was one of the initiators and participants in the development of the Soviet modern LaGG-3 fighter aircraft made of delta wood. In 1939, he was awarded the rank of Chief Designer for aircraft engineering. A number of subsequent models of this aircraft (La-5, La-7 and their various modifications) created already at OKB-21 under the leadership of S. Lavochkin in the city of Gorky (who was appointed the Head of the Design Bureau in 1940), showed high combat qualities and played an important role during the Great Patriotic War.

In October of 1945, he was appointed the Head of the OKB-301 in the city of Khimki of the Moscow Region (currently, NPO Lavochkin Research and Production Association), where production aircraft (La-15) and many experimental jet fighters were designed. In 1954, he began work on the Burya (Storm) intercontinental supersonic cruise missile (work manager - N. Chernyakov). He took an active part in the development of the S-25 air defense missile weapon system (Berkut) consisting of 22 early warning radar stations, 56 air defense missile weapon systems twice surrounding Moscow, 7 technical bases and 14 command control centers. In 1956, he was awarded the rank of Designer General for aircraft engineering.

The postage stamps provide images of the most significant inventions of S. Lavochkin: fighter aircraft La-7 and La-15; missiles SAM 205 and Burya, and unmanned target aircraft La-17R; the coupon features a portrait of S. Lavochkin, a La-5 aircraft diagram, and a facsimile of the aircraft designer; the margins present the logo of JSC NPO named after S.A. Lavochkin, aircraft La-250, La-7, SAM 205, La-17, and La-15.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamps, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow, Smolensk and St. Petersburg.


Design Artist: R. Komsa.
Face value: 60 rubles.
Stamp size: 42×30 mm, sheet size: 144×103 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with ((3×2) 5 stamps and a coupon.
Quantity: 20 thousand each stamp (20 thousand sheets).

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