La-17

The Lavochkin La‑17 is a Soviet‑designed target drone that entered service in the early 1950s and became one of the most widely produced unmanned aircraft of its era. Built by NPO Lavochkin, the La‑17 originated from the wartime La‑15 fighter prototype; its airframe was repurposed to create a simple, inexpensive platform for gunnery and missile‑training exercises. First flown in 1953, the drone featured a compact all‑metal fuselage, a low‑mounted straight wing, and a rear‑propeller driven by a small piston engine (initially the 2.1 kW M-11K). Later versions, such as the La‑17M, employed a more powerful 2.9 kW motor and introduced radio‑controlled guidance, allowing operators to launch, navigate, and recover the aircraft from a ground station. The La‑17 could be equipped with radar reflectors, smoke generators, or even explosive payloads to simulate realistic threats. Its ease of production—over 2,000 units were built in the USSR and licensed abroad—made it a staple for air‑defence training across the Eastern Bloc. The drone’s reliability, low cost, and adaptability cemented its role as a foundational step in the development of modern target UAVs, influencing subsequent generations of unmanned aerial systems.