Lavochkin's famed La-7 became one of the best Soviet WWII fighters, however its wooden construction limited its performance. At the end of the War a new La-7 version armed with three 20 mm Beresin B-20 guns was put into production and efforts were made to improve firepower even more by developing the new design armed with Nudelman and Suranov NS-23 guns. Called Aircraft "130" the prototype was completed on the Production Plant 21 in Gorkiy (now Nizhny Novgorod). The new fighter was made entirely of metal and was armed with four NS-23 guns. In 1946 the "130" was put into serial production under the designation "Product 48" and was named La-9. 1,559 airplanes were built in 1946-1949.
   According to standard Soviet practice the two-seat trainer version was developed. Named La-9V or UTI La-9, the new aircraft was evaluated in 1947 and put into serial production on the Production Plant 99 (Ulan Ude) under the designation "Product 49". The trainer La-9V could be armed with one NS-23 gun or one 12.7 machine gun. The Production Plant #99 also built single-seat La-9 fighters from the components supplied by the Plant #21. A number of prototypes equipped with auxiliary jet boosters were developed on the basis of the La-9 airframe, however none were put into serial production.
   Variants
   Like other aircraft designers at the time, Lavochkin was experimenting with using jet engines to augment performance of piston-engined fighters. One such attempt was La-130R with a RD-1Kh3 liquid fuel rocket engine in addition to the Shvetsov ASh-82FN piston powerplant. The project was cancelled in 1946 before the prototype could be assembled. A more unusual approach was La-9RD which was tested in 1947-1948. It was a production La-9 with a reinforced airframe and armament reduced to two cannons which carried a single RD-13 pulsejet (likely of the German V-1 rocket origin) under each wing. The 70 km/h (45 mph) increase in top speed came at the expense of tremendous noise and vibration. The engines were unreliable and worsened the handling. The project was abandoned although between 3 and 9 La-9RD were reported to perform at airshows, no doubt pleasing the crowds with the noise.
   Other notable La-9 variants were:
   La-9UTI - field-modified two-seat trainer version
   La-132 (La-132) - prototype with upgraded Shvetsov M-93 engine. Projected top speed 740 km/h (460 mph) at 6,500 m (21,300 ft). Engine proved a failure and the single prototype was equipped with an experimental Shvetsov ASh-82M instead. The aircraft did not proceed to production.
   La-9M (La-134) - long-range fighter prototype, see Lavochkin La-11