While at TsAGI, his colleagues included the French seaplane designer Paul Richard, as well as Mikhail Gurevich and Nikolay Kamov.

In the early 1930s, he transferred to the Central Design Office, where he was assigned work on stratospheric aircraft, balloons and pressurized cockpits.

In 1938, after combat experiences in the Spanish Civil War and at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol against the Japanese, it became clear that the Soviet fighter designs were lagging behind international standards.

The top Allied ace, Ivan Kozhedub shot down over 60 German airplanes, flying in fighters designed by Lavochkin.

At the end of WWII, forward thinking and competition in jet engine driven planes in Soviet Union pushed Lavochkin to start development of rocket systems.

He died in 1960 due to a heart attack during a test of an air defense system in the Kazakh SSR at the age of 59 and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.

After his death the focus of the design office shifted to surface to air missiles (most notably the SA-2 Guideline), and to space projects.