Today's air unit - the Yak fighter

[Greyshaft]

• In January 1940 the Yakelov Design Bureau flew the prototype of the Yak-1 fighter. It was a rugged monoplane of wood and fabric construction which was a wise choice given Soviet Russia’s lack of strategic alloys. Its 1,100hp engine gave it a top speed of 540kph and a range of 700km which was adequate for the defensive tactical battles which it faced in 1941. Armament was one 20mm cannon and two 7.62mm machine guns although some variants carried underwing 82mm air to air rockets. The Yak-1 was clearly inferior to the Luftwaffe’s FW190 and late-model Bf109 fighters but it demonstrated better survivability than most other Russian fighters and its simple design made extensive battlefield repairs possible.
• In mid 1941 the Yakelov Yak-1M (with ‘M’=’Modifikatsirovany’ = ‘Modified’) appeared with an improved 1,210hp engine which increased top speed by 45kph to 585kph and replaced the carburetor with a fuel injection system which allowed negative-G and inverted flight maneuvers. A three-piece all-round canopy replaced the original razorback design which had severely limited rearward vision on the Yak-1. The 20mm cannon was retained but the two 7.62mm machine guns on the nose were replaced by a single 12.7mm machine gun on the left side of the nose. There is some confusion as to whether this aircraft was called the ‘–1B’ or the ‘-1M’. Yak-1 production ended in 1944.
• The all-metal Yak-3 with a 1,290hp Klimov M-105PF engine, made its first flight on 12 April 1941. The armament was one 20mm cannon firing through the propeller and one in each wing plus two 7.62mm machine guns mounted on the nose. There were plans to put the Yak-3 into production, but the scarcity of aviation aluminum and the dislocation caused by the German invasion led to those plans being shelved in late 1941.
• Flight tests for the revised Yak-3 with a 1,500 hp Klimov VK-107 engine began in early 1943. Although reliability issues forced the re-adoption of the 1,290hp VK-105 engine, the new Yak 3 could still reach 680kph and could match the maneauverability of the Luftwaffe fighters it would meet over the battlefields. Armament reverted to a single 20mm cannon and two 12.7mm machine guns in the nose. Yak-3 production ended in 1946 but in the early 1990s, the privatized Yakovlev organization called old employees out of retirement to build a small number of these aircraft (called the ‘Yak-3U’), which were sold to private aircraft collectors.
• While the Yak-1/Yak-3 aircraft were specialized light fighters with high power-to-weight ratios, the Yak-7 began life as a two-seat trainer aircraft which evolved into a courier/fast transport and then, by early 1942, into the Yak-7B heavy fighter carrying wing mounted rockets or two 100kg bombs. The rear cockpit in the Yak-7B was the location for a number of variants including cameras for recon work, internal bombbays and in one particularly unpopular variant, an unarmored fuel tank. Yak-7 production ended in early 1943.
• The Yak-7D prototype (‘D’=’Dal'ny’=’Long Range’) variant replaced the wooden wing spars of the Yak-l airframe with metal spars which allowed additional wing-mounted fuel tanks. The Yak-7DI production version was renamed the Yak-9 and began appearing on the battlefield in December 1942 in time for the winter counteroffensive at Stalingrad.
• The Yak-9 was the culmination of all the design work which had gone into the earlier Yak fighters. It could outmaneuver most German fighters at low altitudes and low speeds, and its simple airframe could absorb a lot of damage. Its deficiencies were its small range, poor climb rate and inadequate high-altitude performance, however these weaknesses were not a great problem in the day-to-day operations of supporting the Russian Army on the battlefield. The Yak-9B (‘B’=’Bombardirovschik’=’Fighter-Bomber’) held four 100kg bombs in the fuselage behind the pilot's seat but the lack of a bombsight severely reduced the effectiveness of the weapon.
• The Yak-9D which arrived in mid 1943 was powered by a 1,360hp engine and carried additional wing tanks to increase its range to 900km. An optional tank under the cockpit increased range even further to 1,400 km.
• The Yak-9DD was given a long-range US-built radio and extra wing tanks to give it a range of 2,000km. Armament was reduced to a single 20 millimeter cannon in the nose. It was designed to provide escort to US heavy bombers on shuttle bombing missions against Romanian oil fields. Some units provided support to communist partisans in Yugoslavia.
• The Yak-9K was a test-bed for a variety of heavy cannon. In 1944 a group of fifty fighters with a 45mm nose cannon were sent into combat. Despite some early combat successes the design was deemed a failure since the cannon recoil caused unacceptable damage to the Yak-9 airframe.
• The Yak-9M arrived in early 1944 with a duaralumin construction, jettisonable cockpit canopy, an engine dust filter, and other improvements. After personal intervention by Stalin the quality control of the production process was improved greatly for this model.
• The Yak-9P had an armament of one propeller mounted and two cowling mounted 20mm cannon. It was the first of the Yak fighters to have an all metal construction.
• The Yak-9T (‘T’ = ‘Tyazhelowooruzheny’ = ‘Heavily Armed’) had a 37mm cannon firing through the propeller spinner. It was not used extensively for ground attack since that role was better performed by the heavily armored Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik.
• The Yak9U (‘U’ = ‘Uluchshenny’ = ‘Improved’) variant was similar to the Yak-9M but it consolidated a number of minor improvements which made it comparable in performance and handling to the American P-51D Mustang. The total number of all Yak fighter variants was 36,737.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Very informative. I'll spare you my pun about yak, yak, yak.