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This site is a joint 
venture of several 
air enthusiasts 
from Minsk. For some 
years we edited and 
published  the only 
aviation magazine 
in Belarus - the "AeroPlan". 
But present situation is
 such,  that we find it 
better to carry out our 
beloved job in virtual 
space.

  

 

 

 This new project was inspired by the perfect book "Yak Fighters of WW2 Period", published in in Moscow in 1992. The author A.T.Stepanets was Yakovlev's design bureau employee in charge of test program during the WW2. This gives him the authority to create the first really correct classification of the Yak fighters family. His information is extremely interesting for understanding of development  of this most mass produced Soviet fighter. Surprisingly, the development was very straightforward. My intention when starting my project was not to make anything new, but to create a kind of graphical representation of this book. So for 4 last years in my free time I am working on the book "Yak Fighters Family of  the World War II".

Few words should be said about the research sources here in Russia. Most of archives are either still secret or lost. Why - it is a good topic for a talk-show. When working on the project I managed to find original parts catalogue for Yak-1 and Yak-9 Service Manual. These sources clarified some points of internal arrangement of the aircraft, but one should always take into consideration the way Soviet aircraft (as well as any other Soviet armor of that period) were produced - in terrible conditions with great deal of improvisation. The main sources for my work were the already published in Soviet modeling press drawings, based on original information, which were corrected according to newly revealed data.

On the following pages I would like to present some results of this still unfinished work.

If any publisher or editor will find this work interesting - please contact me.

Yak Fighters Family
of the World War II
by Alexander Rusetski

The history of the Yak family started in 1939, when Yakovlew design bureau with its project I-26 won a competition for a new VVS fighter. Production started in March-June 1940, but design proved to be too weak and a lot of changes were incorporated. Soon the designation changed to Yak-1. The evolution of this type led to creation of Yak-3 in 1944. Trainer version of I-26, the UTI-26, offered together with I-26 fighter, led to creation of "heavy" branch of Yak family - firstly, Yak-7 and then Yak-9 - the most mass produced fighter type during WW2.

When presenting the development story, I decided to focuse on the subtypes, which actually took part in combat, leaving apart experimental types and types that never reached front line.

Yak-1 development | Yak-7 development
Yak-9 development |  Drawings | Camouflage | Profiles
 
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