Yakovlev Yak-9

The Yak

“The Soviet Union's most-produced fighter of the war.”

Yakovlev · military

NO PHOTO

Length

28 ft 0 in

Wingspan

32 ft 2 in

Max speed

319 kts

Range

750 nmi

Ceiling

35,000 ft

Engines

1x Klimov VK-105PF V-12 (1,180 hp); new-builds use an Allison V-1710

Crew

Typical config

Single pilot

Built

16,769

Nearly 17,000 Yak-9s were built, more than any other Soviet fighter, and they fought from Stalingrad to Berlin. The design was light and simple, built partly of wood, and it could fight the Bf 109 and Fw 190 on even terms down low where the Eastern Front air war happened. The French Normandie-Niemen squadron flew it with the Soviets. Most of the Yak-9s flying today are new-build Yak-9UMs made in Russia in the 1990s with American Allison engines.

Fun fact

The Yak-9 was the first Yak fighter with metal wing spars instead of wood, and the weight saved went straight into more fuel and a bigger gun.

How to spot one

A slim, low-wing fighter with a bubble-style canopy and a rounded fin, smaller than a Mustang. Red stars on most survivors. The Yak-11 trainer is the same shape with a radial engine.

Crews call it

The Yak

Sounds like

The new-builds carry an Allison V-12: a lower, rougher growl than a Merlin

One might be overhead right now.

Bogey turns the The Yak from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.