Yakovlev Yak-11
The Moose
“The Soviet trainer that became an air racer.”
Yakovlev · military
The Yak-11 was the Yak-3 fighter's shape with a radial engine and a second seat, the aircraft that taught Soviet-bloc fighter pilots through the 1950s. Czechoslovakia built it under licence as the C-11. Hundreds were sold off cheaply after the Cold War, and American racers found that with an American radial and a cleaned-up airframe a Yak-11 could run at Reno with the Mustangs and Sea Furies.
Yak-11 racers like Czech Mate ran with Pratt & Whitney R-2000 engines of roughly three times the original Shvetsov's power.
A Yak fighter shape with a round radial cowling and a long two-seat canopy. Big spinner, rounded fin, and red stars or racing colours.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Moose from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
