Yakolev Aircraft of World War Two

The Yak-1, Yak-7, Yak-9 and Yak-3 are probably the best known and most successful of the Soviet Union's piston-engined fighters of the Second World War with a total of over 35,000 built in six factories and an outstanding service record. Penned by Aleksander S. Yakovlev in 1940, when the Soviet Union desperately needed to substantially upgrade and put into series production modern fighters which could compare and compete with their Western contemporaries, the Yak-1 and ensuing series were well-suited to the battle conditions on the Soviet-German front and could be both easily constructed by unskilled labor and flown effectively by relatively inexperienced pilots. Not only did the series give sterling service in Soviet use, but was also used by countries in the Soviet sphere of influence and appeared in British, German and American markings. This extensively-illustrated volume presents in unsurpassed detail the development, history, and technical specifications of each type in this famous line of Soviet fighters, plus projects, research and experimental versions, drawing on extensive material culled from unprecedented access to company archives and other previously closed sources.