Take a weekend, build a Yak 3 - what could be easier? Eduard thinks that nothing should be easier, and they know what they're doing.
The Yak 3 was one of a series of four high-performance Yak fighters produced in World War II, designed by the team lead by Alexander Sergeivich Yakolev. Powered by a Klimov M-105P liquid-cooled engine that was the rough equivalent of the Daimler Benz DB 600-series, the Merlin and the Allison liquid-cooled fighter engines, the plane was crude by western standards, and relatively lightly armed. However, the combination of a hard-hitting 20mm cannon and one or two rapid-fire .50 caliber machine guns firing through the nose, making it easier to hit what the pilot was aiming at.
In the right hands, the lightweight Yaks were far more maneuverable than either the Bf 109 or the Fw 190, themselves no slouches when it came to low-level maneuverability.
The Yak series of fighters was the next generation beyond the Polikarpov I-16 that, in its day, was a world-beater - the first retractable gear cantilever monoplane fighter with a 1,000 horsepower engine and more than two puny rifle-caliber machine guns - the plane set the pattern for all the single-seat, single-engined fighters that served in World War II.
However, the I-16 was not only Polikarpov's stellar achievement, it was his swan-song. Nothing he designed afterwards was successful, and failure was not something that endeared even a successful designer to Stalin. However, Yakolev was just beginning to come into his own, and the Yak 1 (followed by the Yak 7, Yak 9 and Yak 3 - not necessarily in numerical order) began a successful series of aircraft that endured throughout the Cold War.
The Yak 3 is clean and uncomplicated, especially by western standards. Sleek, swift, maneuverable and attractive - Eduard has captured the look and the power, and done so in a Weekend Kit that has relatively few parts, and decals for but a single aircraft - but it is a particularly colorful aircraft, which makes up into a remarkable model. Incredibly, a well-built Weekend kit looks nearly as good as a 500-part mega-masterpiece - yet it literally can be built in a weekend, especially if you've got a long weekend.
For those who want more information, here's some of what Wikipedia has to say about the Soviet's Yak 3:
Armament
The first 197 Yak-3 were armed with a single 20 mm ShVAK cannon and one 12.7 mm UBS machine gun, with subsequent aircraft receiving a second UBS for a weight of fire of 2.72 kg (6.0 lb) per second using high-explosive ammunition.
Variants
- Yak-3
- main production version
- Yak-3 (VK-107A)
- Klimov VK-107A engine with 1,230 kW (1,650 hp) and 2x 20 mm Berezin B-20 cannons with 120 rounds of ammunition each. After several mixed-construction prototypes, 48 all-metal production aircraft were built in 1945-1946. In spite of excellent performance (720 km/h (447 mph) at 5,750 m (18,860 ft)), VK-107 was prone to overheating and it was decided to leave the engine for the better-suited Yak-9.
- Yak-3 (VK-108)
- Yak-3 (VK-107A) modified with VK-108 engine with 1,380 kW (1,850 hp), and armed a single 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannon with 60 rounds of ammunition. The aircraft reached 745 km/h (463 mph) at 6,290 m (20,630 ft) in testing but suffered from significant engine overheating. Another Yak-3 with 2x 20 mm Berezin B-20 cannons was also fitted with the engine with similar results.
- Yak-3K
- tank destroyer with a 45 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-45 cannon, only a few built because Yak-9K was a better match for the weapon
- Yak-3P
- produced from April 1945 until mid-1946, armed with 3x 20 mm Berezin B-20 cannons with 120 rounds for the middle cannon and 130 rounds for each of the side weapons. The three-cannon armament with full ammunition load was actually 11 kg (24 lb) lighter than that of a standard Yak-3, and the one-second burst mass of 3.52 kg (7.74 lb) was greater than that of most contemporary fighters. Starting in August 1945, all Yak-3 were produced in the Yak-3P configuration with a total of 596 built.
- Yak-3PD
- high-altitude interceptor with Klimov VK-105PD engine and a single 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannon with 60 rounds of ammunition, reached 13,300 m (43,625 ft) in testing but did not enter production due to unreliability of the engine.
- Yak-3RD (Yak-3D)
- experimental aircraft with an auxiliary Glushko RD-1 liquid-fuel rocket engine with 2,9 kN (650 lbf) of thrust in the modified tail, armed with a single 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannon with 60 rounds of ammunition. On May 11, 1945, the aircraft reached 782 km/h (485 mph) at 7,800 m (25,585 ft). During the August 16 test flight, the aircraft crashed for unknown reasons, killing the test pilot V.L. Rastorguev. Like all mixed powerplant aircraft of the time, the project was abandoned in favor of turbojet engines.
- Yak-3T
- tank destroyer version armed with 1x 37 mm Nudelman N-37 cannon with 25 rounds and 2x 20 mm Berezin B-20S cannons with 100 rounds each. Cockpit was moved 0.4 m (1 ft 4 in) back to compensate for the heavier nose. Engine modifications required to accept the weapons resulted in serious overheating problems which were never fixed and the aircraft did not advance beyond the prototype stage.
- Yak-3T-57
- single Yak-3T with a 57 mm OKB-16-57 cannon
- Yak-3TK
- powered by a VK-107A engine, and fitted with an exhaust turbocharger.
- Yak-3U
- Yak-3 fitted with Shvetsov ASh-82FN radial engine with 1,380 kW (1,850 hp) in an attempt to increase performance while avoiding the overheating problems of VK-107 and VK-108. Wingspan increased by 20 cm (8 in), wings moved 22 cm (9 in) forward, cockpit raised by 8 cm (3 in). Armament of 2x 20 mm Berezin B-20 cannons with 120 rounds per gun. The prototype reached 682 km/h (424 mph) at 6,000 m (19,680 ft) and while successful did not enter production because it was completed after the war.
- Yak-3UTI
- two-seat conversion trainer based on Yak-3U powered by Shvetsov ASh-21 radial piston engine. The aircraft became the prototype for the Yak-11.
Operators
France
- (Normandie-Niemen squadron)
Poland
- Air Force of the Polish Army
Soviet Union
- Soviet Air Force
Yugoslavia
- SFR Yugoslav Air Force
- 39th Fighter Aviation Division
- 44th Fighter Aviation Division
- 21st Mixed Aviation Division
- 204th Fighter Aviation Regt - Zadar
Specifications (Yak-3)
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: 8.5 m (27 ft 10 in)
- Wingspan: 9.2 m (30 ft 2 in)
- Height: 2.39 m (7 ft 11 in)
- Wing area: 14.85 m² (159.8 ft²)
- Empty weight: 2,105 kg (4,640 lb)
- Loaded weight: 2,692 kg (5,864 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: kg (lb)
- Powerplant: 1× Klimov VK-105PF-2 V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine, 962 kW (1,290 hp)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 646 km/h (401 mph)
- Range: 650 km (405 miles)
- Service ceiling 10,700 m (35,000 ft)
- Rate of climb: 18.5 m/s (3,645 ft/min)
- Wing loading: 181 kg/m² (36.7 lb/ft²)
- Power/mass: 0.36 kW/kg (0.22 hp/lb)
Armament
- 1x 20 mm ShVAK cannon,
- 1x or 2x 12.7 mm (.50 caliber) Berezin UBS machine guns
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