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#Post#: 3488--------------------------------------------------
Plane of the week: Yakovlev Yak-1
DIR By: vonofterdingen
Date: August 12, 2019, 2:16 pm
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This week’s plane of the week is one of my favorite fighters,
the Yakovlev Yak-1. Personally I fly fighter planes
predominately when playing IL-2, and this is one of my
favorites. Though I have been playing this ridiculously
addictive game for many years, I don’t think of myself as a
particularly good pilot. Flying the Yak-1 helps quite a bit.
Whether you are a beginner or old hand with our game, the Yak
will be enjoyable flying. It has very forgiving handling
characteristics; even I can avoid most stalls in aggressive
maneuvers. Being both fast and maneuverable, it is also well
armed, with machine guns and cannon. In short, you will not be
outmatched by any eastern front axis aircraft.
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From Wikipedia…
The Yakovlev Yak-1 was a World War II Soviet fighter aircraft.
Production began in early 1940. It was a single-seat monoplane
with a composite structure and wooden wings.
The Yak-1 was a maneuverable, fast and competitive aircraft. The
composite-wooden structure made it easy to maintain, and the
engine proved to be reliable. It formed an essential basis for
subsequent developments from the Yakovlev bureau. It was the
founder of a family of aircraft, with some 43,000 being built.
As a reward, designer Alexander Yakovlev was awarded the Order
of Lenin, the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union) a
100,000 ruble prize, plus a Zis motor car.
Prior to World War II, Yakovlev was best known for building
light sports aircraft. His Yak-4 light bomber impressed the
Soviet government enough to order the OKB to design a new
fighter with a Klimov M-106 V-12 liquid-cooled engine. Formal
specifications, which were released on 29 July 1939, called for
two prototypes – I-26-1 with a top speed of 620 km/h (385 mph)
at 6,000 m (16,685 ft), combat range of 600 km (375 mi), a climb
to 10,000 m (32,808 ft) of under 11 minutes, and armament of 2 ×
7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns and 1 × 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Berezin BS
heavy machine gun, and I-26-2 with a turbocharged M-106 engine
with a top speed of 650 km/h (404 mph) at 10,000 m (32,808 ft)
and armament of 2 × 7.62 mm (.3 in) ShKAS machine guns. The
design took full advantage of Yakovlev OKB's experience with
sports aircraft and promised agility as well as high top speed.
Since the M-106 was delayed, the design was changed to
incorporate the Klimov M-105P V-12 engine, with a 20 mm (.8 in)
ShVAK cannon in the "vee" of the engine block, in a motornaya
pushka mount.
I-26-I first flew on 13 January 1940. The prototype suffered
from oil overheating problems which were never completely
resolved, resulting in 15 emergency landings during early
testing. Then, on 27 April 1940, I-26-1 crashed, killing its
test pilot Yu.I. Piontkovskiy. The investigation of the crash
found that the pilot had performed two consecutive barrel rolls
at low altitude, which was in violation of the test flight plan.
It was believed that during the first roll, the main landing
gear became unlocked, causing it to crash through the wing
during the second roll. It has been hypothesized that
Piontkovskiy's deviation from the flight plan was caused by
frustration that his aircraft was being used for engine testing
while I-26-2, built with the lessons of I-26-1 in mind, was
already performing aerobatics.
Technical issues with sub-assemblies provided by different
suppliers raised the I-26-2's weight 400 kg (882 lb) above
projected figures, which restricted the airframe to only 4.4 G,
while overheating oil remained a problem. The many defects
caused I-26-2 to fail government testing in 1940. Fortunately
for Yakovlev, its competitors, I-200 (future Mikoyan-Gurevich
MiG-3) and I-301 (future LaGG-3), also failed testing. Requested
improvements were incorporated into I-26-3, which was delivered
for testing on 13 October 1940. Although it passed on 9 December
1940, the aircraft was still very much unfinished, with
unresolved engine problems.
Troublesome and slow testing and development concerned Soviet
officials, since I-26 was ordered into production under the name
"Yak-1" on 19 February 1940, a mere month after I-26-1 made its
maiden flight. The goal of this gamble was to reduce the lag
time between the prototype and production aircraft. As backups,
the I-200 and I-301 were also ordered into production. Although
the Yak-1 was slower than the I-200 and less heavily armed than
the I-301, it enjoyed the advantage of having been started
earlier, which gave it a consistent lead in testing and
development over its competitors. Due to the Axis invasion of
the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, development and implementation
of several other upcoming promising designs, like the Polikarpov
I-185, proved unfeasible. Yakovlev might have been Joseph
Stalin's personal favorite, which may have been in the Yak-1's
favor.
Simultaneous manufacturing and testing of a design that required
as many improvements as I-26 wreaked havoc on the production
lines. Almost 8,000 changes were made to the aircraft's
blueprints by 1941, with an additional 7,000 implemented the
following year, and 5,000 more changes coming in 1942.
Production was further slowed by shortages of engines,
propellers, radiators, wheels and cannons. Shortages of quality
materials resulted in plywood being torn off the wings on
several aircraft. To make matters worse, Factory No.292 which
was the main manufacturer of Yak-1s was bombed on 23 June 1943
and burned to the ground. Amazingly, production resumed amid the
ruins on 29 June. Due to loose tolerances, each aircraft was
essentially unique, with workers performing the final assembly
having the unenviable task of mating what often proved to be
somewhat dissimilar components. For example, the left and right
main landing gear could be of different lengths and different
angles relative to the aircraft, which required adjusting their
attachments to ensure an even stance for the completed aircraft.
Parts were often not interchangeable between aircraft.
Production of the Yak-1 ended in July 1944, with somewhere
around 8,700 built.
At the time of the German invasion of Soviet Union on 22 June
1941, 425 Yak-1s had been built, although many were en route or
still disassembled. 92 machines were fully operational in the
Western Military Districts, but most were lost in the very first
days of the war. The Yak-1 was designed with the goal of
providing direct coverage of the Il-2 attack planes from enemy
fighters. Thus, most of the air combat took place below 4,000 m
(13,123 ft), at low altitudes where the Yak-1 performed the
best. The Yak-1 proved to have a significant advantage over its
Soviet competitors. A full circle turn took just 17 seconds in
the Yak-1M. The MiG-3, which had the best high-altitude
performance, did poorly at low and medium altitudes, and its
light armament made it unsuitable even for ground attack. The
LaGG-3 experienced a significant degradation in performance (as
much as 100 km/h/62 mph on some aircraft) compared to its
prototypes due to the manufacturer's inexperience with its
special wooden construction, which suffered from warping and
rotting when exposed to the elements. The Yak-1's plywood
covering also suffered from the weather, but the steel frame
kept the aircraft largely intact.
The aircraft's major problem early in deployment was fuel leaks
caused by failure of spot-welded fuel tanks from vibration. Also
troublesome was the fact that the canopy could not be opened
under certain conditions in earlier models, potentially trapping
the pilot in a falling aircraft. As a result, some pilots had
the sliding portion of the canopy removed altogether. The first
1,000 Yak-1s had no radios. Installation of radio equipment
became common by spring 1942 and obligatory by August 1942.8]
But Soviet radios were notoriously unreliable and short-ranged,
so they were frequently removed to save weight.
Like the Rolls-Royce Merlin float carburetor-equipped engines,
the M-105 could not tolerate negative G forces which starved it
of fuel. Moreover, they suffered breakdowns of magnetos and
speed governors and emitted oil from the reduction shaft.
The Yak-1 was better than the Bf 109E, but inferior to the Bf
109F, its main opponent, in rate of climb at all altitudes,
although it could complete a circle at the same speed (20–21
seconds at 1,000 meters. In comparison, a Bf 109, with its
automatic wing slats, had a lower stall speed and was more
stable in sharp turns and vertical aerobatic figures. A
simulated combat between a Yak (with M-105PF engine) and a Bf
109F revealed that the Messerschmitt had only marginally
superior manoeuvrability at 1,000 meters (3,300 ft), though the
German fighter could gain substantial advantage over the Yak-1
within four or five nose-to-tail turns. At 3,000 meters (9,800
ft), the capabilities of the two fighters were nearly equal, as
combat was essentially reduced to head-on attacks. At altitudes
over 5,000 meters (16,400 ft), the Yak was more manoeuvrable.
The engine's nominal speed at low altitudes was lowered to 2,550
rpm, and the superiority of the Bf 109F at these altitudes was
reduced.
The Yak-1's armament would be considered too light by Western
standards, but was typical of Soviet aircraft, the pilots
preferring a few guns grouped on the centerline to improve
accuracy and reduce weight. Wing guns were rarely used on Soviet
fighters, and when they were used, they were often removed (as
they were from US-supplied Bell P-39 Airacobras). Avoiding wing
guns reduced weight and demonstrably improved roll rates (the
same was true of the Bf 109F). The US and Britain considered
heavy armament and high performance necessary, even at the cost
of reduced agility, while the Soviets relied on the marksmanship
of their pilots, coupled with agile aircraft. Even with the
Yak-1's light armament, to reduce weight, modifications were
made both on the front line and on about thirty production
aircraft: the 7.62 mm ShKAS machine-guns were removed, retaining
only the single ShVAK cannon. Nevertheless, these lighter
aircraft were popular with experienced pilots, for whom the
reduction in armament was acceptable, and combat experience in
November 1942 showed a much improved kill-to-loss ratio. Also,
in the autumn of 1942, the Yak-1B appeared, with the more
powerful M-105P engine and a single 12.7 mm UBS machine gun
instead of the two ShKAS. Although this did not increase the
total weight of fire much, the UBS machine-gun was much more
effective than the two 7.62 mm ShKAS. Moreover, the simple VV
ring sight replaced the PBP gun-sight because of the very poor
quality of the latter's lenses. The Yak-1 had a light tail, and
it was easy to tip over and to hit the ground with the
propeller. Often, technicians had to keep the tail down, which
could lead to accidents, with aircraft taking off with
technicians still on the rear fuselage.
Soviet naming conventions obscure the fact that the Yak-1 and
its successors – the Yak-7, Yak-9 and Yak-3 – are essentially
the same design, comparable to the numerous Spitfire or Bf 109
variants. Were the Yaks considered as one type, the 37,000 built
would constitute the most produced fighter in history. That
total would also make the Yak one of the most prolific aircraft
in history, roughly equal to the best known Soviet ground attack
type of World War II, the IL-2 Shturmovik. But losses were
proportionally high, in fact the highest of all fighter types in
service in the USSR: from 1941 to 1945, VVS KA lost 3,336
Yak-1s: 325 in 1941, 1,301 the following year, 1,056 in 1943,
575 in 1944 and 79 in 1945.
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In game…
As I said earlier, the Yak series are good planes to start with
if you are new to the game. You and your comrades can join a
fight with an equal number of BF-109s and do quite well. Against
lesser axis fighters like the BF-110 or Italian fighters that
were sent to Stalingrad, you will have excellent hunting. In my
campaigns I like to start my players in early eastern front
campaigns with the LaGG-3 then upgrade them to the Yak-1 fairly
early on. I enjoy flying the LaGG-3 also, but the switch to the
Yak is a refreshing and welcome change.
And finally, let us remember perhaps the greatest female fighter
pilot of WW2, Lilya Litvyak, the White Lily of Stalingrad, who
took her final flight in the Yak.
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#Post#: 3492--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the week: Yakovlev Yak-1
DIR By: Beowolff
Date: August 12, 2019, 4:39 pm
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Ah... Bravo the Yak! Yes... my FIRST Russian solo kill was in a
Yak while testing the game as a tester for Oleg! It does indeed
handle well, and to be honest, likely my personal fave even over
the LATER model Russian fighters.
Very good choice for a POTW!
S!
Beo
#Post#: 3508--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the week: Yakovlev Yak-1
DIR By: greybeard
Date: August 13, 2019, 2:51 am
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Just reading an interview with a former Russian ace, which flew
many Soviet and Lend-Lease fighters, who describes Yak as the
best he flew, especially the Yak-3. Actually in game is one of
my favourites, especially with PA_Jeronimo's rounded cockpits.
#Post#: 3510--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the week: Yakovlev Yak-1
DIR By: JG51_Ruski
Date: August 13, 2019, 4:10 am
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Very Nice Von Thanks
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