Яковлев Як-3: Советский истребитель Второй мировой войны

Fighter aircraft

The Yakovlev Yak 3 (Russian: Яковлев Як 3) was a single engine, single seat World War II Soviet fighter. Robust and easy to maintain, it was much liked by both pilots and ground crew. One of the smallest and lightest combat fighters fielded by any combatant during the war, its high power to weight ratio gave it excellent performance and it proved to be a formidable dogfighter.

The origins of the Yak 3 went back to 1941 when the I 30 prototype was offered along with the I 26 (Yak 1) as an alternative design. The I 30, powered by a Klimov M 105P engine, was of all metal construction, using a wing with dihedral on the outer panels. Like the early Yak 1, it had a ShVAK cannon firing through the hollow driveshaft nose spinner as a motornaya pushka (моторная пушка Literally: 'Motor Cannon'), twin synchronized ShKAS machine guns in cowling mounts and a ShVAK cannon in each wing. During the Battle of Stalingrad, Luftwaffe fighters exhibited significant speed, climb rate, and armament advantages over those of the VVS. The Yak 1 then in service was understood to be in urgent need of a modernization were it to fight on equal footing against the latest models of German fighters, as well as better energy retention and higher firepower. Then, in 1943, a group of designers headed by Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev designed the Yak 3, a further development of the proven Yak 1 aimed at improving survivability, flight characteristics and firepower, which required a lower weight, a higher power engine and therefore, faster speed.

The first of two prototypes had a slatted wing to improve handling and short field performance while the second prototype had a wooden wing without slats in order to simplify production and save aluminium. The second prototype crashed during flight tests and was written off. Although there were plans to put the Yak 3 into production, the scarcity of aviation aluminium and the pressure of the Nazi invasion led to work on the first Yak 3 being abandoned in late 1941. In between 1942 and 1943, Yakovlev built the Yak 1M, a prototype that would ultimately lead to the Yak 3, coupled with the VK 105PF2, the latest iteration of the VK 105 engine family, where "P" indicated support for a motornaya pushka an autocannon that fires between the engine banks, through the hollow propeller shaft mounting. It incorporated a wing of similar design but with smaller surface area , and had further aerodynamic refinements, like the new placement of the oil radiator, from the chin to the wing roots (one of the visual differences with the Yak 1, 7, 9). A second Yak 1M (originally meant as a "backup") prototype was constructed later that year, differing from the first aircraft in that it had plywood instead of fabric covering of the rear fuselage, mastless radio antenna, reflector gunsight and improved armour and engine cooling. After the VK 105PF2 engine received a boost from a manifold pressure of 1050 mmHg to 1100 mmHg, additional tests were needed to determine how it impacted the flight characteristics of the Yak 3. State trials revealed that this boost reduced the time needed to reach by 0.1 seconds, the takeoff run by , altitude gain in a combat loop by , and speed below by
The chief test pilot for the project Petr Mikhailovich Stefanovskiy was so impressed with the new aircraft that he recommended that it should completely replace the Yak 1 and Yak 7 with only the Yak 9 retained in production for further work with the Klimov VK 107 engine. The new fighter, designated the Yak 3, entered service in 1944, later than the Yak 9 despite the lower designation number, and by mid 1946 4,848 had been built. The designation Yak 3 was also used for other Yakovlev projects – a proposed but never built, heavy twin engine fighter and the Yakovlev Yak 7A. The first 197 Yak 3 were lightly armed with a single motornaya pushka mount ShVAK cannon and one UBS synchronized machine gun, with subsequent aircraft receiving a second UBS for a weight of fire of per second using high explosive ammunition. All armament was installed close to the axis of the aircraft with a cannon mounted in the engine "vee" firing through the propeller boss, synchronised machine guns in the fuselage, helping accuracy and leaving wings unloaded.

From 1991 to 2002 there were 21 Yakovlev Yak 3, Yak 7 and Yak 9 aircraft produced in the former Soviet Union using the original plans and dies. These aircraft are powered by the American Allison V 1710 or the Pratt & Whitney R 1830 Twin Wasp engine in place of the Klimov V 12s used during the war. Several of these aircraft are airworthy, mostly based in the United States with others in Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Others have been converted to "Yak 3U" status from original Yak 11 trainers for private owners and museums. Flying a modified modern production Yak 3UPW powered by a Pratt & Whitney R 2000 engine, William Whiteside set an official international speed record for piston engined aircraft in the under category on 10 October 2011, reaching over a course at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in the United States, greatly exceeding the previous record of set in 2002 by Jim Wright. The following day, Whiteside used the same aircraft to set an unofficial speed record for aircraft in the category of over the same 3 km (1.863 mile) course.