Yakovlev's Piston Engined Fighters, Vol. 5 (Red Star) By Yefim Gordon
This volume deals with the entire family of Yakovlev piston engined fighters from the simple but rugged Yak 1 through the Yak 7 conceived as a trainer but eventually developed into a fighter and the prolific and versatile Yak 9 to the most capable of the line the Yak 3 with which even the aces of the Luftwaffe were reluctant to tangle In comparison with other contemporary aircraft such as the sophisticated all metal Mustangs with their excellent aerodynamics and monobloc wings and multi role Messerschmitts and Focke Wulfs the Yaks were less resistant to combat damage However they proved very amenable for the type of war that came to be waged on the Soviet front where the main efforts of aviation were devoted to the support of ground troops and aerial combat usually took place at low and medium altitudes Series production of the Yakovlev fighters was undertaken by six factories in the Soviet Union In all a total of 35737 machines covering all the different marques were built In addition to the thousands of aircraft which served with the Soviet forces some Yak piston fighters also served outside Russia Red Star Volume 5 Yakovlev s Piston Engined Fighters Vol 5 Red Star Yefim Gordon is arguably the worlds leading Russian aviation researcher Born in 1950 in Vilnius Lithuania he graduated from the Kaunas Polytechnical Institute in 1972 as an engineer electronics designer He has been a resident of Moscow since 1973 when as a hobby he started collecting photographs and books on the history of Soviet aviation this has now developed into a major archive Since the 1980s he has been a professional aviation journalist and writer with over 50 books published on Soviet Russian aviation in Russian English Polish and Czech as well as close to 100 magazine features and photo reports He is also an accomplished photographer with countless photos published in the Western press the current edition of Janes Yefim Gordon is arguably the world s leading Russian aviation researcher Born in 1950 in Vilnius Lithuania he graduated from the Kaunas Polytechnical Institute in 1972 as an engineer electronics designer He has been a resident of Moscow since 1973 when as a hobby he started collecting photographs and books on the history of Soviet aviation this has now developed into a major archive Since the 1980s he has been a professional aviation journalist and writer with over 50 books published on Soviet Russian aviation in Russian English Polish and Czech as well as close to 100 magazine features and photo reports He is also an accomplished photographer with countless photos published in the Western press the current edition of Jane s All the World s Aircraft features than 50 of his photographs site_link.
Yefim Gordon