Yakovlev Yak-3

The Yakovlev Yak-3 was a single-engine, single-seat Soviet fighter of the Second World War, robust and easy to maintain and much liked by pilots and ground crews. It was one of the smallest and lightest combat fighters used by any combatant in the war, and its high power-to-weight ratio gave it excellent performance in a dogfight. Yakovlev developed it in 1943 from the Yak-1, aiming for lower weight, a more powerful Klimov VK-105PF2 engine and therefore higher speed. Chief test pilot Petr Stefanovskiy was so impressed that he recommended it replace the Yak-1 and Yak-7. It entered service in 1944, later than the Yak-9 despite its lower number, and reached frontline units in the summer of that year, where the Normandie-Niemen Regiment later flew it. The designation had earlier been given to an unrelated I-30 prototype.