Yakovlev Yak-7

The Yakovlev Yak-7, which later received the NATO reporting name Mark, was developed from the earlier Yak-1 fighter. It began in 1939 as a tandem-seat advanced trainer designed by Alexander Yakovlev, first called the I-27 and then the UTI-26, which was meant to give pilots experience on a high-performance aircraft before they moved to a fighter. The first production aircraft, the Yak-7UTI, kept retractable main landing gear, and from the summer of 1941 a fixed-gear Yak-7V was substituted to simplify production. The type was then converted into a single-seat fighter. Factories 301 and 153 were ordered to build it in August 1941, but only 62 aircraft were produced that year because one plant had to be evacuated to Novosibirsk. It proved an effective close support fighter, simpler and tougher than the Yak-1, and was well liked by air crews.