Yak-1 - Soviet fighter aircraft of the Great Patriotic War. It was the first combat vehicle designed at the Yakovlev Design Bureau and the first model of a series of aircraft that became the basis of the USSR fighter aviation in the Second World War. Let's get acquainted with the history of the Yak-1 and its technical parameters!
General characteristics
The Yak-1 aircraft was adopted by the USSR in 1940. Over the four years of production, almost 9 thousand copies of the fighter were built and several modifications were developed. At first, the production of the enterprise was put on a tight time frame, which led to a number of flaws in the design of the aircraft. Nevertheless, the pilots were very fond of this fighter. He beat the enemy from the first days of the Second World War. The aircraft was distinguished by unpretentious maintenance, ease of operation and high performance characteristics, thanks to which it easily opposed the German Bf.109 and Fw.190 fighters.
In addition to the Soviet ace pilot, the legendary Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin, such well-known pilots as Alelyukhin, Koldunov and Akhmet-Khan-Sultan piloted the Yak-1 model aircraft. It is on thisThe Normandie-Niemen Regiment entered the battle on the plane. In addition, the only female air regiment of the Red Army fought on a fighter.
Prerequisites for creation
In the late 40s of the last century, the Soviet fighter fleet began to need updating. The country needed a new fighter capable of at least on an equal footing with foreign counterparts. The I-16 aircraft was a "star" in the mid-40s, and the USSR was the first state to adopt a high-speed monoplane fighter. For a long time, the I-16 was a real leader in the Spanish sky, until in 1937 a new German Bf.109 aircraft was sent there. Of course, the first series of the German fighter were far from ideal, but they had a large modernization resource, which the Soviet flagship had already completely exhausted. In those days, aviation began to develop at a special speed, and the aircraft, created five years ago, was already considered obsolete.
Development
Work on the creation of a new Soviet fighter began at once in several design bureaus: Yakovlev, Lavochkin and Polikarpov. In 1940, the design bureau was taken away from the latter along with an almost finished aircraft project, which would later be called the Mig-1.
In those days, the leadership of the Soviet Air Force already realized that the main air confrontation of the near future would take place at high altitude, so the designers had to create fighters capable of showing themselves well at an altitude of more than 5000 meters. The future aircraft was supposed to reach 600 km/h speed, have a practical ceiling of 11-12 km and fly at 600 km.
At that time, one of the most serious problems of the Soviet aviation industry were engines, the supply of which had fallen sharply before the war. Another difficulty was the shortage of duralumin. The bulk of this material went to the production of bombers, so the designers of fighters and attack aircraft had to actively use plywood, wood and canvas in their developments.
Design Bureau of Alexander Yakovlev began to create a fighter back in May 1939. Previously, it was engaged in sports and training aircraft. The new car was created on the basis of the Ya-7 sports model. Design work was carried out at plant number 115.
The prototype fighter was named I-26. January 13, 1940 he made his first flight. The piloting of the new fighter was entrusted to test pilot Yu. I. Piontkovsky. The first flight was successful, and the second led to an accident, as a result of which the pilot died and the car crashed. Later it was revealed that the cause of the disaster was a manufacturing defect. Despite the accident, no one doubted that Yakovlev's plane deserved attention. As a result, even before the end of state tests, it was decided to put the fighter into mass production. At that moment, he received the name Yak-1.
Competitors
The rest of the Soviet aircraft of the Second World War, which took part in the pre-war competition, had a rather interesting fate. All of them were adopted and put into production. However, the war soon put everything in its place.
Mig-1 proved to be prettywell at an altitude of more than five kilometers. The main battles on the Soviet-German front took place much lower. In addition, the car had weak weapons. Soon it was taken out of production, and the built aircraft were transferred to the air defense.
The military path of the LaGG aircraft was even shorter. The car was completely built of wood, which had a bad effect on its weight. The characteristics of the aircraft also left much to be desired. In the end, the country's leadership ordered to stop the production of this aircraft and transfer the freed capacity for the production of Yakov.
Production
At the time when the aircraft began to be mass-produced, war was gaining momentum in Europe. Due to the rush, the serial aircraft was “raw”, therefore, right in the production process, some adjustments were made to the design. This led to a regular change in the drawings, the creation of new equipment, and in some cases even to the alteration of finished components and assemblies. The most serious improvements were made to the oil system and chassis design, which overheated during braking. The air system of the fighter, its engine and weapons also needed to be fine-tuned.
In the early autumn of 1940, the first batch of the Yak-1 aircraft was handed over to the military, consisting of 10 copies, which immediately went to military trials. On November 7 of the same year, five fighters took part in the parade, which took place on Red Square. At the factories, meanwhile, the aircraft was being finalized at full speed, taking into account the comments received during the tests. In total, from June 1940 to January1941, 7 thousand changes were made to the drawings of the aircraft.
By the beginning of the Second World War, Soviet industrialists managed to produce a little more than four hundred copies of the Yak-1 fighter, but not all of them got into the troops. Only a part of the produced aircraft was mastered by the pilots of the western military districts. The first year and a half of hostilities, the aircraft was certainly the best Soviet fighter. It was distinguished by its simple design, low cost, ease of operation, good flight parameters and powerful weapons. Production peaked in 1942, during which 3.5 thousand aircraft were produced.
Production was completed in the summer of 1944, and operation continued until the end of World War II.
YAK-1B
In the summer of 1942, the production of the first modification of the fighter was launched, which received the index "1B". It differed from the basic version in a more powerful M-105PF engine. With the new power plant, the fighter accelerated to almost 600 km / h and could complete a turn in 19 s. In addition, the armament of the aircraft also received some changes. The fighter was armed with two automatic 20mm ShVAK cannons and one 12.7mm UB machine gun.
The upgraded version of the aircraft was able to adequately withstand the latest modifications of the German Me-109 fighter. In a battle on the horizontal, the Soviet aircraft outnumbered the enemy, and on the vertical, it was slightly inferior to him. In addition to the above improvements, the aircraft received a new canopy that provides a good view of the rear hemisphere and front armored glass.
Yak-1M
In November 1942, the Yakovlev Design Bureau began work on the creation of a machine that could confidently fight all types of German fighters. For these reasons, the original design of the Yak-1 aircraft was subjected to a serious revision. On February 15, 1943, the first copy of the Yak-1M fighter was built. It differed from the production model primarily in its reduced span (9.2 m) and wing area (14.83 m). Thanks to a number of constructive measures (reducing the number of fuel tanks, reducing the tail area, and others), the flight weight of the aircraft was reduced to 230 kg. In addition, due to the transfer of the oil cooler, the improvement of the external forms of the water cooler and the use of individual exhaust pipes for each engine cylinder, the aerodynamic drag of the aircraft has significantly decreased, and the speed has increased. Due to a large number of design changes, the aircraft resembled the Yak-3 model (the next aircraft in the series) rather than its basic version.
Design
The Yak-1 fighter was built according to the normal aerodynamic scheme and was a monoplane with a semi-monocoque fuselage and a low wing arrangement. The landing gear was retracted to the floor.
The design was mixed, as it had elements of metal, wood and linen. The supporting frame of the fuselage was built from steel pipes welded into a single element with the engine frame. Its main elements were 4 spars, held together by a dozen frames. Between the first two frames was the cockpit. Here were alsoconnecting nodes of the fuselage and wings. And the canopy frame would be welded to the upper spars.
The front of the plane was sheathed with duralumin, and the back with canvas. On the bow there was a hood, which in the first modifications had side "gills" for purging the power unit.
In the rear of the fighter, on the fuselage, top and bottom fairings were installed to improve its aerodynamic parameters. The sloping upper fairing has become a characteristic feature of the external appearance of the Yak-1 aircraft. In subsequent modifications, it was redone to improve the pilot's view of the rear hemisphere.
The trapezoidal wings of the fighter were made of wood. The power frame of the wing included two spars and a set of ribs with stringers.
The wings were sheathed with bakelite plywood and canvas. Aileron frames, landing flaps, landing gear flaps and wing fairings were made of duralumin. The tail of the aircraft also had a mixed design: the keel and stabilizer were made of wood, the elevators and rudders were made of duralumin.
The cabin was closed with a plexiglass lantern, the middle part of which was moved back along special rails. The pilot's seat was protected by a 9mm armored back. The seat had a bowl for a parachute. The latest modifications of the model were equipped with an emergency canopy reset system that allows the pilot to quickly leave the combat vehicle.
The fighter had a retractable landing gear, which was supported by two struts and one tail support. The chassis was equipped with oil-air damping andair drum brakes. The chassis was retracted using a pneumatic system. The niche in which it was placed was closed by two shields during the flight. In addition to the usual landing gear, a ski landing gear could be put on the plane.
Equipment
The machine was powered by a water-cooled M-105P engine. On later versions, it was changed to more powerful M-105PA and M-105PF engines. The aircraft was equipped with a three-blade variable-pitch propeller. In front, it was closed with an easily removable streamlined spinner. The motor was controlled by cables. The power plant was started using compressed air.
The fuel system included four tanks with a total capacity of 408 liters. All of them were located in the wings of the car. The fuel pump was responsible for supplying fuel, driven by the main engine. The oil system had a 37-liter tank. The radiator for cooling was placed in a special tunnel under the power plant of the fighter.
The cockpit was equipped with an altimeter, speedometer, boost indicator, direction indicator, coolant temperature sensor and ATS clock. From radio equipment, the car was equipped with a Malyutka receiver, an Eagle transmitter and a radio semi-compass.
Armaments
Alexander Yakovlev's aircraft was armed with a 20mm ShVAK cannon and a pair of 7.92mm ShKAS machine guns. The gun was installed in the collapse of the motor. She fired through the hollow shaft of the screw and the bushing of the gearbox. Machine guns were located above the engine, on the sides of the fuselage. The possibility of bullets hitting the screw wasexcluded by the use of a synchronizer. The gun and machine guns could be reloaded both manually and by means of a pneumatic drive. The ammunition load of the machine gun consisted of armor-piercing incendiary, explosive, tracer and sighting cartridges.
Combat operation
At the beginning of the Second World War, the Yak-1 single-engine fighter aircraft was the best fighter of the Red Army. The main problem associated with the operation of the aircraft is its poor mastery on the part of the personnel. The car was new and appeared in parts just a few months before the start of operation. The pilots were forced to retrain right during the battles.
The plane was easy to fly and "friendly" to the pilots. For those who managed to fly the I-16, transferring to the Yak-1 was a real event. Test pilots, after the first flights, wrote in the conclusion that this machine is available for a pilot with a qualification below average. However, it is one thing to take a fighter into the air and land it on the ground, and another to confront one of the best fighters of the Second World War, the German Bf-109. The first Yak-1 models were much heavier than the enemy aircraft, and had a less powerful power plant. Because of this, they lost to the opponent in terms of speed and rate of climb. In addition, the Soviet fighter initially had a number of "childhood" diseases, the cause of which was the rush in production.
Main technical problems of the Yak-1:
- Overheating of water and oil, when the motor is running at peak power. Splashing oil through badseals. The oil not only splattered the fuselage, but also stained the cockpit canopy, blocking the pilot's view. In addition, due to oil leaks, the engine could overheat, so the pilot had to slow down to cool it down. Under combat conditions, this could be detrimental.
- Uneven production of fuel from different tanks.
- Pneumatic system leaks.
- Jamming and warping of machine-gun belts.
- Self-turning screws due to strong vibration.
- Before 1942, the aircraft was not equipped with a walkie-talkie.
Over time, the fighter lost these problems, but many pilots had to pay with their lives for this. To be frank, the Yak-1, which we are reviewing, was inferior to German fighters throughout the war, and only later versions of the aircraft could surpass opponents. Here it is worth understanding that the outcome of an air battle often depends not on the characteristics of the aircraft, but on the skills of the pilots and an adequate calculation of forces. At the beginning of the war, Soviet pilots had big problems, but over time they gained experience and realized their full potential.
In such large-scale conflicts as the Second World War, one more thing should be taken into account - the ability to quickly make up for the loss of equipment and personnel is more important than the technical perfection of technology. In this regard, the USSR had a total superiority. It is much more profitable to have a hundred pilots and a simple cheap fighter than a dozen aces and a resource-intensive fighter.
To the advantages of the Yak-1 aircraftinclude the following:
- Relative simplicity and cheapness;
- Compliance with the technological base that the USSR had at that time.
- Acceptable technical and flight parameters.
- Easy to operate and accessible to accelerated pilots.
- Great upgrade resource.
- Unpretentiousness and maintainability.
- Wide gauge, allowing the use of unpaved airfields.
Parameters
Main technical characteristics of Yak-1:
- Wingspan - 10 m.
- Height - 1.7 m.
- Length - 8.48 m.
- Wing area - 17.15 m2.
- Takeoff weight - 2700 kg.
- Motor power - 1180 HP. s.
- Maximum speed 592 km/h
- Practical range - 850 m.
- Practical ceiling - 10000 m.
- Rate of climb - 926 m/min.
- Crew - 1 person
