Fighter First flight: 1944 Yakovlev

The Yak-9M with the M-105PF2 engine with a power of 1240 hp was, finally, a better machine, because. it eliminated most of the design defects of the fighters of this family, repeatedly noted in the reclamation acts, protocols of the NKAP and the Air Force, and numerous defective statements. This machine was a kind of crowning achievement of the Yak-9 family of fighters with the M-105PF engine and was produced in the largest series of 4239 aircraft during the war from May 1944 to June 1945. This aircraft was the most archaic in design of the single-engine fighters produced in 1944 by the major countries of the world and the most massive of them. However, in the altitude range up to 1500 m, it demonstrated good aerobatic qualities and had a significantly greater survivability and operational life compared to its predecessors. The modification was made at plant number 153, which previously produced the Yak-9D and Yak-9T. The VK-105PF2 engine was installed on the Yak-9M from October 1944, and before that it was built with the usual VK-105PF, but from the very beginning of production it had a VISH-105 SV-01 propeller and a cockpit shifted 400 mm back.

Armament - similar to the Yak-9D, as well as the piloting technique; but the "emka" had the best anti-bonnet qualities. The fuel supply also remained the same. The main shortcomings of the Yak-9 concept were eliminated: the wing was strengthened (as a result, for the first time in two years of production, strength was brought to compliance with technical requirements), an emergency reset cockpit canopy was installed (it has been on the Bf-109 since 1939 on all modifications) and an automatic adjustment water temperature in the ART-1 engine cooling system (on Bf-109 - since 1940). A dust filter was also installed at the engine inlet, the mechanical recharging system was replaced by a pneumo-mechanical one. A number of minor improvements have been made: push-button control of the radio station, a shortened antenna, etc.

The lead vehicle was tested at the Air Force Research Institute from 17 to 27 December 1944, i.е. 10 months after the start of production of this modification. The name Yak-9M was assigned starting from No. 25-01, i.e. from the first aircraft of the 25 series.

The Yak-9PVO was a version of the Yak-9M, designed to guard the USSR airspace in the operational rear, and differed from the usual one by better instrumentation, a smaller supply of oil and fuel, and the absence of armor. This was done in order to improve the two main indicators for the interceptor - speed and rate of climb - and to intercept in difficult weather conditions. In addition to standard equipment, the Yak-9 air defense had an FS-155 headlight, a VR-2 variometer, an RPK-10M radio semi-compass, an RSI-4M multi-channel radio station with an RSI-6 MTs receiver and an RSI-ZM-1 transmitter, a "friend or foe" transponder MF -3 and a light signaling the position of the landing gear (in addition to two green lamps on the instrument panel, two red lamps were lit).

From the 25th to the 43rd series, a total of 4239 aircraft were produced.

Photo	Description
	Drawing Yak-9M
	Yakovlev Yak-9M 25 series

The Yak-9S with the VK-105PF2 engine and the VISH-105SV-01 propeller was a modification of the serial Yak-9M and differed from it in armament, as well as in the propeller, which had a higher efficiency due to the profiling of the butt parts of the blades.

The letter "C" in the name of the aircraft is a factory index that does not carry any semantic load. Instead of the ShVAK motor guns with 120 rounds of ammunition and the UBS machine gun with 200 rounds of ammunition installed on the Yak-9M, the HC-23 motor gun of 23 mm caliber with 60 rounds of ammunition and two B-20S synchronous guns of 20 mm caliber were installed on the Yak-9M with 120 rounds of ammunition.

This version of armament was presented for state tests on the Yak-9U aircraft with the VK-107A engine - the standard of 1945, but the tests were not completed due to major defects: oil overheating during climb, water overheating in level flight, destruction of engine main bearings VK-107A and others.

The Yak-9S met the requirements of the Air Force for the armament of single-seat fighters for 1945. The armament worked reliably in all flight modes and aircraft evolutions. The armament scheme of the Yak-9S was tactically very effective. The hit of a 23-mm projectile on an enemy aircraft led to its complete destruction. Armor-piercing shells of the HC-23 cannon easily pierced the armor of German tanks up to 20 mm thick from a distance of 500 m at an angle of 45 °.

The Yak-9S was built by the Design Bureau in two copies (NN01-01 and 01-02) in May 1945, passed factory tests from May 10 to May 28 (pilot P.Ya. Fedrovi) and state tests from August 28 to September 14, 1945 (pilots V.G. Ivanov and A.A. Manucharov, aircraft engineer I.A. Kolosov, weapons engineer - A.G. Aronov).

In the state test report, it was noted that this weapon system is the most desirable for Yak aircraft with VK-105PF2 engines.

However, in terms of maximum speeds and rate of climb, the Yak-9S was significantly inferior to the Yak-Z VK-105PF2 and Yak-9U VK-107A that were in service at that time. Its speed was less near the ground by 59 ... 62 km / h and at the 2nd altitude limit - by 67 ... 89 km / h, the climb time of 5000 m was longer than that of the Yak-Z and Yak-9U respectively by 1.9 and 1.6 min.

As it did not meet the requirements in terms of flight data, and also due to the fact that around this time this armament variant was presented on the Yak-9U VK-107A, the Yak-9S aircraft was not put into mass production.

• "Yak-9: Private soldiers of heavens" /Dmitriy Leipnik/
• "The history of designs of planes in USSR 1938-1950" /Vadim Shavrov/
• "Planes of Stalin falcons" /Konstantin Kosminkov and Dmitriy Grinyuk/
• "Stories of the aircraft designer" /Alexander Yakovlev/
• "The Soviet planes" /Alexander Yakovlev/