![]() I didn’t hit them, but kept them away from the airfield,” recalled Konstantin Zvonarev, a pilot of the 11th Guards Fighter Aviation Division. They flew in to attack our airfield, and I took off. ![]() “Yak-9U is better than Yak-1 and Yak-3, it has better maneuverability, and maximum speed - 450mph! A pair of Me-262 ( the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft) attacked one. Yak-9U (“Improved”) was the latest modification of the aircraft with a new engine, which gave it an amazing speed. A pilot had to be a true sniper, since its magazine was limited to just 30 rounds. With its 37 mm gun it could destroy an enemy fighter with just one precise shot. Yak-9T (“Tank”) was, however, a much more deadly weapon. Most of the Yak-9 aircraft were armed with 20 mm ShVAK cannon with 120 rounds and a 12.7mm machine gun. Among them were fighter, fighter-bomber, reconnaissance, courier and special purpose aircraft. The main advantage of this reliable, maneuverable and simple to fly Soviet fighter aircraft was its universality: 15 modifications of the fighter went into full production during WWII. With 16,769 fighters completed by Soviet factories, it became the biggest Soviet mass-produced fighter of WWII. “I fought against all types of Soviet fighters, including those supplied under Lend-Lease, and the Yak-9 was the best,” Luftwaffe ace Gerhard Barkhorn said.
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